I lost two good friends in Monday's tragedy. Were they still alive to comment, there is little doubt in my mind that they would express the following sentiments.
This horrific tragedy was preventable. But who is guilty of failing to prevent the tragedy?
My answer: Congress. For many decades Congress has appropriated billions to develop, implement and operate our air traffic control system. They spend even more taxpayer dollars in an attempt to make an inherently unsafe mode of transport a little less unsafe: highway transport.
But railways, a mode of transport that must try to compete against its heavily subsidized competitors, is essentially told to "fix the problem with your own dollars."
In the 1930s railroads in Europe began to focus on "crash avoidance." Today most rail systems throughout the world have managed to prevent such collisions. In the USA and Canada, we pay far too little attention to crash avoidance and place emphasis on crash integrity. The Federal Railroad Administration requires heavier, more expensive railway cars, but does far too little to PREVENT collisions.
Positive Train Control, minimizing at-grade interactions, and ensuring safer at-grade protection systems are common place in Europe and elsewhere.
Congress is responsible. And the media is guilty of failure to educate.
NOTE: This tragic accident is the first fatal passenger train fatality in this corridor in over 60 years.
9
It's a sign of our time that I have yet to read a single article exploring lower cost "pretty good" solutions. You don't need a $10 billion system to alert staff to speeding give them the tools to slow the train down. It just seems like a conspiracy to spend money. Every social problem must get the most expensive solution possible. Like the proposed 1.5 billion dollar train from La Guardia directly (in the wrong direction) to Willets point. Why not just a free frequent comfortable bus shuttle to the Roosevelt St. station. (3 stops to Manhattan) and on to LIRR. We could have this right now for $1.5 million (not Billion!).
Politicians paid off to do the bidding of a company, ignoring public safety
Congress skimping on funds for Amtrak year after year
... -- ...
We, the people, need to pay more attention to what is going down behind our backs.
3
Remember when our self-coronated King Trump tried to kill off the regs that required train engineers and truck drivers be tested for sleep apnea? Just one more fab GOP idea they're trying to ram down the throats of American taxpayers:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/how-asleep-should-tru...
5
Airline pilots are only screened for sleep apnea if they have a BMI of 40 or higher.
This disaster is simply inexcusable in this day and age. Be it PTC or some other reliable form of auto-pilot, there is simply no good reason not to have some form of back-up device in place in the event of human error.
2
PTC is a concept that is already made irrelevant by better and new technology. It's pushed by the people who make money by it's implementation verses any person who has a serious and real world understanding of rail roaring.
2
Republicans are always ready to sacrifice safety on the alter of deregulation.
Lives lost don’t count in Republican cost benefit analysis. They are despicable.
4
The 2008 accident in California was on a rail line that had railroad signals that were as unprotected as any highway traffic signal. Other railroads at that time already had forms of protection in use that would have stopped a train that ran a red signal. As a result of a tragic accident on a railroad that was at the lowest end of the rail safety spectrum, Congress mandated an unfunded industry R&D effort to invent a one-size fits all high-tech communication based solution for all the nation’s rail carriers.
What is really frustrating is that this is the third fatal rail accident caused by trains speeding excessively through curves (2013 Metro North Spuyten Duyvil, 2015 Amtrak Philadelphia, 2017 Amtrak Dupont, WA). Some railroads already have a form of enforced braking in curves generally referred to as "civil speed enforcement".
However, unlike the promise of PTC, civil speed enforcement technology is not used along the whole rail line only where the railroad determines the risk warrants it like in curves. Civil speed enforcement was added to the curves as part of the repairs necessary to restore rail service in the 2013 and 2015 accidents.
In the long run is PTC going to be worth it? Absolutely, but one day a policy-wonk is going to look at the PTC mandate and determine that it took the rail industry's focus and resources away from "moving up the safety spectrum" and dealing with obvious safety risks like unenforced speeds in curves while it was under development.
2
A GPS receiver on the train plus software designed to determine the correct speed at each location could be used to adjust the train's throttle with the installation of appropriate hardware. Such a system doesn't appear to me to be very expensive. Every engine could be equipped.
Doesn't appear to you to be expensive? That's because you're not thinking below the surface. What you're describing is PTC. It requires GPS'ing every single asset (every switch, crossing, mile marker) on hundreds of thousands of not-always-static miles of track, continuous connectivity despite challenges in getting the radiowaves (part of the reason the implementation was delayed)and in extremely rural areas at times, interoperability between many interchanging railroads, and retrofitting on thousands of locomotives...hence $10b investment required.
Why would the donor class invest our tax dollars in safety like this?
They will not. Why bother? There is no profit in it for them. So some people die. So what? Throw some thoughts and prayers their way.
But i do see the value of tax cuts related to private jets. That's something we can all support I am sure.
11
An incident even close to home, the Bronx accident involving Metro-North would have likely been prevented by PTC, even if the train's engineer was sleeping. While the cause was the Engineer's health and lack of fitful sleep, the NTSB found that the lack of PTC caused the train to enter the curve well above the authorized speed.
