Amtrak train crash: at least five killed in Philadelphia derailment

Mayor describes ^disastrous^ scene with dozens more injured in train wreck on north-eastern
Jana Kasperkevic in New York, Warren Murray and agencies
Wednesday 13 May 2015 08.24 BST

At least five people were killed and dozens more injured when an Amtrak passenger train crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

The Northeast Regional 188 service was carrying 243 people including five crew when it went off the rails between Washington DC and New York City. The front of the train was going into a turn when it started to shake, according to passengers.

The Philadelphia mayor, Michael Nutter, said five people had been killed. He described a ^disastrous^ scene after going down on to the tracks. Authorities said another six people were critically injured and 65 taken to hospital from the accident on what is a busy route between New York City and the US capital.

Note that the line is the Northeast Corridor.

A passenger train that derailed in Philadelphia, killing at least seven people, was travelling at twice the speed limit, say safety experts.

The author, Kevin Hassett, writes: "Based on data spanning the period 2004-12, for example, to expect one transit-related injury, a passenger would need to ride the French railroad for 4.9 million miles or the German railroad for 4.1 million miles. Yet he would need to ride America's railroads for only 84,300 miles, on average, to sustain one injury."

Amtrak crash: safety mechanism to slow speeding trains was close to operational

Positive train control system was simply awaiting authorization to use private airwaves that would have made transponders along train^s route operational

As families begin holding funerals for the eight people killed by Tuesday^s Amtrak train derailment, officials say a safety mechanism that could have stopped the crash was close to being in operation.

The seven-car Amtrak Northeast Regional train 188 left the tracks just after 9pm Tuesday outside of Philadelphia^s 30th Street station, with more than 200 passengers on board. The train was traveling at more than 100mph, more than twice the posted speed limit. Federal and local authorities are investigating the accident, and criminal charges are possible.

Had an existing safety system been in use, however, the accident may have been prevented. On the Amtrak line between New York and Philadelphia, transponders already on tracks could have slowed the speeding locomotive, but the system was awaiting testing to use the private airwaves that would have made the technology operational, federal officials said.

The safety systems, called positive train control (PTC), were required on commuter and some commercial rail lines in 2008 by Congress in the Rail Safety Improvement Act. The law requires the systems to be implemented by the end of 2015.

Federal railway regulators say the technology uses digital airwaves and GPS to slow speeding trains on bends, preventing speed-related derailments. The technology can also prevent head-on collisions, and stop trains from speeding through work zones, rail regulators say.

In early March, the Federal Communications Commission had just finalized its approval a deal between the railroad and a private purveyor of digital frequencies to begin the safety devices. The deal was years in the making; Amtrak had been working to obtain the frequencies since 2011.

However, Amtrak, a publicly funded railroad run by a for-profit corporation, struggled to complete the safety project under its existing funding.

Congressional Republicans voted to further cut that funding Wednesday, just hours after the preventable accident killed eight people along the rail. No railroad has finished the safety upgrades to date, federal railway regulators said.

^Knowing many railroads were struggling both financially and technically to meet the deadline for PTC implementation at the end of this year, we have twice asked Congress for authority to better manage the deployment of this safety system as quickly and safely as possible,^ said Kevin F Thompson, spokesperson for the Federal Railroad Administration in a statement emailed to the Guardian.

^Additionally, we have twice requested additional funding from Congress to help Amtrak and commuter railroads implement PTC. While we wait for Congress to act, we will continue to work with all of our stakeholders to ensure that railroads have PTC in use across the country as quickly as possible.^

On Wednesday, the House appropriations committee voted to cut Amtrak^s funding by more than $250m from the $1.4bn it invested last year in the publicly funded, for-profit rail.

In New York one of the first funerals for one of the crash victims was held Friday morning. Justin Zemser, 20, was a US naval academy midshipman, according to Reuters.

Some of the first legal repercussions of the crash are beginning to surface. Philadelphia police are investigating it as a criminal incident.

National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said in a Thursday media briefing that the train^s brakes appeared to be working properly, and that there did not appear to be anything unusual in a track inspection. Federal transportation investigators have yet to interview the train^s engineer, Brandon Bostian.

Philadelphia police said Wednesday that Bostian had refused an in-depth interview, and left a police station with a lawyer. His attorney said Bostian has no recollection of the moments leading up to the crash, according to several media reports. However, Reuters reports that Bostian is scheduled to be interviewed by the NTSB in the coming days.

^We look very much forward to the opportunity to interview him. We appreciate that opportunity. We feel that interview will provide us a lot of information,^ Sumwalt said.

