In his cowardly Monday tweet, the Duke of Dementia failed to mention that he’s proposing massive Amtrak budget cuts. I’m guessing that positive train controls aren’t going to be possible in future projects.
This was an initial run of a high speed train. Two questions. First, why hadn’t this turn been antivipated? Second, why is a high speed train running down a track with a section rated at 30 mph?
How the hell is the driver not fully aware of the speeds and requirements of this new stretch of track? The first freaking day?
First, it had been anticipated, there were signs. I’ll bet on human error. Second, it’s not a high speed train, they created a higher speed route. It has fewer turns and crossings (but obviously not none) and takes the passenger trains off the freight tracks, allowing for a 10 minute time saving.
@ronbyers A wild guess: The Driver was occupied posting a selfie on some social media…
Human error on the first trip with passengers? Wow, just wow.
It just struck me that for all the hoopla about self-driving cars, it would make a lot more sense to use this technology on trains. With fixed tracks and human monitoring, I suspect we could eliminate this type of accident. Of course, there’s not enough profit in it, so it will never get done. And Trump pushing his infrastructure bill is just the final scene of this farce. As usual, he’s looking to enrich wealthy donors and probably has a piece of it for himself and his family. He must be removed from office, sooner rather than later.
Human error, but also human error on the route design and posting. A quick search says it takes a passenger train about a mile to stop from 80 mph using emergency braking. So for comfortable speed reduction from 80+ to less than 30 you’d want several miles. Sounds as if the route was posted so that everything would be safe if the engineer started braking aggressively immediately on seeing the first sign, ie if everything went exactly right.
And all this to cut 10 minutes off some commutes?
Of course he is. He wants his oil investments to soar. Besides, high speed trains allow certain folks to live where they’re not welcome, but still get to the city for work. That’s unacceptable to people who get to protect white supremacy with votes that count multiple times the votes cast by those of us in the city.
KInda like the whole Oval Trailer cast. Careening down the track, not realizing they’re approaching the Mueller Curve.
And to increase the number of freight trains on the other route. And to put some passenger stops closer to where people actually live, as opposed to the where the track was put about 100 years ago.
This is very much like the wreck of the Southern Railroad fast mail train in Danville, Virginia in 1903, immortalized in the song “Wreck of the Old 97.” Train comes off a long, straight run at high speed into a low-speed turn on an elevated track. And over she goes.
You beat me to it!
This project cost $180 million. It was done to cut 10 minutes off the commute time. It was designed for 80 mph trains, on a track that previously was used for 10 mph freight carrying trains. What could possibly go wrong?
It cost $180 million, to save 10 minutes. …I’m speechless.
And to put stations closer to passengers.
$320 million would’ve still turned out a positive ROI if the route had been built with the proper safety addons. I-5 is notoriously bad for traffic, and those 10 minutes plus a reliable route and reasonable ticket price would have been enough for hundreds of drivers to switch to rail for their commute.
My work team was stuck for 10 hours there once just trying to travel 5 miles, due to 2 inches of snow on the roads. Traffic backups on I-5 are ridiculous and there are no good alternate road routes.
Positive Train Control has been on the NTSB wish list since 1970. It was mandated for most of the US rail network in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, with implementation to be completed by 2015. In 2015 the deadline was extended by legislation to 2018.
Btw, most people do not understand how complicated rail traffic control is.
The proper metric would calculate the time saved for all passengers vs. their previous mode of transit. If more people ride vs. taking the choked roads, then time saved can be tremendous.
I wonder how many traffic accidents and fatalities there were on the roads of NE Washington state yesterday?
Self-driving cars are many years away from full implementation. The problem mostly being the limits of visibility… like put the self-driving car onto a road with no paint lines, no rails, a ditch about a foot from the edge of the pavement, and in the middle of heavy rain. Crappy weather is a pretty serious problem still, and of course the limitations of being able to identify features alongside the road (is that gravel patch a safe place to pull over with my engine trouble?". Assisted driving, yeah that’s becoming a thing, but no driver at all is a long ways away.
Fully self-driving trains will come sooner. So will fully self-driving trucks. I’d start looking for fully self-driving cars a few years after “trucker” pretty much ceases to exist as a job category, because driving a truck from one specific spot to another specific spot is a lot simpler than sending a car to almost anywhere.