FRA Announces $25 Million Available for Positive Train Control Implementation

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1. Amtrak crash: state-of-the art safety gear was operational at time of fatal collision

Amtrak crash: state-of-the art safety gear was operational at time of fatal collision

Positive train control system was ‘functioning’ at site of Sunday crash that killed two workers, but did not slow locomotive or alert engineer of maintenance ahead

Gregg Levine

Wednesday 6 April 2016 14.44 EDT

A newly upgraded safety system and regulations governing track maintenance should have been enough to prevent a fatal collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a construction vehicle on Sunday.
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The railroad industry’s state-of-the-art safety technology – a package of communications and engineering upgrades known as positive train control (PTC) – was in place and operational at the site of the deadly crash, an Amtrak spokesman confirmed. But some actions normally expected from the system did not occur: the alerting of the train’s engineer and the automatic slowing or stopping of the locomotive.

PTC “was installed and functioning on the track and the locomotive” involved in the Sunday crash, Craig Shultz, an Amtrak senior communications officer, told the Guardian. ... Light maintenance on active rail lines is not uncommon, according to Allan Zarembski, director of the railroad engineering and safety program at the University of Delaware. But, Zarembski told CNN, the presence of heavy construction equipment is.
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Sunday’s fatalities were the second and third for workers on Amtrak’s North-east Corridor in just the last five weeks, according to the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, a union that represents track workers. After a death in early March, Amtrak said it enhanced its safety protocols to include a “zero-tolerance” policy for violations.