Page 3 - Train Control System News Today

Curve. sundays accident has renewed calls for positive train control or ptc, safety technology that can reduce train speeds based on real-time track conditions. >> fully operational train control system could have avoided this accident. thats what its designed to do. >> originally supposed to be fully installed by the end of 2015, congress extended the deadline for implementation to the end of this year with the possibility of further delays. >> it is so important in this country that ptc be imp...

And so few passenger lines have them. congress mandated ptc almost ten years ago and the deadline keeps getting pushed back. is it a money issue? i hate to bring up probability and statistics. but is the issue that these railroads say, well, given how much it cost and given how many crashes we have it doesnt make financial sense, is that why we dont see it? >> well, i have been dealing with railroad safety since 1968 and every proposed regulation or statutory mandate, the railroad industry compl...

Curve where the speed drops down to 30 miles per hour. look at the angle of the curve. speed was a factor and wasnt the only factor. we got a closer look at the mangled train cars as crews worked through the night to remove them. the ntsb expected to be on scene at least a week. >> we dont know at this point. its too early to tell. thats why we want to carefully look at the track and the signal and the human performance. we hope interviewing the crew and hopefully find out more information if th...

Miles per hour. that accident is still under investigation. >> that type of a system we call a positive train control system, that type of system is designed to enforce the civil speed to keep the train below its maximum speed. so we have called for positive train control for many, many years. its on our most wanted list. congress has mandate thad it be installed by the end of this year. >> reporter: now theyre installing it by the end of this year. amtrak officials put the price tag for this in...

>> well its not quite as cut and dried as all of that. in fact, if i could add some texture on some of your earlier discussion congress has already authorized what they call positive train control system to be in by the end of the year. the truth is, they already have something called automatic train control and thats what the ntsb and fra is insisting be put in place when they put this line back in place. automatic train control is what they call it, and its something that is not quite as compr...

Spewed around here. >> lets bring in nbc news correspondent who covers capitol hill, luke russert. luke heated day in the hearings and also right there with speaker boehner. >> indeed. and it gets to this question about whether or not amtrak is underfunded and specifically the safety priorities amtrak says it needs. and like everything on capitol hill, joe, its a lot more complicated than just the blab address white argument that has emerged, which republicans oppose safety, democrats want to fu...

It a positive train control system. that type of system it is designed to enforce the civil speed to keep the train below its maximum speed. and so we have called for positive train control for many, many years. congress has mandated that it be installed by the end of this year. so we are very keen on positive train control. based on what we know right now we feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred. >> had the system been install...

Readily identifiable nexus between what happened in this tragedy and the question of resources. but i believe that before the tragedy and still believe it. but i think weve got to set aside some of the debates about funding right now to make sure that we know all the facts this this circumstance. i do think, though, when the ntsb says very specifically that a positive train control system can help i think we have to take that very seriously and act on that. we know it will be -- it is part of ou...

With his hand on the throttle he was going 80 heading into that 30 mile an hour curve, and more than 100 people were sent to the hospital and four people lost their lives. metro north had said they would eventually get around to installing this positive train control system. they were working on it the positive train control system would have overridden him zoning out on the tracks and slowed the train down. they were working on it they were going to get that in place. this crash happened in 201...

Philadelphia is that for some reason, heading into that 50 mile an hour curve, the train was being driven at over 100 miles an hour, and the brakes were applied way too late, only three seconds before the derailment flung those cars off the rails. it would have saved all of those lives in philadelphia. but the systems not in place yet. >> amtrak had been slowly getting that system in piece, getting the funding together. they have positive train control along some of the track. but not everywhere...