The rush to launch a service on a new, faster Amtrak route near Seattle came at a deadly cost — critical speed-control technology that could have prevented a derailment was not active before the train set off on its maiden voyage.
Work to install the sophisticated, GPS-based technology known as positive train control is not expected to be completed until next spring on the newly opened 24km span where the train derailed, said Sound Transit, the public agency that owns the tracks.
The train was going 129kph in a 48kph zone on Monday when it raced off the rails as they curved toward a bridge, hurtling train cars onto a highway below, investigators said.
Photo: AP
Three people were killed and dozens were injured. Investigators say they are looking into whether the engineer was distracted.
A positive train control system could have detected the speeding and automatically applied the brakes to stop the train, said Najmedin Meshkati, a University of Southern California professor who has studied the technology for three decades.
“It is another layer of safety,” he said.
Amtrak and the Washington Department of Transportation started publicizing the switch to the new route in October.
Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said that “no one wants PTC [positive train control] more than me,” but would not directly answer questions about why it is taking so long to get the speed-control technology up and running across the board.
“I’m a huge believer in positive train control,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday evening. “It just makes so much scientific sense.”
Anderson said the company’s safety culture can continue to improve and said the crash should be seen as a “wake-up call.”
“It’s not acceptable that we’re involved in these types of accidents,” he said.
Railroads are under government orders to install positive train control by the end of next year after the industry lobbied US Congress to extend earlier deadlines, citing complexity and cost.
Industry groups estimate railroads would spend a total of about US$10 billion to install and implement the systems.
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