MSNBC Panel Blames MetroNorth Tragedy on Insufficient Infrastructure Spending

WAGNER: "Nick, this is a terrible story, a terrible story, a tragic loss. It is also a story that a lot of folks can relate to because a lot of people in this country commute. In 2012, an average of more than 847,000 people depended on every week day commuted on trains on a weekly basis. We don't know what the cause of this problem was. They're going to be looking at signal problems. They're going to look at the train itself, the integrity of the rail. This is coming at a time when we're talking about the health of our nation's infrastructure, a debate, it must be said, that is becoming very politicized and very partisan, in a way that it wasn't many years ago." 
CONFESSORE: "That's correct. We have a very, very old infrastructure, especially for railways. There are third-world countries that have better train systems than we have and more modern and up-to-date facilities. For a very long time, roads and highways and trains were among those few issues where Republicans and Democrats were happy to agree. It meant money back home in the district. It meant jobs and now it has become partisan and politicized. It's a lot harder on the right to get spending on infrastructure because it's regarded as a jobs program for Obama or for Democrats." 
WAGNER: "To that end, Kitty, America has a D-plus from the society of civil engineers. Is that something the NTSB is paying attention to? And concerned about?" 
HIGGINS: "I would say in this accident -- and we'll find out the condition of the rails -- there is technology that I believe would have prevented this accident. The Congress has passed a law requiring that technology be installed that is called Automatic Train Stop. It would have interrupted, or automatically braked the train, if there was something disrupting or on the tracks. That clearly was not in effect here, but the NTSB has made those recommendations and Congress has actually passed a law. Infrastructures are a part of the problem, but there is technology that I believe would have prevented this accident."