The driver, surely?

The Amtrak train that derailed along the nation^s busiest tracks may have been struck by an object in the moments before it crashed, investigators said Friday, raising new questions about the deadly accident.

May I remind you all of the big danger of deciding on responsibility for accidents ...

Sorry if I overstepped a line that is why I asked a question rather than expressing an opinion. 

Something striking the train wouldn't result in it doing 100mph in a 50 limit, would it? Unless it was a rocket up its rear, I guess.

And I put a questionark after my comment too

Bus passengers in Atlanta, Georgia had an extremely lucky escape as their bus waited in traffic.

The passengers realised that they were stuck in the path of an oncoming train, and started shouting to the bus driver to open the doors.

Video inside the bus caught the dramatic and frightening moment when the train collided with the bus.

There’s a new rule in New York City’s subways, and owners of large dogs are having to get very creative in response. It reads, "No person may bring any animal on or into any conveyance or facility unless enclosed in a container."

Hoboken station crash: New Jersey train disaster 'kills one'

One person has been killed and 108 others injured, some of them critically, after a commuter train crashed into a railway station in the US state of New Jersey.

The train reportedly went through ticket barriers and into the reception area of Hoboken station.

Images show extensive damage to the train carriages and station, with part of the building roof caved in.

Witnesses described a scene of horror at the station.

A huge emergency services operation swung into action following the crash, with firefighters and transport staff helping people from wrecked carriages.

Hoboken is across the Hudson River from New York City. Many commuters use the busy station to travel into Manhattan.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie confirmed there had been one fatality. Earlier reports said three people had died.

"We're not going to speculate on the cause of the accident," Governor Christie said at a news conference.

Mr Christie added that the person killed in the accident was struck by debris while standing on a platform. He did not provide more details on the victim.

Mark Cardona was on the platform at the time. The "runaway" train missed me by 10-15 feet (3-5m), he told the BBC. There was "absolutely zero chance to react", Mr Cardona said. "It went full speed into and then through the building. I froze. People were screaming... The ceiling started to collapse. I ran for my life."

Ben Fairclough, a witness who was at the station, told the BBC: "I wasn't on the train, but I arrived just after it happened. There was water coming down off the roof and people climbing out through the windows. There were people sitting down with blood coming from their head. There were lots of injuries."

US rail safety

In 2008 the US Congress passed a law requiring all trains to install Positive Train Control (PTC) systems by the end of 2015.

But most rail companies were unable to meet the deadline as the system is expensive and complex to install. Some rail lines - including New Jersey Transit - threatened to shut down completely if it was enforced. In response, Congress extended the deadline to install PTC systems to 2018.

Rail lines can then apply for an additional two-year extension to finalise updates and test the system. But safety targets for New Jersey's commuter trains say PTC installation should be completed by 2018.

According New Jersey Transit's most recent PTC progress report, none of the 440 trains on the New Jersey Transit rail line are equipped with PTC, nor have any employees been trained on the equipment.

PTC safety systems are designed to automatically override the actions of train engineers if the locomotive is travelling too fast. In effect, they act as a safeguard against "human error" which could cause derailments or collisions.

The system uses wifi, GPS and a specific coding system to relay real-time information from trains to control centres.

Last year, the Guardian reported that US trains were far behind those in Europe, which have had automatic safety systems for years.

New Jersey Transit posted on Twitter that the service out of Hoboken station had been suspended as a result of the crash.


The train ploughed into the station


The roof of the station collapsed


Passengers fled wrecked carriages


Emergency workers treated the many wounded

That page has been updated to name the lady killed by flying debris on a platform. There's also a link to details on the safety system. The New Jersey Transit considered it too expensive to fit when first required by State legislators, so deadline was pushed out to 2018, with a further two year extension possible!

But at least no one killed on the train itself (yet)

Train carriages have plummeted on to a motorway in Washington state, causing "multiple" fatalities, police say.

The train derailed and the carriages fell on to the I-5 highway below.

Images from the scene show emergency services treating people on the ground. It appears that at least four carriages have left the track; one of them is upside down on the highway.

Several cars on the highway were struck by the derailed carriages, the Pierce County Sheriff's department says.

Sheriff department spokesman Ed Troyer said that there were "multiple" fatalities on the train, but no motorists had been killed.

The fire department had taken many people out of the train and they had been taken to hospitals, he added.

One carriage was hanging from the tracks, while another was upside down
Passenger Chris Karnes, on board the train, said the carriage he was on careened down an embankment then came to a stop: "We could hear and feel the cars crumpling and breaking apart, and water came out from the ceiling."

