USA - railways, public transport, services and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Biden now over the line ... and it would appear by sufficient a margin to stand up to any unorthodox challenges. With a partner who's an immigrant to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) from the USA, but retains ties, we have been following the long and complex process that's been going on with more than a degree or two of interest; American politics has become very ugly indeed.  But we are a public transport forum, so little of that from me here.

But ... from an article that's six months old ...  did you know the Joe Biden's nickname is "Amtrak Joe"

[Amtrak] has been his primary mode of transportation to his work as a politician in Washington, D.C. and back home to Delaware, where he and his current wife reside. It started because of tragedy, but over time he became a huge proponent of trains during his time as a senator and subsequently vice president. It's become an indelible part of his life and work. So how did Joe become "Amtrak Joe," and why is it so significant to understanding who he is?

and ...

Biden's apparently traveled over 2 million miles, the equivalent of four years of his life, on Amtrak. He's a huge advocate for rail travel, facilitating over $2 billion loan in 2016 to help them update trains and stations. He even blogged to Huffington Post about why America needs trains. In it, he talk about the importance of Amtrak to his life. "It has provided me another family entirely?a community of dedicated professionals who have shared the milestones in my life, and who have allowed me to share the milestones in theirs."

Joe Biden has had more tragedy and misfortune thrown at him than most of us could even imagine, and for sure that has been significant in shaping the man.   Elements of our press suggest that Trump rather than Biden would have been best for the UK, bearing in mind similarities in outlook between the UK and USA leaders, whereas the new team in Washington finds itself closer to the Eurpoean systems (and thus Europe) and does not consider our decision to leave Europe to have been a good one.   But having noted that ... his approach and direction seems so much better aligned with sustainable transport and climate objectives than the chap who's finishing his four years, and his henchmen.

[JontyMort]

Biden now over the line ...

But did you know the Joe Biden's nickname is "Amtrak Joe"
 

Yes, I did. During the course of my research for a trip to the US next September (originally this September) I came across this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_ACS-64#/media/File:Cities_Sprinter_cab.jpg

To be fair, therefore, his green credentials are not bad at all by US standards. Amtrak will probably be well pleased at his election.

[JontyMort]

Biden now over the line ...

But did you know the Joe Biden's nickname is "Amtrak Joe"
 

Yes, I did. During the course of my research for a trip to the US next September (originally this September) I came across this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_ACS-64#/media/File:Cities_Sprinter_cab.jpg

To be fair, therefore, his green credentials are not bad at all by US standards. Amtrak will probably be well pleased at his election.

Actually those ACS-64s look pretty competent machines. That said, they need to re-equip the North East Corridor with coaching stock that will work in push-pull mode. The locomotives will, but they don?t have stock with Driving Van Trailers.

[broadgage]

Reports state and video shows huge fire after collision, rail tank wagon was carrying petrol.
No serious injuries reported.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56117353

Edited to correct link.

[ChrisB]

Have you used the correct URL there - that's a truck sliding off a road and no fire?

[broadgage]

Have you used the correct URL there - that's a truck sliding off a road and no fire?

No it was the wrong link, about an unrelated incident.
Now corrected. Sorry to spread confusion.

[Bmblbzzz]

The train rumbles through the darkness along Pennsylvania’s southern edge before curving north towards Pittsburgh. It’s the middle of the night, and the sleeper cabins are lulled by the low hum of the engine and a rhythmic click-clacking from the tracks below.

These pleasant noises are interrupted every now and then by the blast of the train’s horn and the clanging bells of a crossing guard as we barrel through one small town after another. Their street lights flicker through the cabins for a moment before the darkness and the low hum returns.

Long-distance rail travel in America today is for romantics. Taking this old train between Washington DC^▸ (Direct Current) and Chicago isn’t the fastest, the cheapest, or even the most comfortable way to get between the two cities. To travel this way, you have to love these sounds, or at least have plenty of time to kill.

Pete Buttigieg, the new transport secretary, is one of those romantics. But he has nonetheless expressed a desire to drag this country’s rail system into the 21st century. Americans, he says, “have been asked to settle for less” when it comes to rail travel. He advocates massive investment to build high-speed rail and upgrade existing regional lines, and he has the full support of ‘Amtrak Joe’ Biden, perhaps the most train-friendly president in US history.

