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September 22, 2008
Safety Measures Existed, but not up to Metrolink's Standards
NTSB investigators use stand-in engines to conduct a test to determine when the engineers of two trains were able to see each other in the moments before a head-on crash (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
After the September 12 Metrolink/Union Pacific train crash that claimed 25 lives, Metrolink repeatedly said that positive train controls, which automatically stop trains when two are on the same track heading at each other, "have not yet been perfected to the point where they can be installed throughout Southern California's rail system, where 66% of the tracks are shared by freight and passenger trains," according to the LA Times.
Positive train controls have been in use for 90 years and the National Transportation Safety Board recommended it 30 years ago. In fact, in 1990 the agency added it to their list of ten most wanted safety improvements. In a March train crash between a commuter train and a runaway freight train in Massachusetts, the automated system stopped the commuter train before the freight hit it. 150 people suffered minor injuries and officials say if the technology was not installed, the crash would have been much worse.
Other than one section in Orange County that has the technology because the previous railroad owners installed it, Metrolink told the Times on Friday they were not prepared to say anything more on safety measures.
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This story has turned to the bizarre.
Now it might be a suicide and he may or may have not killed his partner.
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Mass Transit Magazine, an industry magazine for transit management professionals, had an article about PTC in the December 2007 issue entitled, Positive Train Control — Ready to Go?, written by four members of the Federal Railroad Administration's department of Safety.
In the article, this was said of PTC in a mixed freight/passenger environment:
So essentially, no more than 9 months ago if a transit management professional at Metrolink was considering improving safety standards by perhaps spending money and implementing PTC, research would have revealed that the FRA considers PTC in a mixed freight/passenger environment untested technologoy. Is it prudent to implement what safety professionals at the Federal Railroad commission consider untested technology?
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Oops, here's the article from Mass Transit Magazine.