"In order to get out... we had to kick out the emergency window," he said.

Amtrak said that there were approximately 78 passengers and five crew members on board the train.

The incident happened near DuPont, which is southwest of Tacoma.

Officials have set up a family reunification centre at DuPont city hall, and asked people not to come to the scene of the crash.

The was the first time an Amtrak train carrying passengers southbound had run on a new section of track running parallel to I-5, called the Point Defiance Bypass.

The crash occurred around 07:30 (15:30 GMT), about 45 minutes into train 501's journey between Portland and Seattle.

Before the crash, it was travelling at more than 80mph (130km/h).

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

Overview
The Point Defiance Bypass Project will reroute passenger trains to an inland rail line along the west side of I-5 through south Tacoma, Lakewood, and DuPont.  Sound Transit currently uses a portion of this route for Sounder commuter rail service to Lakewood.
This project will improve passenger train reliability by reducing congestion with freight trains and eliminating travel on tight corners and tunnels.

Why is WSDOT upgrading tracks for passenger trains to bypass the Point Defiance area in Tacoma?
Passenger trains, including Amtrak Cascades, currently must slow down due to curves and single-track tunnels on the BNSF Railway main line tracks near Point Defiance and along southern Puget Sound.

This project reroutes passenger trains to an inland route.  The bypass is on an existing rail line that runs along the west side of Interstate 5 (I-5), from south Tacoma through Lakewood and DuPont. It reconnects back to the BNSF Railway main line near Nisqually, on the east side of I-5. It also adds a new Amtrak Cascades station in Tacoma's Freighthouse Square building.

Freight train traffic patterns will not change with most freight trains continuing to use the existing main line near Point Defiance and along southern Puget Sound. The few freight trains that currently use the bypass route will continue to use it during and after the project.

The End Result
The end result is more frequent, more reliable, and faster Amtrak Cascades service.

The improvements will allow passenger trains to use the bypass route without being delayed by freight or Sounder trains. After the completion of other capital rail projects, two additional daily round trip passenger trains could be added. Freight train traffic will not increase on this line beyond the minimal amount that utilizes it today.

When completed, the Point Defiance Rail Bypass project will bring a total of six daily round trip Amtrak Cascades trains and one Coast Starlight train through Tacoma, Lakewood, and DuPont intersections, with an average crossing time of 45 seconds per intersection and a maximum speed of 79 mph.

Project Benefits

Improved Amtrak Cascades reliability.
Faster, more frequent Amtrak Cascades service.
 

What is the project timeline?
The environmental and design process began in July 2006, and was completed in 2008.
The new line opens to service on Dec. 18, 2017.

On this site we encourage people not to speculate on such accidents too much and often first impressions prove inadequate explanations.  However, according to several news sources (inc. The Independent and Sky News) President Trump has no such qualms and is already using (exploiting?) this awful tragedy to push his infrastructure agenda. An example of poor infrastructure or not, it's certainly not old and in need of replacement and one wonders how at such an early stage it can be used as an example of anything.

A very sad day for all concerned and as others have, I express my sympathy for the individuals caught up in it.

DUPONT, Wash. (AP) — An Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route hurtled off an overpass south of Seattle on Monday and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and crushing two vehicles, authorities said.

Attention quickly turned to the train’s speed. A website that maps location and speed using data from Amtrak’s train tracker app showed the train was going 81.1 mph (129 kph) about a quarter of a mile from the point where it derailed, where the speed limit is significantly lower.

There were 80 passengers and five on duty crew when the train derailed and pulled 13 cars off the tracks. Authorities said there were three confirmed deaths. More than 70 people were taken for medical care — including 10 with serious injuries.

About two hours after the accident, a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation said he was told at least six people were killed. The official said he had no new information to explain the discrepancy in the numbers.

The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph (127 kph) to 30 mph (48 kph) for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks.

The chart, dated Feb. 7, 2017, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves 10 minutes off the trip between Seattle and Portland.

It was not clear how fast the train was moving at the precise moment when it derailed. National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the scene trying to determine the derailment’s cause.

Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed to the AP that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 30 mph (48 kph). Speed signs are posted two miles before the speed zone and just before the speed zone approaching the curve, she said.

Positive train control — the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train — wasn’t in use on this stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson.

He spoke on a conference call with reporters, said he was “deeply saddened by all that has happened today.”

Bob Chipkevich, a former NTSB director of railroad, pipeline and hazardous materials investigations, told The Seattle Times the crash looked like a high-speed derailment based on television images.

