Page 37 - Train Control News Today

Been doing for over 100 years, right? >> without a doubt. its evolved from train safety 100 years ago, where there were no signals, trains relied on their schedule their schedule told them where they should be. if the schedule said you werent 130ezed to be there, the train that was supposed to be there just assumed you werent. >> now we have signals, and those signals help -- its a big improvement, and then of course, were evolving into positive train control, where we want trains to talk to one...

Still a big part of this story that needs to be told about the infrastructure and how to keep people safe on the rails s that fair? >> absolutely. positive train control will save lives. >> mr. sumwalt, i know you have a long day ahead of you. thank you for checking in with us. >> thank you, chris. the reason were pushing this issue about what we could have done and what we should do to make this less likely is because of the human cost. its not about just money and politics. its about people ...

>> well i think it is naive because we know this has happened before. we have other train crashes where human error has cost human lives. and thats the whole point of positive train control. we want to take some of the human error or all of the human error eventually if we could ever get to that point. but we want to take the human failure out of the system to save the passengers save the train and save the rail system. and, you know -- im not just saying amtrak railroad lines across the country...

Per hour. why was it traveling at twice the speed limit before it veered off the tracks? and the engineer, bostain, he is not talking to investigators. >> the ntsb have long advocated and called for positive train control and positive train control, which is required by law to be implemented by the end of this year positive train control is designed to prevent the type of accident we are dealing with here. >> some families in limbo. they are frantically searching for loved ones who disappeared s...

System. if joe boardman and amtrak tell mess theyll beat the deadline of december then im confident that they will. >> let me ask you, because when you say positive train control, i spent half my morning reading about this. for people watching they may have no idea what that is. so let me have you just explain that what that is and why in such a busy area, you know this northeastern corridor, why it was absent on this particular curve. >> well positive train control in its simplest form override...

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...

University. professor, welcome. >> thank you. >> so let me just begin with that response from the attorney from this conductor. if hes saying he had no reck recollection but doctors are saying over time his memory will return what do you make of that response and what kinds of questions will he be asked once his memory comes back? >> you know its really critical to see if it was human error, human misjudgment that caused this. it does appear that way. we dont know of course. if thats the case th...

Safety board revealing that the train accelerated from 70 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour in a minute. seconds later it hit a churve and the cars flew off the tracks. the trains brakes and tracks and signals all appeared to be working on tuesday night. we know the horrific derailment killed eight, injured more than 200. but the ntsb says that a new piece of technology could have prevented the tragedy. and you think, is that too good to be true? well chris frates investigates outfront. >> the ...

With regard to remains, and they are going through that process. if you want to have a policy conversation, or finger pointing contest, generally this is not going to be the place for that. if you want to be in touch with mr. boardman and amtrak folks and talk about positive train control and a schedule and where is it and where does it not exist, im going to ask you to do that post this press conference and this information that were sharing with you today. we have people who died. we have peop...

Engineer, if the train seems to have not noticed a signal or if the train is speeding, right? if the train engineer doesnt respond to that signal, positive train control can override the human. override that locomotive engineer and automatically slow the train down or stop the train by remote control. this sort of system does require equipment upgrades to trains, putting a lot of basic train infrastructure on the grid. it requires some gps technology. this is not like learning to live on mars, r...