Second, while there are plenty of folks talking about smart-phone apps and similar, PTC is slightly more complicated, as it accounts for other trains on the same block of track, when crews are working trackside, and when delays or weather may force a speed reduction. GPS also doesn't work in tunnels and valleys, when the satellite signal is blocked, so it wouldn't work for MNR or LIRR while in Manhattan, and there is always the possibility that GPS can be unavailable, as it's shared by the DoD and is subject to either degradation or denial by both the US and it's enemies during a time of conflict, and also during a potential outage where the system is not available. Last, 2 crew members is a double-edge sword. While they can assist each other, that same other person can become a distraction and lead to a missed signal, speed violation or striking an object on the tracks that might have been seen of the crew was focused.
What I don't understand is that Amtrak points to funding. How is it that Amtrak does not have the money for positive train control yet they have money to continually pay and settle lawsuits as a result of their negligence?
1
Another taxpayer funded , money loosing , mismanaged boondoggle. No safeties on train but they force the useless and lethal air bags on us citizens.
well..if you look around, you will easily see that america became an obsolete nation in so many aspects. Will it ever get better? I doubt.
Twelve people died today in a bus crash; four times more people than died in the train crash.
Positive Bus Control coming anytime soon? Any comments from NTSB about how "outrageous" it is that buses don't have crash avoidance?
1
"Positive train control" reminds me of the old Russian maxim "Better is the enemy of good". Good would be a satellite-based system that would read out the train's present speed, the safe track speed the train should be at for its present location, and the safe track speed that the train needs to be at 60 seconds (or more?) in the future. This putative system would have appropriate alarms to prevent the train engineer from losing so-called "situational awareness". (Safe track speeds could of course be lowered as needed by contemporaneous communication from system command centers.)
With perfect situational awareness by the train operator, positive train control would only be activated in the case of operator incapacitation which is quite rare.
Remember those kiosks in airports back in the 60’s, selling “flight” (life) insurance? Maybe Amtrak should set those up again in train stations around the country.
Ok, that was a joke. And so is Amtrak.
We don’t anymore call them accidents involving cars; accidents are beyond our control; crashes are human error. >90% of car events are from human error and are therefore called ‘CRASHES”. This was not an accident, it was a CRASH.
Airplane “accidents” and “crashes” yield immediate required change of technology and safety. Government regulatores, airframe manufacturers, airlines and passangers want that. But not Amtrak.
I love the Cascade trains, ride them several times a year, twice round trip in November. But I will hesitate now until something specific is done.
The writer of this story buried the lede. The real story here is that the federal government mandated expensive positive train control technology, even as Congress kept cutting funding to Amtrak, making it a practical impossibility that they would ever be able to install it in a timely fashion. The Congressmen laying criticism's of Amtrak's safety performance and slowness in implementing PTC at the railroad's feet are engaging in the worst kind of hypocritical and cynical political grandstanding.
In fact, some significant responsibility for these deaths and injuries, and those in other recent train accidents, must fall on the heads of the representatives and senators who have voted over and over again to cut funding for Amtrak.
9
The US is so far behind every other developed nation when it comes to building and maintaining modern infrastructure and transportation. Just one look at our outdated airports and runways (to wit- Atlanta-Hartsfields recent six hour plunge into total darkness), our railroad stations and draconian tracking where passenger trains are relegated to, at most, 60mph speeds, and our crumbling pot-holed interstates and bridges, you'd almost have to believe we're living in a third world banana republic when you compare Europe, Japan, and China's investments in their transportation systems.
Sorry Mr. Trump. Last week you stated something about America being able to compete in the business world on a global scale.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
9
I've been reading about the accident for several days, and all dicussion is about PTC, which did not have anything to do with the crash. Sure, PTC Iwould be good, probably. But what safety systems WERE supposedly in use, and how might they fail?
7
Asian and European bullet trains run safely at 200 mph. AMTRAC, which took a $300M republican hit, jumps the track while doing 80 in a 30 mph zone. While the rest of the world plays soccer, the US is still playing football.
10
I expect the current Congress will solve this problem by just shutting down Amtrak, something they've been wanting to do for years. This will give them an excuse. The Donor Class doesn't ride the rails.
18
I think this whole PTC implementation is nuts and fraught with ongoing technology challenges..........simply mandate that the railroad companies have to have a CO-PILOT in place with a second engineer in the cabin. The airlines have used this strategy forever, and it really helps - one controlling, one watching. This plan could be interim until technology provides assistance; it should be mandated on all high traffic and complicated corridors.......period!
8
In this case though, there was a second engineer in the cabin and this might have been a source of distraction leading to the accident (according to recent articles). Seems like we just can’t win.
That's what happens when you systematically try to destroy regulatory agencies...laws and regulations don't get enforced.
11
Matt - So are you saying there were no train accidents before this present administration? Really, can you be that partisan?
The system works with "Transponders [that are] are set in track beds roughly every two miles and programed with speed limits for the next stretch of track."
We are building SELF DRIVING CARS that can drive on ANY ROAD and we can't come up with a GPS based system that simply controls a trains speed on fixed tracks???
7
For all those Republicans who complain about regulations, this is what they're for. Of course, none of them will care until someone they know dies.
8
Yet under Obama Amtrak ran like a fine Swiss watch? This is a general government failure. And, you can have all the regulations you want, but it still won't stop an engineer who through choice or negligence behaves in a reckless manner.
