Responders pulled bloodied passengers from the wreckage. At least six people were killed more than 200 were injured. Eight are still listed in critical condition. A team from the National Transportation safety board is on the scene right now. The trains socalled black box recorder has been recovered and is being analyzed. Amtrak suspended service between philadelphia and new york because of the accident. That has left some passengers scrambling to find alternate transportation. President obama spoke with philadelphias mayor this morning. He also says the nations thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. In a statement the president said, this is a tragedy that touches us all. As we work to determine exactly what happened i commend the fire police and medical personnel working tirelessly and professionally to save lives. The president adds philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love a city of neighborhoods and neighbors, and that spirit of loving kindness was reaffirmed last night. Crews are still searching the wreckage and going over passengers a lists and trying to make sure everyone is accounted for. Investigators are looking for clues about the cause of the accident. Kate bolduan is on the scene. Give us a sense of whats happening right now . Wolf you laid it out well but theres a ton of activity right here on the scene still. You can kind of see some of the activity behind me traffic obviously starting to flow here again in philadelphia. Whats going on back there is theyre just beginning really to kind of wrap their arms around the huge task in front of investigators. Earlier just a couple hours ago when the ntsb came forward, they said they were just about to get their efforts under way because they were letting priority be where it should have been. Search and rescue efforts as emergency crews were on the scene. They needed to clear out for ntsb investigators to get their teams in to start the arduous task of figuring out and mapping what really is almost like a crime scene to get the forensics going and to find out what happened and what led to this horrific crash. That kind of goes together on two fronts wolf. One you already talked about, the black back. That has been recovered, being analyzed at their operations Head Quarters in delaware. Thats going to provide information like speed, brake application, throttle application, the kind of things you can get from a black box. They say that is going to be very important that they may have some information for us later today. The other part of this investigation is theyre going to be mobilizing their teams, teams looking at the tracks the signals, teams looking at as they describe it kind of ntsb speak, wolf the Human Performance, as well as mechanical conditions of the trains and the tracks. Those teams are really just starting to mobilize, and theyre getting all of that task under way with the big question still out there and were waiting for an update wolf youre waiting to hear it as well is the fact that they still dont have any everyone accounted for that is a huge factor and a huge concern, obviously, as they try to establish what happened and who all is hurt and injured. Pardon. The emergency crews behind us. Kate what are you learning about the victims and as you point out those still who may be un unaccounted for . They havent been able to give us good information, wolf about how many people are unaccounted for. Mayor nutter wasnt going to get into that. They have a discrepancy in their manfy nest and there could be a lot of factors that go into that. The manifest given to them from amtrak and the information from the folks in the hospital are not necessarily matching up. I should give you an Important Note we will be getting another press conference over my Left Shoulder holding another press briefing the mayor will be holding that at 2 00 eastern, and i am told that they are going to be in a position to give us some new information, though they wouldnt describe to me exactly what kind of updates we could be getting. Some important and tragic information that we are getting more information about is some of the identity dents tdentityies of the six people confirmed dead. One is justin zemser. I believe we have a photograph. Hopefully we can be showing you that. Hes 20 years, a sophomore, a midshipman, he was sophomore at the Naval Academy. He was on the train, according to the Naval Academy he was on leave on his way home. His family representative for the family spoke to cnn saying understandably so that they are absolutely beside themselves. They dont really know how to wrap their arms around the death and what theyre facing right now. One person who has been identified among the dead. Another person who has been identified is jim gaines a Video Software architect for the associated press, hes 48 years old, a father of two. Hes among those who perished in this crash in this horrific horrific crash. Wolf putting, if you can, a bit of a Silver Lining on it there are six people at least confirmed dead. When you sees those images and the mayor said it himself, its amazing that so many people were able to walk off of that train when you look at just how horrific and mangled that metals is to try to figure out how this happened wolf. Have they been able to speak with the conductor, kate . Thats a big question. The mayor said a im hoping to get an update on that as well at the 2 00 briefing. The mayor said the conductor, the engineer, was somewhat injured and was going to speak or has spoken with police investigators. Thats clearly a big question and will be a big focus of the investigation, what the conductor knows and what happened happened in terms of the Human Performance as the ntsb says it so i dont know the extent of the conductors injuries, though but we are getting some information from our rene marsh doing great reporting in terms of the focus of the investigation. Theyre not ruling anything out, wolf but at the moment a lot of focus is on speed. Because of the way that the train went