LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. legislation aimed at improving railroad safety in the wake of the deadly train collision in Los Angeles last month was sent to President George Bush Thursday for signing into law, officials said.

    The Rail Safety Improvement Act, which would mandate the installation of positive train control on commuter railroads and certain freight railroads by the end of 2015, passed the U.S. senate Wednesday.

    The legislation "clearly articulates a long-needed commitment by the federal government to provide resources to bring our transportation infrastructure into the 21st century," said Ron Roberts, board chairman of Metrolink, the railroad commuter system in the Los Angeles region.

    It was initiated by two senators representing California after a Metrolink commuter train clashed with a freight train head-on on September 12 in a Los Angeles suburb, killing 25 people and leaving 135 others injured.

    The legislation would also prohibit freight train and signal crews from working more than 12 hours per day and 276 hours per month, establish minimum training standards for railroad workers, ban cell phone use in locomotive cabs, and increase funding for capital improvements for Amtrak, the national railroad passenger service.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration on Thursday issued an emergency order explicitly prohibiting the use of personal electronic devices by railroad employees while operating trains.

    Authorities confirmed Wednesday that the engineer on the Metrolink train involved in the Los Angeles crash had been texting at the time of the fatal collision. The passenger train slammed into a freight train on the same track after the engineer missed a red light.

    The collision was the deadliest railroad crash in the United States since September 22, 1993, when an Amtrak train went off a bridge into a river in Alabama, killing 47.