Yeah, regulation is such a drag. Costly! Inconvenient! We'd much rather live with preventable accidents, pollution, financial fraud, because the benefits are enjoyed by the little people but the inconvenience rests on the brows of the wannabe John Galts.
5
The same reason we have out of control heroin overdoses and deaths, money. When Americans bought Reagan's "Government is Bad" poisoned Kool Aid and drank it, this is what they got. Meaningless laws and regulations that are not funded, not enforced, and readily ignored, even if it means people die from preventable deaths.
10
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, too many Americans are STILL DRINKING that poisoned Kool-Aid and (stupidly) loving it!
As a former Prosecutor, I can assure you that if the train operator was driving a car as reckless as he was, that man would be arrested and brought to justice. Yet, no talk of arrest, why?
10
My bet is that further investigation and testing will show the engineer has 'sleep apnea'. In quotes because while a real ailment, 'sleep apnea' seems to the be railroads go-to ailment when an engineer falls asleep and the train speeds away. Don't passenger trains have the tone that goes off requiring them to push a button to show that the engineer is awake, alive, and in the cab?
1
The NYC subway system, with its "antiquated" signal system has had positive train control, bi-directional signaling, open switch control since the 1930s.
PTC might be great if implemented, but there are quick fixes. Some could be take days, others might in under half a year.
"Loss of situational awareness" - i.e., daydreaming could be helped with warning signs along the track. Prior to the signs, an alarm would be triggered by a low power radio.
A more effective system would be including rail lines in the national highway system of road signs, including speed. Then build and equip all locomotives with the equivalent of cell phone receivers that would operate like Waze, with a link to the train control system so that brakes would be applied. minimal cost.
On the legal side, criminal prosecutions of railroad management might concentrate their thoughts.
The other, related issue is train stopping distances.
To use the NYC subway as an example. Why can an old R1 single car or even a 10 car train stop in under 600 feet when traveling 45 mph? There are two reasons.
First, the subway trains have much larger (swept area) and stronger (pressure) brakes. They are capable of locking the wheels at full load. And they have anti-lock brakes to insure maximum braking effectiveness.
Second, subways apply the brakes electrically. Electrical application means all of the brakes are applied at the same time so that the length of the train doesn't affect stopping distance.
12
No one in power cares about the law if by breaking it money is made or donated or saved for corporate interests. Each and every Congress member who voted to allow the RR to avoid installing these safety devices should be prosecuted for murder!
5
The "rail industry" operates freight trains, not passenger trains. US freight traffic is the largest volume in the world and the most efficient. They use very up-to-date technology. Freight has also been profitable since the Staggers Act, which was most emphatically not the case going back to World War I.
The safe, fast and efficient passenger trains elsewhere in the world operate largely on dedicated rights-of-way. They don't share track and signals with freight. The US has refused to fund these. When one gets proposed, the neighbors and local governments scream bloody murder.
If you are skipping train travel because it is not safe enough, be sure to drive your car to get where you want to go! Amtrak is much safer, and commuter rail is safer as well. Only commercial airlines move more people with fewer injuries than Amtrak. Highway travel is several times more dangerous.
Finally, you did read the figure in the story, right? $10 billion for PTC. Ready to pony up? No, of course not. Congress didn't and hasn't and won't. I'd love to see a decent passenger rail system, but the truth is the American public never seems to get the memo that rail is a public good. Nobody seems to get any memo about public good these days. Look in the mirror, folks.
13
We need separate passenger and freight corridors in the US as in Europe and passenger rail corridors need to be electrified. Global warmer will require us to move distances of 1000 miles or less by rail. But sadly we will never have a balanced and developed infrastructure until we have a carbon tax. Only then will advance technologies used to move people safely and efficiently will be advocated.
1
"Why There Are Still Trains in America Without Life-Saving Technology"
Answer - Bipartisan political corruption and money or the lack thereof.
1
The IRT, which opened in 1904, has an aspect of PTC - Automatic Block Control. If a train moves into a block with a red signal, a trigger automatically activates the brakes on the train. This is not rocket science like the railroad industry wants everybody to think. The IRT had this 113 years ago!
11
Better is the enemy of the good. Today a simple cellphone app could warn trains when they are speeding. My new car tells me speed limits and warns me when I am speeding. Railroads do not need the elaborate systems of yesteryear. Airplanes tell the pilot "pull up - pull up." A simple app could tell the engineer "slow down - slow down" Put out a challenge for someone to build the app and you would have one in months.
3
Recipe for train disaster(s):
Into the processor put:
Dollop of dollars for legislators
Pinch of legislators or their families riding trains.
Press "Puree"
Anybody remember when most folks in the US used to drive around in cars without using seatbelts? OMG, the upheaval involved in achieving seatbelt use as normal. Thank god we're past that and know the added inconvenience is worth it.
1
We simply must accept the fact that we no longer have a government that serves the people. The purpose of our government now is to further enrich the already privileged, to support profit, profit, profit and capitalism. No more waste on that General Welfare nonsense. Only voices with money are heard. The more money one has, the louder, and therefore more important, is the voice.
7
The NYT should do their jobs and embarrass the American rail companies with descriptions of what other countries are doing with rail and rail safety, instead of repeating spokesman's claims that the USA rail systems are the best in the world.