In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed. Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut.

“I’m still figuring that out. We’ve got cars everywhere and down onto the highway,” he tells the dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK.

A US passenger train that derailed, killing three people, was going at 81mph (130km/h) on a curve with a restricted speed limit, according to data from a train tracking website.The curve's speed limit drops to 30mph.Passengers say the train rocked and creaked as it took the bend fast before barrelling off a bridge on to a motorway packed with traffic.

It happened in Washington state during rush hour on Monday and officials say 72 people were taken to hospitals.

A number of those injured are reported to be in a critical condition. Authorities said all carriages had now been searched, but would not rule out a rise in the number of dead.

The cause of Monday's crash has not been confirmed. Seven vehicles, two of them lorries, were hit on the I-5 highway below. Several people were injured in their vehicles but none died.

State transport spokesperson Barbara LaBoe was quoted in the Seattle Times newspaper as saying the limit on most of the track was 79mph (128km/h) but drivers were supposed to slow dramatically at the spot where the train derailed.
She said warning signs were in place two miles before the lowered limit.

It was Amtrak's first passenger service to run on a new, shorter route. Amtrak is the name of the company that runs most passenger trains in the US, with some government funding. The derailment happened on a section of track previously only used for freight trains.

Train 501 had left Seattle, heading south for Portland, at 06:00 local time (14:00 GMT).

One passenger carriage could be seen dangling from the bridge, while others were strewn across the road and the wooded area next to the track.There were 86 people on board, including 77 passengers and seven Amtrak crew members, as well as a train technician. Police say 19 people were taken from the scene uninjured. Of the 72 transferred to hospitals for evaluation, 10 were considered to have serious injuries.

A recording of the train's emergency call to railway dispatchers was released to US media.
"Emergency! We are on the ground!" a man, possibly the conductor, radios in.
In a second radio call, another crew member reports that only the rear unit remains on the rails.
"All other cars appear to be on the ground in quite a mess," he says.
The train's engineer has a head injury, he tells dispatchers.

President Donald Trump's first reaction to the derailment was to tweet that it showed the need for his forthcoming infrastructure plan. However US media outlets pointed out his submitted federal transportation budget actually proposed cuts to funding to national rail systems. He later added that his thoughts and prayers were with those involved.

The section of track where the crash happened has been recently rebuilt and upgraded using federal funds.

Washington's governor has declared a state of emergency in two counties.

Passenger Chris Karnes, on board the train, said his carriage had careered down an embankment then come to a stop: "We could hear and feel the cars crumpling and breaking apart, and water came out from the ceiling." "In order to get out... we had to kick out the emergency window," he added.

Governor Jay Inslee said he was praying for the many injured. Officials set up a family reunification centre at DuPont city hall and asked people not to come to the scene of the crash.

A local news reporter who was on the train, but got off at a stop just before the crash, said many of those on board were railway enthusiasts, keen to experience the first high-speed train on the new route. Every passenger was given a commemorative lanyard and badge to mark their journey, he said.

The train involved was operated by Amtrak and Monday's service was the first 0600 departure under the new timetable and on the new Point Defiance Bypass route

The train consisted of 14 cars, two of which were locomotives

It was being led by a Siemens Charger locomotive and was trailing a P52 unit which was not under power, Amtrak said

There were 12 Talgo carriages, each of which could take up to 36 passengers, but only 77 customers were on board

I reckon that bend is around 260 m radius, which is pretty sharp to be taken at 80 mi/hr. But new track is tested, and American safety rules on this kind of thing are as strict as anyone else's.

The BBC report has a link to the Seattle Times report, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/curve-where-amtrak-train-derailed-in-washington-has-speed-limit-of-30-mph/, which has a picture from above - a very sharp curve indeed.

I'm sure the curvature is greatly exaggerated by the foreshortening effect of a long lens...

One commentator I heard last night said the US has a very bad track record of train accidents. Is that the case? If so, any reason why?

SEATTLE (AP) — They weren't just two guys who loved trains. Jim Hamre and Zack Willhoite were also bosom buddies in their passion for public transportation who had excitedly awaited the day higher-speed trains could zip through their home turf. The two pals hopped on an Amtrak train together Monday, becoming some of the first passengers to take the maiden voyage of a faster route between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.

Hamre, 61, and Willhoite, 35, were among the three killed when the train going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone derailed south of Seattle and toppled some cars on a highway below. Dozens of others were hurt, some seriously.

