Page 29 - Train Control News Today

Can combine it all with things on the ground and put that into one simple graphic that feeds to the engineer showing him or her how fast he must get on the brakes to stop before reaching some sort of obstacle up ahead and if the engineer does not do that then all of that information through a computer system will take over his train and automatically slow it down or even stop it to avoid a problem out there. that is the positive part of positive train control, anderson. >> do officials have a se...

And we could take some of the congestion out of there, and get true high-speed traffic in there, and we dont have to vest public money, and the private sector will do it, and virgin trail did it in england. >> lets talk about privatization for just a second. amtrak lost $227 million last year and needs $52 billion in infrastructure work and the technology that positive train control that would have presented the philadelphia derailment cost $52,000 per mile of track, and if you own a private rai...

Would also say funding has been in place. that particular portion of the line makes a profit of $500 million a year and if they wanted to allocate those funds to positive train control, they could have and thats a decision amtrak makes and how they spend money. so no matter how much money congress allocates to agency, if they decide not to spend it the way we hope they will, theres not much we can do about it. >> democrats and republicans on issues far beyond infrastructure of a very different v...

>> brandon was always much more quiet, soft spoken, very caring when he spoke to people. very considerate of other peoples feelings and interactions he would have. >> bostian graduated from the university of missouri in 2006. he became an amtrak engineer four years after landing a job as a conductor. >> and the accident now raising more questions about the safety of americas railways because get this, theres actually technology out there available that could have stopped this crash. thats what i...

Braking to avoid having an accident. if the engineer does not respond and does not slow down when necessary, the computer would then take over these the positive part of positive train control and it would slow down or stop the train to avoid an accident. this could, in theory stop a lot of things. if you put this system fully in place, you should have no more major train-to-train collisions and no errors with switching on the tracks or crews run into by trains and importantly, you would stop hi...

Something done voluntarily. now, it is important to note that that is the very same technology that the ntsb says could have prevented this tragedy. amtrak for its part says that its very complicated, very costly to install that system. they have said that they will install positive train control along this corridor by the end of the year. kate? >> ntsb has said that his account of what happened is critical. obviously thats a big point here whenever he can speak to investigators and what he says...

The fact that even before you get to the issue of positive train control, youve got a situation where for whatever reason that locomotive went from 70 miles an hour to 106 miles an hour if a period of 39 seconds and reached a speed of 106 miles an hour on a curved track where the speed restriction was auto mil 50 miles an hour. positive train control could have stopped that situation. but the real issue is what brought on that situation? why was that train -- why was that locomotive going at tha...

But this is costing an exorbitant amount of money for disruption expenses. amtrak says it is totalling economic costs are about $100 million a day. so the outages started on tuesday. talking about potentially $77$700 million in total costs. were talking about 260 million people who use the northeast corridor on an annual basis. many of them to get to work. amtrak said that workforce contributes $50 billion and annually. i think its important to point out these costs as washington debates the fin...

Of the track, but not on the northbound side which is where the accident occurred. that positive train control is in place on the southbound side the spokesperson says is because the trains from new york south travel at a greater rate of speed, especially in that section of the track. it is a controversy that the system has not been in place in the northbound section. in the ntsb officials say the accident would not have occurred. christine. friends and former colleagues of brandon bostian are...

When you have an accident and you immediately rush to use it for no reason whatsoever no logical reason. as a way to promote your agenda. it happens every time theres a crazy shooting. the guy that shot the congresswoman and several others in tucson. immediate thing is gun control, of course. or that conservatives created a climate of hate in the country. the guy was psychotic. it was obvious from the first hour. but they always -- and they do it in a way that truly i think is disgraceful. you d...