Train-control system could have prevented crash

[brooklynite]

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Amtrak Train 188 was traveling at more than 100 m.p.h., more than double the speed limit, when it crashed Tuesday night at Frankford Junction, killing at least seven people and injuring about 200, investigators said Wednesday.

The death toll was expected to rise, as emergency crews continued to search for bodies in the mangled wreckage of the seven-car train. About a dozen passengers were still missing.

The deadly derailment could have been prevented if Amtrak had installed an electronic train-control system that is already in place on other parts of its rail network, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said.

The NTSB has been calling for "positive train control" for years, and federal law requires that it be installed by the end of this year on all passenger railroads and major freight carriers.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150514_Amtrak_Train_188_lacked_control_system_that_would_have_prevented_deadly_crash.html

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As a transportation professional who's worked with Amtrak for years, I can say that delays in PTC implementation are largely driven by woeful underfunding of the RR's capital funding needs going back decades.

[elleng]

1. Public or private underfunding,

or both?

[brooklynite]

2. Amtrak is publicly owned and funded...

You can argue whether fares and revenues should cover operating costs (they don't) but there's no way Amtrak has the money for capital improvements.

[valerief]

3. If only they were a private bank, federal funds would come pouring in. nt

[elleng]

7. I know Amtrak is publicly owned and funded.

You wrote 'As a transportation professional who's worked with Amtrak for years, I can say that delays in PTC implementation are largely driven by woeful underfunding of the RR's capital funding needs going back decades.'

My question is, from whence came this underfunding? Amtrak's right of way is funded how? Amtrak owns some of it's track, ALL of the track in the NorthEast corridor? but freight carriers own and maintain right of way elsewhere, correct?

It seems that we're (all) still stuck with the mess from the wreck of the Penn Central, and will likely never recover from it. And Congress has no interest in finding a realistic remedy.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Plus because

20 of the last 35 years saw Amtrak funding literally slashed and burned, this meant that with the little bit that came in, out it went trying to take care of the "very worst" of the conditions needing repairs before getting chance to hit the "less worse", leaving the rest to eventually degrade. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I.e., you end up doing reactive planning instead of having the ability to even think of proactive improvements or even modernization.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

4. This is tabloid don't know if there is truth in it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3080407/Commuter-train-traveling-corridor-doomed-Amtrak-hit-projectile-just-minutes-train-crashed.html

[Warpy]

9. Two trains were hit by projectiles

One two miles away from the crash and one four miles away from the crash in the same corridor.

When the engineer and conductor are debriefed, they could very well find out there was a good reason to speed up. Or not.

ETA: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150514_SEPTA_train_hit_by_projectile_before_Amtrak_crash.html

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

12. That notion occurred to me

Urban terrorism is terrorism. If the speed the train was traveling at is not or was not human error/oversight, than why was the train traveling at that speed at that curve is the question remaining. System failure or something else.

The operator/train conductor according to reports has no memory just prior to the train derailment, in the news it says he does not remember anything about it or engaging the emergency breaking system.

[libdem4life]

5. This was the last section unfunded. The Republicans turned down the funding. The blood is

on them.

[jwirr]

6. An expert on The Last Word said that there is a mechanism that can be used to override the train

controls. The engineer can dismantle the automatic controls if he wants to because he needs to make up time. Lawrence stopped him and told him that the train was running late. The expert looked absolutely shocked and said "I did not know that until just this minute." It is apparently a big deal.

[joshcryer]

8. It boggles my mind that this wasn't installed.

After the Spain crash (that killed 80 people!) it is insane that it wasn't fast tracked and enforced pronto. Funding be damned, it should've been pushed straight through.

[neverforget]

10. PTC was installed last year on a subdivision of the Pacific Northwest. It failed because

of technical problems like dumping the train (putting it into emergency aka applying all the brakes on the cars) because the map PTC runs off of, suddenly goes blank or literally runs into a wall. It's a great system that just isn't quite ready yet.