1
So in other words, it's been 9 years since this 'law' was first instituted, and in 9 years the Great US of A hasn't been able to accomplish this simple feat? Looks like we need help from a Chinese company to get such things done!
1
But it costs too much.
1
We need more government spending (investment really) into infrastructures.
Is cutting taxes the way to go? Is it?
Was (and is) spending trillions $ in Afghanistan to catch one guy (Bin Laden) the way to go?
Was (and is) occupying the whole country of Afghanistan the way to go?
And we're still there, 16 years after 9/11? Why? WHY?
We are fighting the Talibans, at great cost $. Why? WHY?
Was (and is) spending trillions $ for the ISS (International Space Station) accomplishing anything of any use to anyone? Why? WHY?
1
The message in here is that government is not a business. Government is a layer of regulation and policy to protect citizens.
2
Part of the problem with the rail system in our country is the complicated network of regional passenger and freight trains that share tracks. The political will for decent passenger train infrastructure simply isn't there. On Amtrak's distance runs, a freight train can cause multi-hour delays. If Trump actually wanted to pump up our infrastructure, there would be a much different tax bill. As it is, he is "starving the beast" what Republicans have wanted for decades. Can't have nice things without being willing to pay for them. Republicans are the party of "we can't." Imagine the rail system we could have if there was the political will to have it. Same thing goes for decent highways and bridges. We are right now standing on the shoulders of our ancestors from the past century who had vision and willingness to invest in public good. We need to renew this commitment before it is too late. They did such a good job that we're like spoiled children who don't know how to support ourselves and assume that good things just magically appear.
3
From a Reuters article:
Trump Rail Safety Oversight in Focus After Amtrak Crash
"The [DOT] agency has also delayed finalizing regulations proposed during the Obama administration that would require railroads to run all trains with at least a two member crew unless it got specific approval.
Train track safety inspections were another focus of the Obama administration, which said it planned to propose new rules to address "dangerous track conditions and defects" in order to prevent train derailments.
The Trump administration said in a document posted last week that the
previous administration's initiative had been moved to the "long-term action" list, meaning it does not plan any additional action for at least 12 months on the proposal and could abandon it completely."
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/12/21/us/21reuters-washington-train...
Same schtick, different day. Inadequate funding (and more often than not, weakened regulatory authority) of government agencies started well before the Trump mistake. It has been the hallmark of Republican "leadership" for decades, whether the issue at hand is transportation systems, embassy security, hazardous waste cleanup, tax collection, or enforcement of labor and workplace safety laws.
4
I spent nearly my entire working life in the airline industry, an astonishingly safe mode of transport for lots of reasons, not least the single-minded focus of pilots. In my career, I rode in the cockpit many times, and witnessed this focus firsthand. In the wake of this latest Amtrak accident, people can call for automatic braking systems, positive train control, and similar, but let’s not forget there is no substitute for Amtrak’s “pilots” to pay attention at the controls.
7
The argument being put forward is that passenger rail service cannot possibly operate safely without this backup PTC in place to override driver error. When considering the enormous expense of this update and comparing it to similar safeguards in the transportation industry, I have to ask why this is necessary. We don't have a similar device on airplanes; we have co-pilots and pilots operating computerized and manual systems with cockpit alerts to give them warning of failures and hazards. We don't have this in the trucking, busing or livery services, though many costly accidents per year occur and driver impairment is the first factor considered when the investigation gets underway. How are they operating rail systems in the rest of the developed world and with what outcomes? We don't have to entirely overhaul the system to ensure a reasonably safe mode of transportation. Nothing is foolproof. Don't expect that spending billions of dollars will change that. If you don't believe me look at Trump - a billionaire who is clearly not foolproof!
3
Until the measures go into effect, why not just have a few bright blinking signs spread a mile or two ahead with a slow to 30mph or similar. We have blinking signs a car intersections. That would have drawn the attention of the distracted engineers in the PA and WA crashes.
5
So what is the role of capitalism in this? Isn't unregulated capitalism the model put forward by many to solve problems without the intrusion of government? In this case it seems capitalism had no interest in solving the problem because all the financial incentives worked against it. How, without government intervention, would those incentives be changed for the good of public safety which otherwise does not seem to be represented in the process?
1
There are railroad design concepts the rest of the world takes for granted. The concept of high speed trains works when the tracks are in a straight line with gentle curves at the most. High speed passenger trains only run safely if the track is dedicated to one direction only, and freight tracks are separated from passenger tracks.
The concept does not work in the USA because train tracks pass through multiple jurisdictions which refuse to cooperate with the above design. In the good old American system, individual property rights and municipal/state jurisdictions over-ride engineering design principles.
The Amtrak system is “designed to fail”; blame the system design, not the operating engineers. Blame the political system which does not allow the system designers to standards the rest of the world takes for granted.
5
Congress, under pressure from railroad companies, have been hacking away at rail passenger service since the end of WWII : Just too inconvenient for freight trains to share the rails with passenger trains!! The domination of the automobile in the same period served to support the argument to reduce and eliminate passenger train service as train ridership declined.
