Page 20 - Train Control News Today

Collision or an overspeed derailment. that technology is a lifesaver and should be on all of those routes now. >> it wasnt used here. we dont know if it was there and not implemented but it wasnt used by this train on this day. now, i do understand the track has undergone millions of dollars of improvements but it was still a track previously used for occasional freight and military transport. could that be problematic at all? >> so its still too early to tell if positive train control could hav...

Installed on the track, but not yet activated. republican congress is ready to pass an extensive rewrite in the tax code today. the bill widely unpopular. well break down final numbers mean for you. welcome back to ear"early start." im christine romans. >> it was movie night at the white house. they watched "the darkest hour." we start though in washington state where a federal crash investigators on the ground in dupont, washington to probe the deadly derailment of a passenger train. at lea...

The ntsb. you used to do exactly what the folks are doing now. how can a train be going 80 miles an hour in a 30-mile-an-hour turn? >> well, in this particular case, since there was no positive train control, its all up to the engineer. and if hes distracted, asleep, or medically disabled for some reason, theres nothing to prevent this kind of an accident. >> yeah. again, we can talk about positive train control in one second, it wasnt implemented here, probably would have saved a lot of lives o...

At 80 miles per hour. much faster than the posted 30-mile-per-hour speed limit for the curved section of track. investigators already recovered the trains rear black box. and they also know this. life saving technology called positive train control, was not activated on this brand-new passenger rail line. p.t.c. forces speeding trains to automatically slow down. >> were going to find out exactly whether ptc or positive train control would have prevented this accident. its a great disappointment ...

Run down an embankment here it looks like theyve been strewnq about and thatfá gives us a prey good idea that it was a speed-related incident. that speed on this curve, fori] whatever reason, caused the ive seen, of headed into the turn and reports now say perhaps that turn should have been taken at 30 miles per hour andxd other reports say th train might have been going as fast as 80 miles an hoe&r that would indicate, nothing is ever as simple as it sounds, buá the train was taking the turn...

We need to go back maybe 30 years, the rail industry from the very instance that the ntsb made a proposal for positive train control, the rail industry opposed that safety device. what has happened over the years is that the rail industry has said they cant afford it. but the railroads, particularly the freight railroads, are making significant amount of money and they cant complain that they cant afford positive train control. the railroad industry, of course, amtrack is another issue. congress...

Rainy. listen to state police just moments ago. >> the weather has not been kind to us during this recovery operation. obviously you can see that its rainy it. windy. our field personnel out this that are trying to recover these items, they are miserable but they are working as safely as they can. but it does slow down the process, for sure. >> reporter: officials had initially hoped they may be able to open this stretch of highway today its not going the.half. state police now say tomorrow at t...

Train control in the early 80s. maybe even earlier. and the rail industry opposed it in every step of the way. and even after it was adopted by congress, the rail industry was at the doorsteps of congress to have it further delayed and the last congress, they were successful. and they may be even again. >> you dont buy the argument that the rail industrys making and they dont want to pay for ptc. after the crash, president trump tweeted this. the train accident that just occurred in dupont, wash...

The country, 23% have ptc. so the deadline is december of 2018. but theyve already indicated they will probably push that to 2020. stephanie, ive covered an awful lot of train accidents from california to the bronx to philadelphia to virginia all across the country and in every one of those that ive covered, the final conclusion was that positive train control could very well have prevented these accidents and prevented deaths. the ntsb has been very adamant about this, whether it is a human err...

The trains. all these other things, and we cannot get this positive train control implemented? although it wasnt place on the track, apparently the locomotive was not equipped for positive train control in this instance according to the president of amtrak. >> jon: ultimately, it is up to congress to provide the money, right? >> it really is. there is no excuse. i hope these guys take a look at this and realize, this was partially their fault if not mostly their fault. you cannot keep giving peo...