Family and friends said Tuesday that they were devastated by the deaths, describing the men as devoted rail advocates who were loved by many. They were both knowledgeable about the technical aspects of trains and had spent their lives advocating for such a route.

"Yesterday was a moment of great happiness for them, which makes this so heartbreaking," said Carl Fowler, a friend who has worked with Hamre and Willhoite in rail advocacy for years. He added: "Despite yesterday's tragedy, the Cascade corridor that they built will be their monument."

One commentator I heard last night said the US has a very bad track record of train accidents. Is that the case? If so, any reason why?

Washington state transportation officials won’t restart passenger service along the rail line where an Amtrak train derailed until advanced safety systems are in place, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

Barbara LaBoe, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Transportation, said passenger trains will use the older rail line along the coast until “positive train control” technology is ready for the Point Defiance Bypass route.

The Amtrak train that derailed on Monday, killing three people and injuring dozens more, was on its inaugural passenger run along the new bypass line that was to speed service south of Tacoma. Investigators still examining the cause of the crash say the train was traveling 80 mph when it entered a curve that has a speed limit of 30 mph.

Officials pushed 'aggressive' timeline before safety tech was ready.

Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about the derailment near Olympia
It took authorities hours to search the wreckage.

Train was 50 mph over limit when it derailed at curve before I-5 crossing

Longtime rail advocates among those killed

Lakewood mayor had predicted new Amtrak rail line would lead to fatalities.

Man pulled gun on motorist taking food to Amtrak derailment first responders, prosecutors say

Positive train control systems can detect a train that’s exceeding speed limits and slow the train. Crews have been working to set up those systems on the Point Defiance Bypass route — and had hoped to have it ready at the start of service — but were still in the testing phase this week.

Officials had been working on an “aggressive” timeline to finish the new line this year, with documents showing the state had a deadline of the middle of the year to finish construction in order to fully collect on federal stimulus money awarded years earlier. The state had also vowed to open service in the fall.

LaBoe said the decision to halt passenger service on the new route until the systems were in place was not an indication that the state considers the tracks unsafe. She said the new line had been thoroughly inspected and that it was a matter of sensitivity, for those killed in the tragedy and for those who will ride the route in the future. She also said officials were wanting to have renewed conversations with communities along the new route.

“It’s not a question of the safety of those tracks,” LaBoe said. The older route where trains will continue running also does not have the train-control technology, but LaBoe said the state has been operating there for many years without major issues.

LaBoe said the state didn’t know when the train-control systems would be ready for the new line. A spokesman for Sound Transit, which owns the tracks, has said it’s planning to activate the technology before the end of June. Sound Transit has also been working to get more train-control coverage for its Sounder trains.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating this week’s derailment, has long pushed for train-control systems, repeatedly citing the issue after deadly crashes. In 2008, Congress mandated that railroads use the computerized systems by the end of 2015. But, facing cost and implementation challenges, the industry convinced Congress to extend the deadline until the end of 2018.

Accidents have continued to draw attention to the issue, and some have had speed similarities similar to Monday’s crash. In 2013, a Metro-North passenger train in New York derailed while traveling 82 mph at a curve where the maximum authorized speed was 30 mph, according to the NTSB, killing four people and injuring dozens. In 2015, an Amtrak passenger train in Philadelphia derailed while traveling 106 mph around a curve where the speed was restricted to 50 mph, according to the NTSB, killing eight people and injuring many more.

The personal story of someone who was on the train ...

https://transitsleuth.com/2017/12/21/the-story-on-amtrak-cascades-train-501-derailment/amp/

Long piece - but worth taking the time to read to learn how things panned out ...

The train was equipped with Positive Train Control, a technology that uses GPS to monitor and automatically slow trains down in potentially dangerous situations, but the system had not yet been certified for use, officials said.

This youtube video is of the commissioning runs 7 Dec 17.   The interesting thing to look for is the "bogies" under the coaches, they are an articulated type nothing unusual although not used in the UK except Eurostar 373.  Its still usual to see twin axel bogies supporting the 2 carriage's, however if you look at the youtube video you will notice a single axel supporting 2 carriages.

The initial reports indicate excessive speed some 50 mph over the limit as the cause, I do wonder if the single axel contributed to the magnitude of the derailment also the fact there was a 120 ton plus locomotive attached to the rear. 

I am sure the USA TSB will look to see if the above added to the accident 

South Carolina Amtrak crash: Two killed after trains collide

An Amtrak train carrying 147 people has collided with a goods train in the US state of South Carolina, killing two people and injuring 116 others.

The two fatalities were both members of Amtrak staff, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has confirmed.