In recent times, Americans began to realize what had been lost as passenger trains (only Amtrak service remaining) enjoyed renewed interest in the joy-of-the-rails ! Railroad companies are beside themselves at this development !
With the continuing assault by congress and RR owners : Before too long the only rail passenger service will be atop a three-mile long container-freight train..... better known as the Hobo Express.
1
Japan does this. China does that. Yes indeed. Monolithic states get things done. The USA is not a monolithic state, much as some would like it to be. As the article points out, most rail traffic in this country is freight, and most freight trundles along at the most economic speed rather than the fastest. Passenger rail has different priorities, and Amtrak has the unenviable task of creating a 100 mph passenger service on a 50 mph rail network. Sure, lets put in two speed control sensors every two miles on every track. That's only, oh, a couple tens of thousands of items to install, maintain, program etc. Congress and the safety people can wave their magic wands all they want, but somebody has to put boots on the ground and make this happen. I suspect that money is the least of it. Thanks to the endless drive to get us all college degrees, there's a shortage of people who are willing to get out there and work in the open air.
2
The two Republican lawmakers behind the deadline extension, Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, were the top two recipients of political campaign contributions from the railroad industry in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The whole problem could be solved with a $100 gps receiver and a small laptop computer. What is going on?
5
The by-pass rail line in Washington state where the inaugural train crashed was done on the cheap. Besides the multiple grade crossings at busy intersections, there is this sharp curve on an old bridge crossing an interstate highway. To compound the problem, Amtrak uses the push-pull method of powering trains: The front engine pulls the train in one direction then pushes it when it makes the reverse trip. This saves time and effort of switching engine location. Any kid with a model train set knows that pushing a train around a curve is much more likely to derail it than pulling it (I used to do it for fun). It seems that this was the case in the tragic accident in Washington. As for a fully automated centralized safety system, how about a simple warning system that maps the route and automatically intervenes when the the engineer fails to do so, or at least sends a warning? ashore avoiding collisions, planes and ships have long adopted that technology independent of a centralized system and now it's being installed in cars. Why not trains? Is it really that "complicated" or is the railroad industry's lack of innovation the result of being stuck in a one track mind syndrome?
3
Are you sure the train was being pushed? There was an engine at each end. The front engine was a brand new Siemens Charger and it landed on the interstate.
I follow your critique of the 'cheap route' until the comments about the "push-pull engine" arrangement. Are there are no "Y" track arrangements for the train to back into the stations? (as we have for the California Zephyr in Denver)
A rear engine unit to push the Cascade on a coastal route?? How is that an 'economy' solution for Amtrak ?? We both know our legislators will continue to chip-away at Amtrak until...sometime in mid-century, or beyond, international prestige will compel our wonderful representatives to take action to promote hi-speed rail travel....!! OR.....maybe not !!? Representative Representation left us quite a few years ago.
Rarely do I see a meaningful discussion about the type of positive train control mandated by congress, and wether mandating a specific, overly-complex solution is the true reason for cost-overruns and delays.
There are multiple ways to enforce speed limits and red signals, one of which is in widespread use on the New York City Subway. Instead of electronics, the system is electro-mechanical in nature, using "stop arms" to engage the emergency brake and halt trains that pass any red signals. Say what you will about the age and reliability of the system--it certainly is quite safe. Speed limits on dangerous curves and grades are enforced by timers with said red signals and mechanical stop arms.
In many respects, this ancient system accomplishes most of what positive train control is intended to achieve. Among the subway's many woes, collisions and speed-related derailments are virtually unheard of.
I'd appreciate a more meaningful discussion on how this issue was approached in Europe, how the specific technology mandated by congress was chosen, and if there wasn't (or isn't) a cheaper, more effective way to accomplish this goal nationwide. The notion that railway companies are solely to blame strikes me as a bit simplistic.
6
This seems to be one of those "if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" situations. Train control historically worked off of signals that had to be viewed by the engineer (you can actually see a signal to the left side picture in this article.) Similar to the signalization problems on the NYC subway, those old systems are very capital intensive and hard to replace in-kind.
Are the people working on PCT experts in GPS, or experts in the existing technology? If the latter, its a bit like asking horse breeders to invent the car.
What's needed is an interim solution. My car's GPS knows the speed limit on the road. There is no reason the train on the tracks next to me shouldn't know the speed limit for that section of tracks and keep the train at the right speed.
1
This is a very mixed up article. Except for tourist railroads virtually every passenger carrying railroad in the US is some kind of public entity whether a computer line like Metro North or NJ Transit or Amtrak. If there is a problem of implementation in an area like the northeast corridor or these newly renovated tracks in Washington it is because a public agency has not done its job as it should. On the national level congress has for almost 50 years short change Amtrak and the American people. On local levels like washington state one has to ask why, if 180 Million as spent to save 10 minutes, they didn't spend a little bit more and get rid of a 30 mph bridge i n the midst of 79mph track.
5
It is baffling to me that some interim safety measure was not ordered when PTC was delayed by Shuster and Blunt and others, like two persons in the locomotive cab. PTC or nothing? Come on legislators. And comparing our railroads with foreign high speeders doesn't solve the problem now.