Continues... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-buttigieg-south-bend-amtrak-transport-b1812129.html

[grahame]

From the Web Socialist Web Site - stats on USA train safety triggered (earlier in the article, not quoted) by two more incidents.

According to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration, there were 21,061 accidents involving BNSF between 1996—when BNSF was established by the merging of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad—and 2020.

Over the last 25 years, BNSF has been involved in 3,102 fatalities, including 82 employee-on-duty deaths, and 25,031 other injuries, involving a staggering 15,903 employees.

When all other American rail companies are included, the total number of accidents jumps to 126,420 between 1996 and 2020, with 21,148 fatalities and 236,329 injuries, including 492 employee deaths and 136,464 employee injuries.

The number of accidents, fatalities, and injuries in the US compared to the total amount of rail miles traveled exceeds those of most other highly industrialized nations. While there undoubtedly are several factors that have led to this carnage, a determining cause has been the deregulation of the rail industry coupled with a lack of extensive rail modernization and investment in safety protocols.

Big country, higher numbers expected that in smaller ones ... but even taking that into account, the figures are really bad

[eightonedee]

At the risk of showing a ghoulish interest in the figures in this article, they beg a number of questions.

The most striking is the number of non-employee fatalities - of the 3,102 fatalities in 25 years for this company 3020 are non-employees, and of the 21,148 fatalities on the US rail system 20,656 were non-employees. What is happening? It does not seem to be primarily an employment issue (although the number of employee victims at about 20 a year for the whole US is not good - the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) seems to be about 2 to 3 a year on average).

From the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) website, sadly suicides are the largest proportion of deaths on the UK rail system, at between 200-300 a year. This is a terrible toll, not only for the families of the deceased but the employees and emergency services involved in the incidents and their aftermaths. Does this though account for the lion's share of the US figures too?

A visit to the following web address - https://www.bts.gov/content/transportation-fatalities-mode indicates that most fatalities are crossing deaths (showing a reduction form about 500 a year to 2-300 later on, but with the improvement stalled in recent years) and trespassers (a steady 400-500 a year).

This doesn't quite fit the WSWS agenda, does it?

[stuving]

The BTS refer to the FRA (http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/) for more detail, but I'm struggling to get much sense out of there. It's as bad as the Belgian State Archives, which I was grappling with earlier today (though at least it's all in one language). The closest I can find is a database query that gives detailed tables, but only per year rather than aggregated. But certainly the numbers are dominated by grade crossings and trespassers/suicides, outweighing employees by about 100:1.

[Bmblbzzz]

Just speculating really, but might the American statistics be as much a road safety problem as a rail safety one? Certainly Youtube is full of videos (some cautionary, some dramatic, some ghoulish) of cars and trucks crashing into trains on American crossings. While some of them might be due to faulty signals and/or barriers, a lot of them show drivers ignoring the signals. American driving tests in many states are rather undemanding by UK^▸ (United Kingdom) or European standards and their HGVs in particular are designed in a way that doesn't facilitate vision. Plus, the way in which US trains mostly go over crossings very slowly, blowing their horns, might lull road users into a false sense of security when it comes to the few trains which go faster – as well as for those which are going slowly (because "look, it's so slow, even though the barriers are down there's still time to cross..."). And the lack of fencing might be a factor when it comes to trespassers.

[broadgage]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-57145192

No injuries reported, perhaps surprisingly in view of the scale of destruction.
There is a risk of explosion as some of the cargo was fertiliser, people nearby evacuated.

[stuving]

Well, the USA has a huge freight railway network, and a lot of it is pretty rough. Derailments are common, as are loads of hazardous materials. This one was only yesterday:

About 28 train cars derailed Saturday afternoon along a rail line in Albert Lea, Minn., with cleanup efforts continuing Sunday.

A Union Pacific Railroad spokesperson Saturday that said the train “was carrying mixed commodities; however, we have confirmed two of the derailed cars are leaking hydrochloric acid. Union Pacific is working with emergency responders to determine a response plan.”

After initially issuing a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents as the scene was assessed, authorities later said there was no danger to the public. There were no injuries.

[CyclingSid]

On North America I think of the Mississauga Miracle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Mississauga_train_derailment
Amazingly no deaths.

[grahame]

From YouTube - with an interesting comment that Americans love trains when they come to Europe, but have so few of them that when it comes to local votes they don't know enough about them to vote for appropriate rail projects.