He said the incident - the latest in a series in recent years - should trigger a national debate about rail safety.

Just four days ago, a lorry driver was killed when his vehicle hit a train carrying lawmakers in Virginia.

The South Carolina crash happened at 02:35 local time (07:35 GMT) in the town of Cayce, just outside the state capital Columbia. The train was travelling from New York and heading for Miami, when it hit the goods train, causing its lead engine and several carriages to derail.

Governor McMaster said it appeared the Amtrak train had been on the wrong track at the time of the crash.


Officials are trying to find out what led to the collision

The American Red Cross sent rescue workers to the scene of the collision, and emergency services say all passengers have been evacuated from the train.

Mr McMaster said 116 people were taken to hospital for treatment. An emergency official earlier told reporters the injuries ranged in severity from small scratches to broken bones.

A shelter has been set up at a nearby school for passengers to get assistance.

According to Amtrak, 139 passengers and eight staff members were aboard the train. According to Governor McMaster, no-one was aboard the goods train, run by freight operator CSX. He said it was stationary on track at the time of the crash.

An estimated 5,000 gallons (22,000 litres) of fuel was spilled from the CSX train but emergency officials said there was no threat to the public.

"The incident is very near the state farmers' market and other residential areas but right now, everyone is safe," Derrec Becker, a spokesman at for the state emergency department, said.

One passenger, Derek Pettaway, told CNN he had been travelling from Philadelphia to Orlando in a sleeper cabin when he had been awoken by the impact of the crash.

The train's staff evacuated passengers in a "really calm fashion", he said.



The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the incident.

President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident and tweeted that his thoughts and prayers were with the victims.

South Carolina senator Tim Scott wrote on Twitter: "My prayers are with the families of those killed in the train crash in Lexington County this morning, and hoping for the best for all those injured. South Carolina is with you all!"

Concerns about safety standards on the US rail network have been raised after a number of fatal train crashes in recent years:
- February 2018: Crozet, Virginia. A lorry driver died after his vehicle hit a chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan
- December 2017: Seattle, Washington. Three people killed when a passenger train plunged off a bridge after hitting a 30mph (50km/h) curve at 80mph
- March 2017 - Biloxi, Mississippi. Four people died when the bus they were travelling in got stuck on train tracks and was hit by a freight train
- May 2015 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A passenger train derailed, killing eight people
- January 2015 - Austin, Texas. A prison bus carrying 12 inmates and three officers skidded off a bridge and hit a freight train, killing 10 people on the bus
- December 2013 - The Bronx, New York City. Four people died when the driver of a passenger train fell asleep and the train took a 30mph curve at 82mph, then derailed

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said the incident should "begin a conversation" about rail safety.

Brightline, Virgin form strategic partnership; Brightline will be called Virgin Trains USA

Brightline has announced that it has formed a strategic partnership and trademark licensing agreement with the Virgin Group.

It says the agreement will establish a new brand and will rename itself Virgin Trains USA this month.

Virgin will make a minority investment in Brightline, which will still be managed and operated by Brightline’s executive team as well as affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, the rail service said.

“Virgin has built a respected and trusted brand in travel and hospitality.  With our shared focus on customer experience, powered by a culture of innovation and disruption, we are well positioned to build on our success," Brightline Chairman Wes Edens said in a statement.

Brightline is operating in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and has been considering a stop on the Treasure Coast.

It also has plans to expand into Orlando and Tampa.

Up to 30 carriages have fallen on to a highway in Georgia after a train derailed on a bridge, according to US authorities.

The entire population of Byromville - about 500 people - was evacuated following the accident, which happened at around 7am local time.

Operator CSX Railroad has confirmed that the train had 72 loaded carriages and 69 empty ones.

No injuries have been reported but several roads have been closed in the area, with traffic being diverted as police assess the damage.

A lack of contractor control has been blamed in an auditor’s report for California’s bullet train project seeing billions of dollars of cost overruns and significant delays.

In a report state auditor Elaine Howle said the California High‑Speed Rail Authority, in an effort to beat deadlines for spending federal grant funds, began awarding contracts long before it had finished planning or assessing potential risks to cost and schedule.

And a lack of oversight of contractors was firmly blamed for pushing up costs at the project which, while it has secured $28bn in funding, is now anticipated to cost a likely $77bn.

The train has been mooted as an alternative to expanding airports and building new freeways to meet growing demand, especially for travel between the state’s key areas such as Silicon Valley and the Central Valley as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But delays and cost overruns have led to it being dubbed “the bullet train to nowhere”.