1
Most commercial airplanes fly themselves, including landings and takeoffs. We're testing cars that drive themselves. Trucking companies are testing self driving trucks on freeways NOW. Railroads are the most constrained, self contained mode of transport we've got, and we still haven't automated them?
2
Japan had Automatic Train Control from the beginning of its bullet train service introduced in 1964. Since that time it has carried 10 billion (yes, with a "b") passengers without a fatality. In Japan and most developed countries if the ATC is down the trains don't run. In most developed countries train travel is safer than air travel. In the US train travel is several times more dangerous than air travel. The continued financial support of a technology (trains) that apparently Americans can't or won't execute competently is a travesty. Why is there an assumption that high speed train travel will magically be a success?
5
Google has real time traffic conditions on roads all over the world using cell phone data.
US railroads cannot monitor train speeds on a rail network over which they have complete control.
Perhaps they should ask google to do an app for them?
3
Everyone's talking about technology. I'm wondering about engineer training.
If you want to fly a commercial jet, you need at least 1500 hours to get in the door, with plenty more simulator time and training. Pilots rely on extensive check lists. What about train engineers? How many hours are needed to drive passengers? What kind of currency requirements and extra training is there? Shouldn't there always be two engineers, just like a plane?
Lastly, why do the trains need transponders installed in the tracks? We now have GPS that should know where the train is to the inch and what the speed limit should be. Oops...just like a plane.
2
Rail safety issues do not only involve Amtrak. The entire industry needs a technological and attitudinal upgrade. Everything from rail crossings to emergency systems must finally evolve from designs first developed in the 1800’s to match the needs and expectations of a 21st century society. A political party that relentlessly brags about deregulation and funding cuts is the last group we can count on to make progress. It will take visionaries like Elon Musk and others he inspires to lift American transit out of the dark ages.
1
Isn't there a legal tort case here for those who were injured and the families of those who were killed? I would think lawyers would have a very good case that Amtrak was negligent (even if not criminally) and they could get a settlement which would make it worthwhile to make the necessary improvements. They could even try suing the government agencies who the extended the deadline.
One big win for the plaintiffs would mean that Amtrak is on notice.
1
I bought a gps from garmin for my car that tells me the speed limit of the road as I'm driving. New units sell for $70 - $150. Don't tell me this is too expensive.
7
I worked for 17 hours straight at the Metrolink train crash in Los Angeles as a part of the emergency response of one LA agency and later did follow up investigation work with a host of agencies including the NTSB and Federal Railroad Administration. In the picture by Monica Almeida used in this article you can see the recovery effort for the body of the engineer just starting in the right hand edge of the photo. A white pop up tent was erected over the area where his body was trapped and the large yellow excavator is in position to gently lift the edge of the locomotive laying on its side up for access to the cab through the window. It is truly amazing to think that the up close carnage I witnessed was all caused by the distraction of cell phone use and I always think back about that day when I see drivers in LA busily texting away as they zoom down our streets and freeways-a common occurrence I might add.
In the final post accident meeting I attended, I recall the very capable and experienced NTSB lead investigator commenting to the assembled group that this and other types of large railroad accidents with multiple fatalities would thankfully become "a thing of the past" in another two to three years with the full implementation of positive track control and he believed that this accident would probably be the last large scale incident in the United States.
9
Let's give credit where credit is due. Lack of federal funds is the reason we don't have a rail system with adequate levels of service, a dedicated right of way, and positive train control. More specifically, the party which exalts individualism far above the public good and who works diligently to drown government in a bathtub.
6
Why don't we require all our billionaire members of congress to immediately donate their new tax break windfalls to a fund to start on the positive train control installation as fast as possible. And they can't recess for the holidays until it is done.
1
The news media should ask Mitch McConnell this question: Why is it that the law requires this life-saving braking device, but most trains don’t have it?
6
If men were meant to travel by train God would have made men with steel wheels and a smoke stack.
Nothing new under the sun, since how many years, has the failure of the American infrastructures been announced, how many article about the state of the infrastructures did the Times publish ? You can spend your time to cut taxes, to push away the federal state, to uberize the economy and ask for safe infrastructures. The irony of the story : the USA were very efficient for building safe infrastructures.
Expecting a Congress full of Lawyers to run a railroad is giggleworthy.
1
Money talks and we all know what walks.
Yes our railroad system is an important lifeline to this country, but it shouldn't be that important that we keep putting off installing the technology that can save lives and property.
We jump down the car manufactures throat when the air bags don't work correctly and we need to do the same thing to the railroad operators.
2
The Pennsylvania Railroad had positive train control in the 1920s. Are we going to wait a full one hundred years until it is implemented elsewhere?
3
"Freight rail companies are the biggest users of tracks in most parts of the country..."; I believe that in almost all cases they or state/local entities actually own the tracks. Amtrak is merely a user, not the owners, which adds another layer of legal and bureaucratic complexity.
2
Inquiring minds wonder: Why does a railroad line for high-speed passenger service have a curve rated at 30 mi/hr? Shouldn't that curve have been replaced?
5
It was new track on an old roadbed. This section of track also had grade-level crossings (road intersections with gates), and that alone means it was not a high speed rail line, like the AMTRAK NE Corridor is. All they did was replace rails and ties, and put in new signals. PTC was under construction on this line as well but not scheduled for completion until late 2018.