off the track, the angles that the train cars are located and the damage that they see, speed is a big focus. Were at an important bend here and theyre required to slow down how fast theyre going to about 50 miles an hour and so speed is going to be something that theyre looking into. That could be one of the key factors coming out of that black box, wolf. Were going to check back with you shortly, cate. Thanks very much kate baldwin reporting from the scene. One of the survivors who managed to walk away from the wreckage jeremy is with us. Jeremy im happy youre here. Thanks very much for joining us. Tell us where you were what you experienceed . I was on the last car, a about the middle of the last car, right side or the eastern side of the train, and i take the train every week for work. Restaurants in d. C. And new york. I was just sitting there and i was doing some work. I had my tablet out talking to a colleague across the aisle and the next thing were just sitting there and you feel this really boom and you dont think that much except that the train doesnt bump and thens the next thing is a harder shake and then byes the third time you knew the train was derailing. So you had boarded the train in washington. Yeah. Youre opening up a new restaurant in Silver Spring maryland. Youre going from washington. You just go to philadelphia. Then all of a sudden this happens. Youre on your way back to penn station here in new york right . Yep. I take the train every week because we have fuel pizzas in d. C. And we also are building a kitchen in new york. So youre in the seat and you feel this and what are you thrust up . What happens . At first, you just you feel a bump and you dont really feel these type of bumps on a train. The second bump you kind of felt really a herky jerk reaction. By the third one you knew and felt the train was sliding, you know it was going and you felt like it was going to go completely over. Our particular car did not go over but things started flying like bags coats, purses shoes, laptops, cell phones. Just flying until air. Literally you could see and youre kind of ducking and bracing yourself and holding on and it all happened so fast. You remember and think like it took forever. Even a couple bodies a couple women, were thrust into the overhead baggage compartments during this. You heard metal crushing. You heard, you know, brakes. You smelled rubber. As all this is going on wondering it if youre really whats going to happen and youre kind of wondering whats going to come out and bludgeon you or whatever. It is pine from what i felt and saw, i cant believe how many of us walked away. I mean i really feel like im luckiest guy in the world. How are you doing right now . Were you bruised at all . A little shaken a little bruised, a little headache a little tired. But in general, im pretty darn healthy. That cabin was pretty full, the car you were in . Probably 30 or 40 people i guess, give or take a few either way. I had just taken a walk about give or take ten minutes before all the way through the train, which i do on my weekly trips to exercise kind of, and, you know, when i walked it felt shaky but they do frequently. You didnt get a sense the train was speeding going faster than normal . I thought about it but i thought about it other times, so i dont know, you know. The trains go pretty fast. Yeah. And, you know, it was horrific thing and im so i feel so bad for the people that got much more hurt and those who didnt survive and their families. Clearly you were very lucky. So lucky. Other people jeremy thanks very much for coming in. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your story. Were going to have much more coverage of the breaking news coming up including a deeper look at what may have caused the amtrak train to derail. Well ask a former ntsb managing director how the investigation is playing out. The Volkswagen Golf was just named motor trends 2015 car of the year. So was the 100 electric egolf. And the 45 highway mpg tdi clean diesel. And last but not least the High Performance gti. Looks like were gonna need a bigger podium. The Volkswagen Golf family. Motor trends 2015 cars of the year. Lets get back to our top story. The crash of an amtrak passenger train in philadelphia. Leaves six People Killed mo are than 200 injured. Joining us is peter goelz our cnn aviation analyst, former managing director of the National Transportation safety board. Whats your first reaction when you see the picture of the derailed train . Youre going to look at overspeed. Because in a derailment accident such as this, you look at the first car that derailed. In this case it was the engine that appears to have come off the tracks first, then followed by the remaining six cars. So youre going to look at the speed restriction on that turn was 50 Miles Per Hour. Theyre going to take a look at this event recorder and theyre going to see what the speed was. I think were going to hear some pretty definitive statements at the ntsb press conference tonight. When give us a sense of what do you think were going to hear . Im afraid that this train might have been going too fast for this turn. I mean theyll also look at start to look at the track condition, was it crossing a switching area were the switches and is signalization direct correct, but the first thing theyre going to look at is how fast was this train going for the track it was on. If it was going too fast around that curve, is that a human error, conductor, the engineer or some other problem potentially . It could be any number of things, but you start with Human Performance. Was the conductor, was the engineer operating the train appropriately leading up to the turn was he applying the brakes ape lately was there any kind of failure in the braking system that would have prevented him from entering the turn at the correct speed. Those will, you know the event recorder will help explain that as will the interview with the engineer. But you start with the first car that exited the rails. The crash has, again, raised