Page 42 - Train Control News Today

System whats called that positive train control had been in place in that part of philadelphia. they expected it to be in the place by the end of this year. republicans on the house appropriations committee, youre on the senate side they rejected some funding thanks have been used for various technology but listen to this exchange earlier, just a little while ago between the house speaker john boehner and a reporter who asked about amtrak funding. listen to this. >> are you really going to ask? ...

Respectfully you know mourn the loss of life and the injury to all those passengers. >> i dont know that this area the philadelphia area isnt the only place that doesnt have this train control. like you, i only heard of it for the first time today as well. obviously, its something experts have been looking for. they want it and one of the problems is its expensive. money is you know as a mayor, its always a problem. >> i understand that. life is priceless. we need to stay focused as greatly as w...

Funding? >> without a doubt. what you had is a major cut in the house. amtrak needs more money. the house is cutting money, but thats not the only reason. if speed ends up being what is going on there are parts of amtrak on that northeast corridor that already have electronic train control. they need to put it on more of the northeast corridor so if hes coming as the report that you just had at 100 miles an hour on a curve that ought to be 50 miles an hour if he had that electronic control thats...

Give the engineer enough time to stop that kind of an accident from happening but it is supposed to give information to the train. for example, if two trains are on the same track and theyre headed on a collision course or one is not moving ahead fast enough, thats the kind of thing that positive train control can tell the engineer. if theres a work car on the track, a train car working on the track. >> okay. mary and matthew on the phone, lets go over some of this information here. shortly afte...

Information, then hear what the ntsb has to say about it. im not going to lay blame. im not in a position to do that. >> i know you are advising amtrak right now. what have they said to you about this horrific derailment? >> you know i talked with the chairman this morning. and he was just getting briefed by a number of people. i have not had a chance to talk to him here at the end of the day. he and i will be in contact over the next several days. well hear what he has to say, then try and be a...

In terms of positive train control, which is the technology that would have stopped it, i tend to trust the ntsb on this. >> all right, chris hayes, thank you for your reporting tonight. and catch "all in" tonight live from philadelphia at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. well be right back.

It is difficult? yes. but we put a man on the moon in less time than its going to take to implement positive train control. we can do this. we know how to do it. the technology exists. the question is whether there is a will to do it within government and without government. we need to do it. there are other safety measures that im sure will come out of this accident like improving the interiors of cabs, of train cars to make them safer. >> george bible and kitty higgins, thank you both for your...

Believe a train would pass over 71 miles per hour past so many home and businesses but were told the train was rocketing around the curve. train 188 traveling in triple digits. theres more. they declined to give investigators a statement today, so we dont know if this person has a lead foot or if something was mechanically wrong with the train. thats something we may get after they get through looking at data recorders and cameras that were on board. they have already revealed what they call pos...

Now, the car system where the cars will actually absorb the energy kind of like a crush zone in a passenger car, but they will absorb the energy. thats one way to help. and then for train -- other trains on the track and other problems of actually moving the trains and scheduling the trains on the track, theres another system called positive train control, that rail lines are working to implement. unfortunately, sometimes people dont realize is that the train is traveling over the track. that ra...

The engineer was high on drugs. you can get all sorts of problems. the train system is getting more automated and thats positive train control. and that can eliminate a category of accidents but at the moment we dont know what category this accident is in. >> uh-huh. mary, you want to talk about that? >> and matthews exactly right. positive train control is something that gives the train and the conductor and the people working on the track, anyone in relationship with the train and track, gives...