HARTFORD — Saying that a fatal train crash in Philadelphia this week was preventable, Connecticut's two U.S. senators called Friday for increased funding and safety improvements for Amtrak to prevent future tragedies.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal outlined a four-point plan to prompt Congress to take action after the crash that killed eight passengers and injured more than 200 others on a train traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York City.

Also on Friday, a U.S. House committee announced it would hold a hearing on the deadly Amtrak crash. U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, P-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement that it was critical to understand all the circumstances of the crash that killed eight and injured hundreds earlier this week. A date would be set later, he said.

"It's also important for Congress to assess and understand the related safety and infrastructure policies currently in place in order to determine what next steps may be necessary," he said.

Blumenthal called for lifesaving technology, including switches and sensors "that slow down a train when it's going too fast and stop trains from colliding."

That system also could have saved the life of a veteran Metro-North Commuter Railroad worker in West Haven who was hit on the track and killed, Blumenthal said. Robert E. Luden was killed on May 28, 2013, after a trainee mistakenly allowed a train to come through on the tracks where Luden was working, according to the railroad.

"The approach of the United States has been to patch and pray — patch the problems with temporary fixes and pray that they will do the job,'' Blumenthal said Friday during a news conference at Union Station in Hartford. "Patching and praying is no longer acceptable. We have to invest whatever is required to make sure that we save lives and save dollars.''

Seismic Shift

Blumenthal said he has seen "a seismic shift'' in the views of elected officials who have seen the graphic pictures of the train wreckage from Tuesday in Philadelphia. Investigators have determined that the train was traveling 106 mph in a 50 mph zone.

In the same way, an engineer on Metro North was traveling beyond the speed limit in the Spuyten Duyvil section of the Bronx, immediately north of Manhattan, in a fatal derailment as the cars spilled off the tracks on a curve. Four passengers were killed and 61 injured in the crash in December 2013 that led to an investigation that later showed that the engineer, William Rockefeller, suffered from sleep apnea.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy is calling for a capital fund of $550 million for rail safety improvements in the Northeast corridor from Boston to Washington. Murphy serves on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommitee on transportation, and he met this week with the subcommittee's chairman, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Collins could not be reached for comment Friday.

"Congress and Washington [have] become complicit in these tragic accidents,'' Murphy said at the news conference as Blumenthal and others stood nearby. "Washington has become complicit because year after year, Congress refuses to allocate the funding to make the rail line safe. ... Here in Connecticut, our trains are driving over 100-year-old bridges and tracks that don't get nearly enough maintenance and inspection because of this vast underfunding.''

Murphy added, "Congress needs to take its head out of the sand and recognize that we need to put more money into the rail lines today.''

Currently, the federal government spends $70 billion a year on road improvements. At the same time, it spends only $1 billion on rail improvements, Murphy said.

"That's ridiculous,'' Murphy said.

Blumenthal is looking for various improvements, including inward-facing cameras that would show the actions of the engineers driving the trains. In addition, he is looking for increased track inspections, better enforcement to stop speeding trains, more funding for infrastructure and fines as high as $1 million for safety violations on Amtrak and Metro-North.

Blumenthal said he believes that his proposals have a solid chance of becoming law because he has teamed up with U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, who is expected to succeed Harry Reid of Nevada as the Senate Democratic leader. Reid is not seeking re-election in 2016. Before the Hartford press conference, Blumenthal attended a press conference on train safety with Schumer on Friday morning at Penn Station in New York City.

Prompted by the accidents, Blumenthal has been pushing for a system known as Positive Train Control, which he says is a lifesaving technology that can slow down the trains and prevent crashes.

Lyle Wray, executive director of the Capitol Region Council of Governments, said the rail improvements will be a key improvement when Positive Train Control is installed on the New Haven to Springfield line to improve safety.

"This train station is 175 years old, but we don't need 175-year-old technology to run it,'' Wray said at Union Station. "We need 21st century technology.''

Wray added, "Positive Train Control is not a science fiction process. It really needs to be a basic. We're delighted that in 2016 that will be part of the Hartford line going from Springfield to New Haven and beyond. But we certainly commend the senators for working hard to make sure that this standard of safety that is coming here will be available across the entire Northeast and can prevent the horrendous circumstances we saw in the last few days.''