the issue of whats called a positive train control system. Tell our viewers what that is because its been seriously considered but hasnt been imme meanted. It is a its a system that is on the tracks, on of of the northeast corridor apparently to the on this section of the northeast corridor that would monitor the speeds of the train and would automatically break them if an unsafe condition occurred was going to be a collision, if it was an overspeed situation. Its enormously expensive and its complex, but the ntsb has mandated it. The department of transportation has mandated it. And the congress has mandated it. Industry is trying desperately to put it in place, but its proven to be a challenge. In this case we want to ask, why wasnt it operative in this section of the northeast cory corridor corridor . As you say the coming hours were going to learn a whole lot more. Peter goelz thanks very much for joining us. Up next the economics of rail safety. Congress debating amtraks budget improvements to the nations rail system. Ill talk about that and more with maryland senator ben cardin, hes next. With xfinity from comcast you can manage your account anytime, anywhere on any device. Just sign into my account to pay bills manage Service Appointments and find answers to your questions. You can even check your connection status on your phone. Now its easier than ever to manage your account. Get started at xfinity. Com myaccount. We continue to follow the breaking news out of philadelphia. Investigators looking closely at the speed as a possible factor in last nights deadly amtrak derailment based on the damage and the way the wreckage was thrown. The derailment has cast new light on amtrak operations and federal funding unrelated to the tragedy the house ap yags committee is debateingeing Transportation Funding for 2016. Members offered their condolences while new york congressman steve israel a democrat offered this rebuke to his colleagues. They expect us to watch over their safety when they get on trains when on planes on cars and highways. And last night we failed them. We failed to invest in their safety. We failed to make their safety a priority. What we should have been doing is subsidizing the safety of those passengers on that amtrak train yesterday. So this is just a matter of simple priorities. Thoughts are wonderful. Prayers are critically important. But priorities are important as well. Already today the committee voted down an amendment that would have raised funding for amtrak improvements. Joining us from capitol hill is maryland democrat senator ben cardin. Hes the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign relations committee, a key member of the Senate Transportation and infrastructure subcommittee. Two of amtraks busiest stations senator, are in your state. Whats your reaction when you saw the horrendous scene we all witnessed last night . Wolf its tragic. Its a train that many of us ride. Its a very popular route, the most popular route in our country, the northeast corridor. Hundreds of thousand of people travel it ondaily to commute to work. This is we can all relate to what happened. Any one of us could have been on those trains so our prayers and our thoughts do go out to the families of those who were killed or injured as a result of it. Obviously we want to know what happened and make sure that we take steps so this never happens again. I know you take that train a lot between Union Station and washington and baltimore where you live and when you go to new york you take that train as well. Republicans have been pushing for nearly 20 pr cut in funding for amtrak. In march the house did pass a Passenger Rail and reform act which raised amtrak funding over the next four years. Still no vote, though in the senate. Youre a senator. Where does the bill stand . Wolf lets be direct about it. We have not been investing in transportation infrastructure the at the level that we should in this country. When you look at what our industrial nations of the world are spending on their transportation systems, on the rail systems, theyre putting a lot more investment than were putting in. We got to invest and modernize our system. The amtrak system those rails go back over a hundred years. We have a bridge a tunnel that goes through baltimore that was built in the 19th century. Its time that we invest in modernizing our system. You know the u. S. A lot of people watching us around the world, we know the u. S. Spends billions of dollars in Infrastructure Development in countries all over the world. But what a lot of members are saying senators representatives, not spending enough on infrastructure here in the United States how do you fix that . How do you get a proper balance . Well youre exactly right. First we dont know the cause of this particular incident so we dont know whether it was speed or something to do with the infrastructure itself but we do know that we havent done enough on permanent financing for our infrastructure in this country. The first thing we need to do is pass a six year reauthorization service transporg act. Its got to be at a level to make the type of improvements in our system that the American Public need and our economy needs. And then we have to make sure we have the rvevenues to pay for that so we dont go into debt. Theres bipartisan support for this so we should bring it up lets vote on it. Its timely because the current Transportation Fund runs out of authorization at the end of this month. Weve got to act this month. How do you reassure passengers especially in the northeast, that its safe to get on a train right now . Well, im going to tell you this. Were going to find out what happened were going to make the investigation totally transparent so everyone knows exactly what happened. Were going to keep this investigation very public. I can assure you that this senator and our congressional delegation are going to insist upon Safety Standards being adhered to and the public being informed as the status at every step. Senator ben c