Posted on 09/29/2016 9:04:32 AM PDT by bryan999
The commuter train that crashed into New Jersey Transit's Hoboken terminal during the Thursday morning rush was not equipped with the positive train control technology that could have prevented it from roaring off the rails.
What's more, not a single New Jersey Transit employee has been trained how to use the PTC technology, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Transportation progress report, which is dated Sept. 13.
The agency has a Dec. 31, 2018 deadline for putting this technology in place. The report states that "NJT has had a contractor on board for several years." The report also says NJT has done "partial testing over the course of the past year" on a locomotive and a cab car.
The absence of PTC, which automatically slows down trains when they exceed the speed limit on a stretch of track, was blamed by the National Transportation Safety Board for the 2015 derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia that left eight people dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
While traveling by train in England, we had heard this excuse used to explain why the trains were running late. Of course, in our ignorance, we couldn't understand why a few leaves could stop a train. Thanks for clearing this up for us!
As a fellow railroad engineering contractor in the same business as you, thank you very much for a sane post on the subject.
Liberals are good at blaming inanimate objects and not the irresponsible person
might be "interesting," but the train that crashed was part of NJ Transit.
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