Page 15 - Train Control News Today

Freight trains do that. passenger trains do that. it just so happens that csx is who owned this particular stretch of the track. >> to have two deadly crashes in less than seven days, its difficult for people who look at this and say the rail system in the united states is as it should be. what message do you want to send right now to train travelers? >> well, i think that weve got to look at each individual accident and decide whats going to there. on wednesday, it appears that somebody had a g...

>> none whatsoever. >> you said this crash was preventable. how would positive train control have stopped this? >> it is designed to prevent four types of accidents. this is exactly one of those four types of accidents that it is designed to prevent. >> and how so? it gets sensors. it gets data from ahead of where it is on the track and automatically without people on the train changing things, it would slow the train down. is that how it works? >> yeah. thats pretty much it. it knows where the ...

Amtrak train crash in less than a week. investigators say the train in south carolina yesterday was on the wrong track and slammed into a freight train killing two people and injuring more than 100. it came less than a week after another amtrak train carrying republicans to a congressional retreat hit a train on the tracks in virginia killing one person and injuring several others. give us more details on this one, jonathan. >> hi, melissa, a terrible accident renewing calls for safety on americ...

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...

Welcome back. youre watching msnbc. it may be months before investigators know exactly what caused the switch error behind this weekends deadly train crash down in south carolina. the head of the ntsb says positive train control technology likely would have prevented this tragedy. two people were tragically killed and more than 100 hurt. nbcs maya rodriguez is in lexington county, south carolina, near the crash site. what is the focus for investigators today? >> the ntsb is going to be looking i...

New york to miami when it ended up on the wrong track and it slams into a administrationnary the right train. this is the third amtrak crash in less than two months. maya rodriguez is near the crash in lexington county, south carolina. this is the subject of a federal investigation. what can you tell us? >> investigators with the ntsb are here on site. theyre looking at one, was this human error, and what were the mechanical conditions on the ground? the ntsb says its possible that positive trai...

Positive train control have come into play? >> well, that is going to raise the -- you know, youre absolutely right. the question of positive train control is due to be put on by 2018, amtrak was slow to put it on in the accident in washington. they were slow to put it on a number of years ago in the accident outside of philadelphia. it is not on all of their -- all of their routes. its on the northeast corridor, and positive train control, as well as other monitoring devices monitoring equipmen...

Side-swipe wags. ordinarily its a situation where the train is on the track and another train, you know, not very scientific, another train doesnt know it, particularly in the dark. and here i dont believe this track had positive train control on it. csx has 16,000 miles of train track that it has to put positive train control on. they have already spent 1.2 billion, according to their information on their website but a lot of train track they have to do. csx had to put it on -- has to put it on...

That is on the engine and they will do that on both -- both the freight train and the passenger train. and they are going to want -- if the crew members have not been injured, they are going to want to interview the crew members right away. i dont think -- i dont think this will be a -- the investigation may take a year or more, but the preliminary indication of what went on will not take very long. probably within the week or so. >> so, peter, let me ask you about positive train control because...

. mary skiavo is with us. talk about train control and what it is and what it does and how it works. >> positive train controlled is a computerized system that was actually mandated by congress and by the federal rail administration to have been on all trains about a year or two agency, but keep getting extensions. its a costly system for the train companies to install. what it is is an onboard computer and sensors on tracks which tell the engineers on the trains if there is any -- any problems ...