1
US infrastructure is embarrassing. Trains in Japan, Europe and China run at speeds of 300km/hr or more and have less accidents. Quoting $10B for the safety measures is ridiculous. They should throw out the bids and start over and implement the whole thing in a year. SpaceX is budgeting $10B to build a Mars rocket!
10
Like life in general, PTC is infinitely more complicated than the general public knows. At baseline, in order for the thing to work and a wheel to turn, all of the false positives need to be eliminated. If the false positives can be overridden, the system is a chimera and not true train control. Amtrak is the guest on the route in question here. Therefore it is the host railroad's responsibility - a private corporation - to implement this unfunded mandate. That involves mapping the physics of every physical characteristic on the line. It is not impossible, but in the uneven metrics of freight logistics, where highways and airlines are subsidized, but freight railroading is not, it is a heavy slog.
Just waive a wand, you all say. Make it happen. This is easier said than done. At the FRA's test track in Pueblo, CO, tests of PTC routinely fail because the physics crunching is vastly more difficult than a computer-driven automobile. Comparisons about putting humans on the moon, other modes of transportation, etc., are anachronistic or unhelpful. The moon landings had a probability of risk that is unacceptable today. When they are able to put Positive Bus Control on Mexican tour buses or Positive Ferry Control on Philippine ferries, well, then maybe we will be closer to our desired outcome.
Additionally, I am looking forward to the NTSB report, which will probably be fairer than fellow citizens' rush to to judgment.
1
Can you just imagine what the public and even Congress would do if the airlines thought it was too expensive to install instruments and policies that protect citizens and crews in the air?
6
What Americans call "Positive Train Control " others call obsolete, old and outdated technology.
Forget those "America First" dreams and simply buy what others are using, in most cases for many years.
E.g. the ETCS, which can basically run any train automatically and uses the driver as a backup only.
It works.
But of course this is not the only problem of US train infrastructure.
Maybe AMTRAK management and politicians should spend a few days riding trains in Europe, China or Japan to learn that the same applies to tracks, trains, wagons and the rest of the infrastructure in the US.
As a train country, the US are not even close to being in a century near the rest of the civilized world.
Let alone have standards and client services that are compatible with a first world country.
It's no wonder people squeeze themselves into tin cans they call economy class flights, something we would never accept here in Asia, in order to avoid having to go on a US train, which obviously is even worse.
While here in Asia, the same goes for Europe, trains are a viable alternative to flying even on long distances.
10
Amtrak has no technological credibility.
They can't implement their safety system because it was designed not to work.
This is not a technology problem. This is a technology management problem.
Amtrak can't manage technology. They can't manage rail technology, can't manage electronics, can't manage radio, can't manage cruise control.
Congress won't make them get safe. Time for the states to get busy, except the law exempts railroads from local government.
This is a catastrophe that was designed to fail, and it's living up to its travesty.
6
We have yet to learn the lessons of the Titanic: safety regulations save lives.
We still don't have enough life boats?
13
I will ask if a train I plan to ride has this system. If not, I won't use the train. Maybe passenger preferences will have an effect.
11
Regardless of the train being outfitted with PTC, if the tracks you will be using are not outfitted with PTC infrastructure and systems, your PTC equipped train will mean nothing.
What does Congress do that actually helps Americans? This is another example of the out of touch priorities our "law makers" grapple with. If we didn't have a Congress we might be better off. This will happen again, and it will be the fault of our elected "non-leaders" who don't make America better every day they to go work.
30
Ultimately, though, Congress is the collective result of who "We, the People" vote for in elections. If 'We' don't change and make different decisions in the voting booth, Congress will not change. So in a way, this crash is 'our' fault and will continue to be 'our' fault because 'we' continue to elect politicians into office who seemingly won't do anything - ie. force railroads to spend money - to prevent this type of disaster from happening again....and again....and again....
I have an app on my phone that gives speed limits and live traffic feeds on highways. Airlines track every plane. Seriously with new tech this shouldn't be that hard.
30
You are right. The idea of burying sensors every two miles is byzantine. Whoever came up with that idea terminated his education in the nineteenth century. How long would it take a computer programmer two years out of college to connect GPS to a continental database of speed limits? How long would it take a similarly youthful mechanical engineer to connect the GPS to the locomotive's controls?
3
the GOP congress was too busy worrying how they can pay back their donors with ginormous tax breaks...they could care less if our country piece by piece deteriorates.
35
OBama signed the bill into law.
1
Richard Anderson's talk of making Amtrak "the safest railroad in the world" is a grotesque joke. It's the kind of thing Donald Trump would say. Japan has been operating the Bullet Train, the Shinkansen, for many years, at speeds vastly exceeding anything Amtrak has attempted. The accident in Washington State was at a speed of about 80 mph. That is far below cruising speed on the Shinkansen, which now reaches speeds of 320 kph, or 200 mph. There just aren't any major accidents on the Shinkansen. And that is now, not in some misty future of Mr. Anderson's Trumpian imagination. The only thing Amtrak excels at is evading responsibility. It grossly undercompensated victims of the Philadelphia accident, and it can be counted on to do the same thing with victims of the accident on the Seattle-Portland train.
32
This accident and multiple other occurred on sharp curves.
