Page 38 - Train Control News Today

>> like you in your car. >> sure. is it possible that the speed can just get away from you? it does in a car youve done that driving your own car you realize you better back off ive been going too fast. is that the same type of effect that can happen in a locomotive. >> usually when that happens thats a few miles an hour over the speed limit, not 50 or more. >> if the train had been going normally weve been hearing a lot about this positive train control. lets say something had gone wrong. a hea...

Who are particularly energized about what happened yesterday in philadelphia. and they should be. but it has more to do with the broader debate about whether we should be investing in affordable mass transit rather in city transit systems or passenger rail or light rail. this debate has been going on. and is going to continue to go on. >> let me ask you about the positive train control which you mentioned which the board member of the ntsb mentioned as well. a lot of people have critiqued the wa...

Pedal designed to stop the train if the engineer is unresponsive. >> that was the dead man pedal. if you move you foot off of it just the wrong way, it will start to sound that sound you heard and then it will stop the train. >> while not identical, the commuter and amtrak locomotives are similar. you know how to drive it even if all of the controls arent the same. >> amtrak trains are quite similar to what we see around the country on commuter trains and freight trains. all have the instruments...

That type of system 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, its on our most wanted list, congress has mandated that it be installed by the end of this year, so we are very key on positive train control. we feel that had such a system been installed, this accident would not have occurred. >> had the system been installed, this accident would not have occurred. this is not a mystery, an...

Committing to meeting the requirement of positive train control, that will happen on the northeast corridor by the end of this year. mayor, governor, team, thank you on behalf of amtrak. >> could you identify yourself, please. >> yes. joe boardman, ceo of amtrak. boardman. >> yes, sir, good morning, chief inspector joe solomon. id just like to say ive been a police officer for 32 years, and this was a catastrophic event. deepest sympathy for those that were lost and seriously injured. im very pr...

Going too fast. they had dead man switches on the train and all this discussion about a positive train control, this is actually a warning system through a series of transponders that would communicate about two to three miles apart to a receiver on the locomotive if the information being communitycated to the train if they were going too fast for instance 106 in a 50 mile-per-hour zone, then a buzzer would go off, alerting the engineer and he would take action and if he didnt then the computers...

Right now, not only are we not paying for it but as you see, with the continuous inability to pass a surface transportation bill with any length at all, we havent figured out a process by which you can do infrastructure training in the long run. this was one of the worst examples of where our inefficient rail system hurt us and created a tragedy. but its about a hack of investment and lack of planning of general infrastructure in general. >> do you agree with the ntsb that if we had positive tra...

This properly that thats what caused the accident. when you have no idea no idea what caused this accident. the fact of the matter is that there have been more and more accidents, increased levels of danger bridges failing, train accidents, longer delays at airports as a direct result of our die investments from infrastructure. >> it was just a few hours after that that robert thumbwald of the ntsb said this in philadelphia. >> we are very keen on positive train control. based on what we know ri...

Accident in illinois occurred and amtrak struck a truckload of steel that was on the crossing. i wrote those letters to the people who suffered from that incident. so it means something very real and genuine to me and my thoughts are with them. when i was chairman of the board of amtrak i hired david gunn as president of amtrak. davids first priority was getting the railroad in a state of good repair. and thats when we began the installation of positive train control in the northeast corridor in...

Freight carriers across the country, right? >> thats exactly right. >> and the private freight carriers have been pushing back about that mandate. >> positive train control, ive gone out and spoken to the railroads and i do believe yes, initially they may have said this is not something that they want. but it is coming. they know that. so i think they have the ceo of one railroad told me weve got a $2 billion sunk cost so we dont want to pull back from it now. but we at the ntsb we want to see i...