[Article Continues]

From Supply Management


How do the California figures compare to major electrification and high speed projects in the UK ... in total terms, and in per-mid terms?

Cincinnati seems an unlikely place for anything to be kept a secret, let alone the largest abandoned subway system in the United States. But that’s exactly what lurks beneath the streets of this inoffensive Ohio town: a vast network of abandoned tunnels and half-finished stations testifying to one of the city’s many long-lost dreams.

Came across a series of interesting transport projects no longer in use ... including some that never made it into use, at Urban Ghost Media


Cincinnati is a little larger than Plymouth and considerably smaller than Bristol ...

Don't USA cities have a lot more autonomy, both in planning and finance, than their UK equivalents? It might be interesting to compare the geology as well.

...not sure if they're Corinthian, Ionic or Doric

For those with a yen for such things, I built this a good few years ago: http://www.charlbury.info/departures/

It requires Flash so won't work on phones, and indeed most desktop browsers will be sniffy these days. Like the Philly one, it's due to be decommissioned in the next day or so. (I'm moving the Charlbury website to a new server.)

But there do appear to be a few open-source Javascript implementations - grahame, are you tempted to rig one up to your lovely new departure boards here? 

Emphatically Corinthian.

I confess - I'm sad to see the Solari / flipping boards go; I remember seeing them as a new wonder in Euston in - what - the 1960s, with the magic appearance of train as all the leaf sections in a column started to flip and in a handful of seconds most of them had stopped ... others carrying on till the column was complete leaving, magically, a complete train.   And then, as trains departed, the left most column cleared and each of the others moves / flipped up in turn.    I believe they replaced even older punched card / technical systems - vague recollections of those at Victoria, with a wooden walkway along the front, fenced off almost like a church pew in which the team operating the board scurried up and down pulling levels and placing cards to rotate slats showing station names high above to passenger looking for their trains.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-47066018/polar-vortex-fire-used-to-melt-ice-on-chicago-train-tracks

Hope they haven't got creosoted wooden sleepers !

....  Incidentally I'm old enough to remember the slot in destination boards at the ticket barrier at Welling, Kent, in the 60s.

Destination/calling point finger boards were in use well into the 1980s at Taunton, and if my memory serves me correctly, in use at Weston-super-Mare into the 21st century.

'That's not a bag': man with dog bends New York subway rule and gets denied

MTA rules state dogs must be ‘enclosed in a container’ but one conductor seems to think a dog in a sack pushes that definition

In 2016, the Metro Transit Authority (MTA) in New York banned people from bringing their pets on the subway. The only exception was for animals “enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers”.

But New Yorkers love a loophole, and so while the MTA probably meant dogs carried in purpose-built crates, subway riders quickly got inventive with tote bags and rucksacks – pushing the law to its high-fashion limits.

On Friday, however, a man found that he couldn’t quite squeeze his dog through the loophole. He was filmed by journalist Will Sabel Courtney on the subway platform at Carroll Street in Brooklyn, arguing with a train conductor about whether he was allowed to bring his dog onboard. The dog was in a burlap sack, which the man was able to hoist over his shoulder as if it was just another New Yorker tote, but the driver felt there wasn’t enough material to call it a bag.

Amtrak to launch nonstop Acela service between New York and Washington DC

Rail travellers will soon be able to get from midtown Manhattan to the heart of Washington DC in just over two and a half hours.

Amtrak announced this week the launch of Acela Nonstop, using its high-speed, business-travel oriented trains to provide direct service between Penn Station in New York City and Washington Union Station, just a few block from the US Capitol.

The new service will begin on September 23, with weekday-only trains operating once daily from each of the nation’s two busiest rail terminals.

The southbound train will depart New York’s Penn Station at 0635 and is scheduled to arrive in Washington a 0910. The northbound train will depart Union Station at 1630, and arrive at Penn at 1905.

From Business Traveller


Reminds me of "three hours to Plymouth" ... the one crack train of the day. Historically, we had this with the "Cheltenham Spa Express" but such trains have now faded into the clock face for the most part, with a need to make best use of paths rather than clear out the line for the headliner.  Are we headed back for the one super-fast train in December? 

To be fair to Amtrak, this service is at least new, as opposed to an accelerated existing train. At present - amazingly, to our eyes - the first usable train from NY to DC is at 0903, and the last Acela back from Washington is at 1550 (admittedly there are later Regional Expresses). The distance is equivalent to London to Darlington or Lancaster.

