Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 17:35 28 Mar 2024
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
* Family anger at sentence on fatal crash driver, 19
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1917)
Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore closed (link)

Train RunningCancelled
16:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
Short Run
14:49 Plymouth to Cardiff Central
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
15:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
16:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:30 London Paddington to Taunton
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
Delayed
12:15 Penzance to London Paddington
13:59 Cardiff Central to Penzance
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
Additional 17:17 Exeter St Davids to Penzance
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 17:50:15 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[133] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[132] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[53] Return of the BRUTE?
[44] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[41] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[32] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Amtrak derailment, Philadelphia - 12 May 2015  (Read 5787 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: May 13, 2015, 06:37:06 »

Overnight news of a late night North West Corridor Regional service from Washington DC (Direct Current) to New York derailment.

Currently reported as 5 dead, 50 injured ... thoughts with them and their families.

Very sad that the first news reports I see say "Terrorism is not suspected".   No news yet, of course, of the cause - it's happened on a curve; don't know whether it was going to fast or not ... coming off on a curve at speed you're going to end up with a mess, whether or not a speed limit was being exceeded.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
stuving
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 7156


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2015, 09:57:20 »

Here's a link to a report from the Guardian, and its start:
Quote
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 (Direct Current) 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.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2015, 13:32:54 »

Note that the line is the Northeast Corridor.

Correction noted - my error / rushed and garbled post.

From BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

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

Full story,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32694447

with graph showing that Europe is much safer than USA (in general) for rail travel.   Includes  slightly confusing graph "passenger miles per injury" v year - so the LOWER curves are the more dangerous countries

Quote
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."


Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 17865


I am not railway staff


View Profile Email
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2015, 20:37:39 »

From the Guardian:

Quote
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.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2015, 20:47:00 by Chris from Nailsea » Logged

William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
ellendune
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4452


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2015, 20:46:17 »

So should the relatives be pointing the finger at the Republican budget cuts as the fault?
Logged
ChrisB
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 12334


View Profile Email
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2015, 20:51:32 »

The driver, surely?
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2015, 21:03:36 »

The driver, surely?

No - not "surely" ....

Quote
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.

from http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/15/philadelphia-amtrak-crash-gets-weirder-fbi-to-investigate-possible-projectile-strike/

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

Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
ellendune
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4452


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2015, 21:07:53 »

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. 
Logged
ChrisB
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 12334


View Profile Email
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2015, 21:10:10 »

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
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2015, 21:31:21 »

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

I'm just making the point before we go further than we should  Wink

A further report I saw referred to checking the windscreen for something striking it.   And that may not be good for the  driver {for example}

Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page