Trump rail safety oversight in focus after Amtrak crash

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#U.S. DECEMBER 21, 2017 / 1:04 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Trump rail safety oversight in focus after Amtrak crash

David Shepardson
6 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As investigators sift through the wreckage of this week’s Amtrak train crash in Washington state, critics have begun questioning President Donald Trump’s recent efforts to roll back or delay finalizing U.S. rail safety regulations.

Making American railroads safer drew renewed attention after the passenger train derailed on Monday morning while speeding onto a bridge, killing three passengers and sending about 100 people to hospitals.

The accident occurred as the U.S. Transportation Department is reviewing rail safety requirements or proposals set under prior administrations. The White House has promised a sweeping effort to eliminate regulations throughout government and cut at least two existing regulations for every new one.

Earlier this month, the department reversed a decision requiring crude oil rail tank cars to be fitted with an advanced braking system designed to prevent fiery derailments. The requirement to install electronically controlled pneumatic brakes had been included in a package of safety reforms the Obama administration unveiled in 2015 following a series of deadly derailments stemming from the U.S. shale boom.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-washington-train-safety/trump-rail-safety-oversight-in-focus-after-amtrak-crash-idUSKBN1EF2HX

[elleng]

1. Law Requires Life-Saving Braking Device. Most Trains Dont Have It.

'On a summer afternoon in Southern California nine years ago, a commuter train blew through a stop signal and ran head-on into an oncoming freight train, killing 25 people.

After investigators determined that the crash could have been prevented by automatic-braking technology, Congress ordered all passenger railroads to install new systems by 2016. Since then, Congress has extended that deadline and trains have kept speeding into preventable disasters, including the Amtrak derailment that killed three people in Western Washington on Monday.

In Amtrak’s case, this is a recurring nightmare. The crash this week was eerily reminiscent of one just two years ago in Philadelphia, where an Amtrak train barreled into a sweeping curve at 106 miles an hour before jumping the tracks and rolling over. Eight people died.

That crash, too, could have been prevented by the technology, known as positive train control. But five months after it happened, Congress gave railroads at least three more years to install it.

“Here we are, almost 10 years later, and that deadline came and went,” said Kitty Higgins, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. “The railroads have been slow-walking it and it still is not implemented. It’s absolutely outrageous.”

Railroads have cited the cost and complexity of adding the technology, which relies on satellites and radio signals to prevent trains from running out of control if an engineer has lost focus or fallen asleep while driving. Industry estimates of the total cost of installation exceed $10 billion.

But over the years since the mandate, railroads have continued to spend money on other priorities, including new trains and stations and passenger amenities. Since the Philadelphia accident, Amtrak has put the technology into use on the Northeast Corridor, from Boston to Washington. But it is not installed on most other passenger lines, including Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.

“It is complicated, but the railroads have been at this for a very long time,” said Ms. Higgins, who was the safety board’s lead representative at the scene of the California crash. “We put a man on the moon 50 years ago faster than we’ve been able to implement positive train control. I mean, come on.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/amtrak-train-safety.html?