Passenger trains between cities any sort of distance apart in the USA are few and far between - with this "North West Corridor" from Washington DC up to New York with service on to Boston being one of the few where there's anything like a service offering any choice of trains.   Albany to New York offers about a dozen trains a day as does San Diego to Los Angeles, but much more typical are cities far further apart and minimal service; the daily train (or eve trains on alternate days) is not uncommon, and certain lines such as Los Angeles to San Francisco have squeezed out the passenger trains completely from part(s) of the route - Thruway coaches take you from LA's Union Station to Bakersfield, then a train to near San Francisco and another road transfer in.  There is one train a day via the slower coast line which reduces you to one bus transfer but the direct line is at capacity with long fright trains and a path at speeds that would be required by passengers is not to be had.

Not amazing to my eyes ... but then I have been there and (at first) I was amazed.  Cars and flying have rendered the trains very much a minority way of getting between cities across most of the USA.

Amtrak Asks Two People Who Use Wheelchairs To Pay $25,000 For A Ride

It costs just $16 to buy a one-way ticket on the Amtrak train from Chicago to Bloomington, Ill., unless you're the two people who use wheelchairs and tried to buy tickets recently. They were told their tickets will cost not $16 — but $25,000.

When Adam Ballard saw what Amtrak wanted to charge, he couldn't believe it.

"I thought it was a mistake. That's the price of a car," Ballard says. "How can that be possible? I was sure it was a mistake. But I've seen it in writing. So I know it's not."

Ballard works for a disability service and advocacy center in Chicago called Access Living. He is its housing and transportation policy analyst, and a group from his office is headed to Bloomington next Wednesday for a work retreat.

There are 10 of them, and five — including Ballard — use wheelchairs. Their train has three cars. Each car has one space for a wheelchair. That makes three spaces for five people in wheelchairs. In the past, when Access Living gave advance notice that it was sending a large group, Amtrak took out more seats to fit more wheelchairs. Once, it took out seats in the dining car and charged a few hundred dollars extra.

[snip]

On Dec. 30, an Amtrak agent for group sales based in Philadelphia wrote: "I received a cost regarding the removal of seats and I've been advised this will be over $25 K. Would you like for me to proceed with the request?"

Someone from the group wrote back: "Am I reading this correctly?"

The answer came back on Jan. 2. "The cost is correct," the agent wrote, citing a new policy for taking out those seats. The agent explained that it's expensive to take out extra seats and that it means taking a car out of service.

"With removal of seats, it can be quite costly," the agent wrote. "In previous years, the removal of seats from the coach cars incurred fees that Amtrak absorbed ... We understand and appreciate your loyalty with Amtrak. Going forward, we cannot continue to absorb these fees. These polices have changed nationwide as of 2019."

[Article continues]

Bad as that is, I wonder what the response would have been in this country as few, if any, trains have space for 5 wheelchairs

Bad as that is, I wonder what the response would have been in this country as few, if any, trains have space for 5 wheelchairs

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) - One person died Tuesday morning when a car was hit by a high speed train in South Florida, officials said.

The Brightline train, which operates between Miami and West Palm Beach, struck the car at an intersection in Pompano Beach about 10:12 a.m. Tuesday, said sheriff's spokeswoman Gerdy St. Louis. One person was confirmed dead.

Witnesses to the crash said the vehicle went around the guard rails, a Brightline spokesman told The Associated Press.

More than 40 people have been killed by the train, which travels at speeds up to 79 mph (127 kph) through some of Florida's most densely populated cities, according to records. An analysis of data by The Associated Press in December found the death rate is about one for every 29,000 miles (47,000 kilometers) the trains have traveled, which is the worst per-mile death rate of the nation's 821 railroads.

Subway and bus systems in the U.S. face financial peril as ridership collapses due to lockdowns. To keep transit alive, here’s a playbook for immediate and long-term fixes.

Public transportation has been in a state of crisis since the coronavirus pandemic began. Ridership in major cities in the U.S., Europe and China is down by 50-90% from pre-crisis levels. ...

[snip]

But there is a way forward. We offer these pathways for saving transit, immediately and into the future.

What to do now

[snip]

What to plan over the next year

[snip]

Short-term cuts deployed to save transit agencies money during a crisis should not become permanent once the crisis is over.

[snip]

Big, structural change is needed

[snip]

As transit agencies struggle to find their footing in an uncertain future with dramatically less revenue from the usual sources, it’s time to rethink how transit agencies operate and are funded. If agencies reassess their priorities and push forward ambitious plans to reorient cities around their systems, with the assistance of the federal government, buses and subways can thrive when the country is ready to return to regular service.