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 ...
But still, it does puzzle me why it wasn’t doing anything now. Why it was retired so soon, or was it not retired and it just failed?
That’s a question I might ask into locally. I had assumed, wrongly, that railroads were going from being naked to the current PTC system... not from earlier PTC systems to this one. If the latter, then there would be some transition plan.
Saudi driver ?
Bookmark!
The train is equipped with a dead-man switch as is every train in the U.S.
Dead-man maybe, but sick-man?
I guess we have the choices of unbelievable inattention, illness, drugged out operator or intentional action. I haven’t read anything about braking yet.
Indeed, it is the end. It’s a terminal.
If you want to get into the city, you need to go downstairs and hop on a PATH train, which is a subway service. One line goes to the World Trade center and the other goes to Herald Square (mid town Manhattan) with various stops along the way in both directions.
You can also take a ferry, too.
Even sick he would have to push the button to keep the train going.
PATH Train
What sort of technology did the system you put in use, broadly speaking? I’m not aware of what the NJ Transit is using now but I believe Amtrak uses transponder-based tech (unlike most of the freight roads). Maybe the old system wasn’t compatible? Or just didn’t get FRA cert? I wasn’t aware that there were any FRA-approved PTC systems that long ago.
ASES had FRA cert. Couldn’t go into revenue service without it. It was transponder-based.
Damn, that’s a helluva commute, depending on where one is coming from
” ...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, “
Why bother training employees on technology they don’t have or use? I’d say they were being thrifty by not wasting taxpayers money on unnecessary training.
Glad you are safe.
I remember some bridge that collapsed years ago and they blamed republicans for that too. The unions and their bought democrat politicians always jump on that wagon.
Thanks for that helpful information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elMXt00xyIU
And to add insult to injury, the CTA took over a year to replace the escalators. The poor air travelers had to schlep their suitcases up and down stairs for over a year.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/CTA-Replaces-Blue-Line-Escalator-at-OHare-297454301.html
a gay conductor ran his train off the track in Philly a year or so ago killing 8 people and has anybody really heard what the official excuse was?......
You have a Guardian Angel.
It has been over 20 years ago, but when Rockwell-Collins was working with BN on the ARES program, one of my acquaintances on the railroad side would describe the features and accuracy they had already achieved and what was projected, and it was impressive. Still, he reasoned that without a human in the cab as one last safeguard, some situations were going to result in mayhem. His final take on it was, "The bean-counters will demand it, but thank God the public won't put up with it (a crewless train)."
I'm jaded enough to think that the public can be manipulated into demanding about anything.
Mr. niteowl77
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