Thursday May 14, 2015 - Hazelwood - Pittsburg, Pennsylvania Freight train derailment
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2015/05/14/Freight-train-derails-in-Hazelwood-pittsburgh/stories/201505140271
Eleven cars of a long freight train derailed this morning in Hazelwood, Allegheny County emergency officials said. The incident was reported about 10 a.m. near the 4100 block of Second Avenue and Irvine Street, officials said. Those streets were closed to outbound traffic for a while after the derailment, but both have now reopened. John Poister, state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, said there were no injuries and the derailed cars were empty. Some of the cars were on their sides, and their wheel sets separated from the car bodies. The derailed part of the train, immediately behind its five locomotives, included mostly covered and open hopper cars. The train also was pulling dozens of tanker cars, but none of them derailed.
SEPTA train hit by projectile minutes before Amtrak crash in Philly
Engineer pulled emergency brake while traveling double the speed limit
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2015/05/13/SEPTA-train-hit-by-projectile-minutes-before-Amtrak-crash-philadelphia/stories/201505130188
The Philadelphia Inquirer - Wed. May 13, 2015 - Just before Tuesday's deadly Amtrak derailment, a SEPTA commuter train in the same corridor was crippled by a projectile sent through the engineer's window.
SEPTA officials said their investigation was continuing, but that there was no immediate indication the two incidents were related.
At about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday, SEPTA's northbound Train 769, en route to Trenton on tracks on the Northeast Corridor beside the Amtrak rails, was struck by "an unknown projectile" that broke the engineer's window, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.
No injuries were reported and the train was held at the North Philadelphia station. The 80 passengers were transferred to buses.
About three minutes later and four miles away, near Frankford Junction, Amtrak's northbound Train 188 derailed on the Northeast Corridor tracks, killing at least six and injuring more than 200.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration.
"There is no indication at this time that the two incidents are related in any way," Williams said early today.
Event recording device recovered
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said a "black box" recording device has been recovered and sent to an Amtrak analysis center in Delaware. The device includes a forward-facing camera.
Robert Sumwalt with the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators are looking at factors including track signals, the train’s operation and the conductor’s actions.
Derailed Amtrak train lacked latest U.S. safety controls
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/13/us-usa-train-derailment-safety-exclusive-idUSKBN0NY2DW20150513
The commuter rail route where an Amtrak train left the track on Tuesday was not governed by an advanced safety technology meant to prevent high-speed derailments, investigators said on Wednesday.
A system called “positive train control” (PTC) automatically slows or even halts trains that are moving too fast or heading into a danger zone. Under current law, the rail industry must adopt the technology by the end of this year.
The investigation into the cause of Tuesday’s crash, in which seven people were killed, has only just begun but initial examination of the train’s data recorders determined the train was traveling 106 miles per hour (171 km per hour) in a 50-mph (80-kph) zone.
It would have been impossible for a train to reach such speeds if PTC had been in place, officials said.
“Based on what we know right now, we feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred,” said Robert Sumwalt, a board member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Amtrak has begun installing components of a PTC system but the network is not yet functioning, federal officials said.
The Association of American Railroads has said it wants PTC in place but blames logistical challenges like acquiring radio frequencies and placing transmitter towers for the delay.
“This is not off-the-shelf technology; it has had to be developed from scratch,” said Ed Greenberg, spokesman for the trade group.
Installing radio towers and other hardware at congested rail junctions, like the site of the Philadelphia accident, poses unique challenges, according to former and current officials.
House Committee Votes To Cut Funding For Amtrak
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/house-funding-amtrak_n_7276026.html
WASHINGTON -- Within a day of an Amtrak derailment that killed at least 7 people and injured many others, a House committee voted Wednesday to slash funding for the railroad service, over objections from Democrats.
The House Appropriations committee rejected multiple amendments to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill that sought to increase funding for Amtrak. The bill cuts the rail service's funding to $1.14 billion, down $251 million from its current level. Democrats offered amendments to raise that funding to the $2.45 billion requested by President Barack Obama, but Republicans rejected the measures, arguing that increasing Amtrak's funding without cutting spending elsewhere would put the legislation above spending caps and threaten to kill the whole bill.
