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 ...
Well they let the real cat out of the bag, which is that the engineer appears to have meant it. They are only trying to sugar coat WHY the engineer may have meant it.
The engine and engineer are at the back of the train as it pulls into Hoboken.
So that would mitigate the shock of the crash.
So what would be our tin foil scenario. Crashes the train then takes a cyanide pill?
the locomotive does not contain the traditional “dead man’s switch” inside the cabin, but instead has other equipment in place to provide automatic breaking if an engineer is deemed to be unresponsive. He said this includes automatic alarms that go off if there is no action by the engineer. If the engineer does not respond to the alarms, the brakes are automatically triggered.
I believe the alarm goes off every minute or so. He could have had a heart attack just he entered the train yard and in 2 minutes disaster just before the emergency braking would trigger.
what is “positive train technology”?
Is that, like, BRAKES?
Might have been a tragic timing issue
Oh, thank you! I was surprised they had it figured out/or a good lie that quickly.
I was pointing out the lied by NBC. Lack of PTC was not the cause of the 2015 train crash what so ever.
In the derailment, New York-bound Amtrak train No. 188 was traveling at 106 miles an hour, twice the speed limit, through a tight curve in an area known as Frankford Junction.
Investigators said they concluded the train’s engineer, Brandon Bostian, was distracted by radio transmissions about an emergency involving a nearby commuter train that had been struck by a rock, shattering the locomotive’s windshield.
By the time Mr. Bostian accelerated the Amtrak train just before the crash, “he had lost situational awareness, an awareness of where he currently was, and believed that he was at a location farther down the track where it was appropriate to accelerate his train to 106 mph,” NTSB investigator Stephen Jenner told safety board members at a meeting to discuss the crash.
Ok. Appreciate it. Will wait for more info.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks - I’m always curious about how PTC systems I haven’t worked with operate.
Does sound like you had some complicated rules to handle!
To me it looks like the end of a run. Where do commuters go afterwards to proceed into NYC?
Then, from the train platforms, you walk downstairs to the NJ Path platform, which is a subway-style train, and go under the river either to midtown or the world trade center.
There are also ferry boats in Hoboken that go to various ferry docks in Manhattan, but they are expensive.
Not the Trenton trains. They go into Newark/Penn and then New York/Penn.
You are correct. I don’t ride them. I walk to the Path.
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with todays technology it should be easy to measure the speed at which a train is traveling on sections of track, and send a signal to slow it down or stop it...
But I worked for a company that sold computer systems for railways- A change in the technology today may not make it out into the field for 20 years, because of the mountain of government paperwork
They were still using 386 chips in the year 2005
The fake alert actually ran TWICE, as per the station’s Facebook page- 16 and 20 hours before the crash.
“Would you. Could you. On a train. Stand by for further instructions”
WKTV NEWSChannel 2 shared their post.
16 hrs ·
..
UPDATE: Another warning message was sent out in error at 10:38 p.m.
There is no emergency. This message originated from FEMA as a test and had the National Location Code in it. Tests should not have that code as it is automatically re-transmitted. We apologize for any inconvenience.
We have contacted New York State Broadcasters Association who administers the Emergency Alert System in NY. We are working with FEMA to resolve this.
WKTV NEWSChannel 2
20 hrs ·
IMPORTANT NOTE - If you were watching our newscast around 6:17 p.m. you may have seen a “Hazardous Materials Warning” crawl across your screen. There is NO such warning. The message was an automated test which was not intended for public display. Again, there is NO warning. Our apologies for the confusion this may have caused.
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