The tracks on the Shinkansen run straight, as is the case for high speed trains in Europe and China.
The American system of jurisdictions (federal, state, municipality) and individual property owner rights does not allow for straight line construction. Safe engineering design is over-ruled, so compromises such as hair-pin turns and the high possibility of of driver error are built into daily operations.
The USA is simply stuck with a rail system that is fraught with "Disaster by Design." It's about as fixable as gun control is for violence.
Far be it for Politicians to legislate safety regulations for the national Rail Network...
...that would be a curtailment of Railroad Company Freedom...we can't have that!
...besides saving lives would cost money!
We can't have that too!
24
Amtrak should hire Tesla to create an automated speed system. We have the tech to automate airplane travel, for Pete's sake. Only needing to regulate speed in a given section of track should be child's play.
19
No mystery; the rail industry probably did a Ford Pinto-style risk-benefit analysis that showed it would be cheaper to occasionally pay damages than to implement the system.
"The two Republican lawmakers behind the deadline extension, Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, were the top two recipients of political campaign contributions from the railroad industry in 2016..."
That quote answers the question posed by the article and is all you need to know.
70
Except the track was owned by a public entity and a government agency operated the train. Perhaps the government agencies fully funded their pension plans while scrimping on public safety.
1
Obama signed the bill into law.
Ugh, so depressing.
"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.”
I watch a program called "Air Disasters" and the most important part of each episode is the conclusion at the end of what caused the crash and the measures recommended to prevent a similar accident. The NTSB literally jumps on the recommended improvements whether they are for sharper pilot simulation training, equipment upgrades or safety systems added to all aircraft which did not exist prior to the fatal crash.
Fatal commuter rail accidents also come under the prevue of the NTSB, so why aren't the necessary recommended improvements for safety, such as automatic-braking technology and positive train control not incorporated into these rail cars and systems, especially since Congress "ordered all passenger railroads to install new systems by 2016"? What and why should the implementation of these life saving measures be so complicated? How many more innocent commuters must die before things improve?
The most important conclusion I took from this article is I will not be taking Amtrack any time soon. I would love to ride the rails and see this beautiful country, but I love being alive even more.
33
Rail travel is on the whole quite safe, and unlike automobile travel, it is an easy matter to further improve safety because there are very few inherent user conflicts in a rail system.
3
In the case of aviation accidents, the NTSB investigates and makes recommendations, but it is the FAA that is the one with the legal authority to actually enforce the proposed changes. If they agree to the NTSB's recommendations - which they often do not - the FAA then goes through yet another cumbersome federal rule making process to which the airlines or civil aviation parties may object, before a final directive can be issued, a process which can take quite some time. In some cases, the NTSB has made repeated recommendations over years before the FAA decided to act.
I assume a similar system is involved for rail matters.
2
George S - I do not doubt nor disagree with your assessment. Perhaps the shear number of souls lost to an airline crash compared to those in a commuter rail tragedy is enough to get action and results in upgrading safety concerns sooner than later. I find it truly alarming that even when Congress orders safety measures implemented, these decisions are push back year after year, while innocent lives are lost year after year. There is something terribly wrong with this entire picture. Thank you very much for your clarification and explanation with your comment.
1
Positive Train Control is like a manual typewriter. PTC is now an outdated technology. Autonomous vehicles are being tested in many countries of the world. That same autonomous system can be adopted for railroads. There needs to be a discussion of this, somewhere.
47
The Chinese are turning rail traffic into a direct access to European markets and building high speed trains to connect their cities while we are still dealing with 19th century technology. At least the Railroad barons left us something to build on but now our money and support go into hedge fund managers pockets instead of infrastructure.
53
If you look at the particulars of this incident, you will notice that this was brand new infrastructure less the PTC. Infrastructure investment would apply to creating high speed rail systems in various parts of the country where there is high demand for public transportation and it would be easier/cheaper/more environmentally friendly than driving or flying. It would also apply to repairing sections of track or updating/replacing locomotives that are obsolete, worn or damaged; still not applicable to this incident.
2
Hedge fund? I don’t think so. Military!
1
I would be more convinced that this is "absolutely outrageous" if I knew that Congress in its wisdom had also allocated money for this. They are very good at mandating things while at the same time cutting funding.
21
TWO people in every cab until this new technology gets installed! An engineer and someone else responsible ONLY for confirming signals with engineer and assuring proper speed, and with authority to intervene if something is not right. This could be done today! Also, no phones or electronic devices in the cab. An immediate answer is quite obvious here.
42
Two engineers in the cab at the same time! That's too expensive and way too much regulation. An automated system would be cheaper.
2
The ironic thing is that the latest reports indicate that there may have been two people in the cab of this particular train, and we still had a derailment. The root problem is that people are easily distracted and prone to inattention, especially when something as routine as staring at a track for hours is the task. Full automation is the answer, and if it's possible for cars, it will certainly be possible for trains. There will likely be economic reasons for this as well - railroads will need to cut their labor costs to compete with driverless cars as they become more common.
3
Sterile cockpit too, with random watching of the video to ensure that the only conversation was work related.
Much like we do in aviation.
The other benefit is that this may increase the costs enough for the railroads to finally get the system installed and running
1