Page 39 - Train Control News Today

Breaking system which could have perhaps prevented this crash and it was due to be put on to the equipment in the next few weeks, unfortunately, it wasnt. but, that implementation of positive train control has begun to take place on amtrak equipment. >> secretary luahood, these are live pictures. but i would like the go kboenow, as the former transportation secretary and advisor, what -- >> i like probably all of your viewers this evening and the people that -- the families that are suffering fr...

Happened? >> nothing? nothing. >> and in terms of, you know, joe branch, let me get you in on this, theres been criticism about the engineer, and with the benefit of the doubt, nobody knows anything yet. the black boxes havent been made public, the events recorders have not been made public, your read on whats happening right now with his cooperation or lack thereof or all of these other stories with regard to the engineers role. >> im really unable to describe the engineers role. ive been an am...

That the bed was so well prepared that you wouldnt have that rocking and rolling, so to speak. >> i want to listen to what ntsb member robert sunwolt said today about the train speed and about the safety options we have for controlling this. >> amtrak throughout a good beat of the northern corridor called advanced civil speice enforcement. that is called acses. it is installed throughout the most of the northeast corridor. however, it is not installed for this area where the accident occurred, w...

>> wnbc new york, a question for the amtrak ceo. >> let me hear the question. >> he just made a pledge to install positive train control by the end of the year, the federal government had already asked him to do that. so the question is, why had it not been installed before? >> well certainly mr. boardman can explain that, but it is certainly my understanding that that type of work is in progress. i dont believe anyone standing here, and im sure none of you have ever experienced that, if youre t...

>> contributing to the accident was the absence of positive train control or ptc. all of these deaths and injuries were preventable. it would have prevented this derailment by automatically applying the brakes even when the engineer did not. the ntsb has called for the implementation of ptc. thankfully congress has mandated the use of this technology by the end of next year. thank you, congress. >> thank you, congress. but no rush. we are really good at investigating these kinds of disasters whe...

So we want to get here and collect as much of that as we can so that when we leave here in about a week well either have what we need or have a plan for obtaining everything we need. >> is there a commonality with the train crashes that the ntsb investigates i know there have been a number this year alone, are there common denominators that you look for? >> the accidents that weve seen this year dont seem to have common denominators with this particular one. but on december 1st there was a metro...

A type of system we were just referring to in the last segment is called positive train control. what is it? how does it work? we go inside a train simulator at los angeles metro link. >> so youre that engineer. youre coming into a curve. it seems a little bit hot. what is it telling you? >> right now my train speed is 62 miles an hour. were going to shortly -- momentarily when comebe coming into a zone. its going to give me a warning saying you need to brake and reduce your speed. it will give ...

Investigators believe, it was going more than twice as fast p 106 miles an hour. now, the engineer slammed on the brakes but it was too late. when the train derailed it had gotten down to 102 miles an hour. and now the question is why was it going so fast? i want to bring in ntsb investigator robert sumwalt. robert, good to see you. >> good morning, jose. >> i want to get to the issue of positive train control in a minute but first i need to ask you about the investigation. whats the main focus ...

Conductor who may be going too fast -- >> are you speaking about this positive train control, is that the technology youre speaking about? >> right. that deals with the infrastructure failure which some people are wanting to have that conversation about infrastructure. it also deals with the human failure. it appears in this case -- we knew quickly there was a speed issue which we talked about yesterday morning that deals with the human failure. in this case speed. it will slow the train down. w...

Need a kind of clarity that does tell us exactly would was on that train so we know when to stop searching for survivors. so in the amtrak funding, i think its extremely difficult to find an area of the funding where you can clearly identify as having nothing to do with safety. >> its beyond logic to understand why freight railroads that haul just freight have an engineer and a conductor with two sets of eyes on the track and two sets of eyes on all the signal accidents. and for some reason, the...