We can all be grateful to Sen. Dianne Feinstein for her effective role in pushing for improved rail safety in the wake of the Sept. 12 Metrolink crash in Chatsworth that claimed 25 lives and injured more than 100.

The tragedy has shone a spotlight on a system that is dangerously behind the times.

At a state Senate Transportation and Housing Committee meeting in Van Nuys on Wednesday, Sen. Feinstein said: "We have an antiquated system with 19th century technology."

She called the need for an automated safety system that can compensate for human error or incapacity a "no-brainer."

Fixing that no-brainer, though, could cost $2.3 billion — the estimated cost of installing positive train control — which uses wireless technology and GPS to stop a train if an engineer fails to brake for a red light — on the nation's 100,000 miles of track. It will also take at least four more years. Although the recently passed federal legislation doesn't require positive train control until 2015, officials at two of California's freight railroads have told Sen. Feinstein they will try to meet the 2012 deadline she had originally pushed for.

Sen. Feinstein intends to hold them to that pledge through the Federal Railroad Administration, which she has criticized for being too cozy with those it regulates.

Metrolink has introduced safety measures, such as second engineers in some trains on high-traffic routes; and proposes putting video cameras in cabs; improving the visibility of signal lights; and replacing passenger cars with new, safer ones. It is also looking at utilizing 1940s "automatic train stop" technology that will stop a train if it blows through a red signal, as an interim measure before positive train control can be installed.

Perhaps the most important step Metrolink is taking is establishing a peer review safety committee to review Metrolink's operations.

Metrolink has one of the highest fatality rates of a commuter rail system in the U.S. and operates frugally, contracting out much of its work force.

This organization may well have reached the limits of its abilities. Whether it is capable of operating a growing commuter rail system, under the current budget and management structure, should be a key question of an independent committee.