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FRA issues executive order to Metro-North on speed restrictions and crew staffing
The change at Spuyten-Duyvil is from 70mph to 30mph. FRA is considering this a potential contributor to a problem. It looks like they want a stepped approach to speed reductions where one man operation exists.
Redesign approaches to existing >20mph reductions with successive 15mph reduction zones until target speed is met?
Had the train actually made it around that curve, how could it have slowed down for the next station, just a few hundred feet away?
Fifty years ago, a federally-appointed arbitration board got rid of the diesel fireman. After Lake Megantic and now Spuyten Duyvil, we wonder if it was worth the trauma.
While not taking a stand one way or another, I am wondering out loud that on a annual basis, how many events could have been avoided with a second crew member in the cab…All these FRA measures are prudent when it comes to safety and human lives regardless of where the money comes from. Positive train control cannot arrive soon enough but I have the sinking feeling nothing will eliminate human error.
This may be a good example of why government needs to intervene when business is overlooking a situation that needs a remedy. Going from 70 to 30 in a short distance is “speed trap” mentality. Going from 70 to 50 and then 50 to 30 in successive blocks could give the conductor the opportunity to realize the first slowing has not happened. Thus he/she could get to the control console to investigate rather than just sitting around when all is going normally.
It is nice that the feds can give these kind of directives, but who is going to pay for it? M-N is already behind on PTC. If too many monies are diverted to pay for these directives, there will be even less money for PTC…
I understand that there have been a number of directives given to the D.C. Metro, yet the supporting municipalities don’t give the money. This would be an interesting subject for a future article.
As tragic as this was, I am sure that there were more than a couple of fatalities and several injuries the same day elsewhere in New York State on the road system. I don’t hear of directives being given that require immediate safety upgrades to roads after accidents…
It is nice that the feds can give these kind of directives, but who is going to pay for it? M-N is already behind on PTC. If too many monies are diverted to pay for these directives, there will be even less money for PTC…
I understand that there have been a number of directives given to the D.C. Metro, yet the supporting municipalities don’t give the money. This would be an interesting subject for a future article.
When I rode the Hudson Line daily in 2001-03, it wasn’t unusual to see one of the conductors join the engineer in the control compartment after the last southbound intermediate stop and stay there until we got to Harlem-125th Street. Wouldn’t be as easy northbound, since the only way into the locomotive cab is to climb the ladder from the ground or a station platform.
That, SP was not a stop, in addition I read the speed was 75.
I think it is interesting, the speed reduction is dramatic and I
am not sure I read the distance allowed for the reduction ie possible leaving little room for error. Additionally I read the
cab cars are not set up for two men. I guess the conductor could be required to go to the cab when require as I doubt two men would be available for operation.
Why order extra measures for MetroNorth now? If anybody is going to be on their toes for the foreseeable future, it will be M-N, emergency orders or not.
It’s every other operation with one-person cab crews that needs attention. Lightning is just looking for a different place to strike.
I’ve always been amazed that passenger carriers allow 1 man upfront but freight almost always has 2. The extra set of eyes and interaction make a huge difference. This still won’t be perfect. We recently had a 2 man crew run a stop signal at a meet with another train. The FRA is acting shamefully in this and the Megantic incident, they see the need for more than one man up front but yield to the rediculous idea that one more man up front would be financially too much for the carrier. How much is PTC costing? The revenue of one freight car pays my wages for 2 weeks. When will we honestly put safety first?
Unfortunately, the mindset of the leaders in this country is money over lives. Another horrible accident, the one in Chatsworth, California could have been prevented by having another crew member in the cab.
For those of you that keep asking for more than one crew member in the train you have apparently missed the stories of multiple head on crashes of freights in Texas where one train overran a red indication and they had both an engineer and the conductor sitting in the cab. Let’s not forget the infamous wreck on the Northeast corridor when the Amtrak crew ran their engines through a red indication and pulled out onto the main line and a Metro Liner plowed into them killing a lot of people.
I used to work the NEC and they do have freight trains during the day.
Sorry Robert Soars: That trains next stop was Grand Central Terminal, not Spuyten-Duyvil.
Donald Armstrong you have your facts backwards. It was a ConRail engineer who had smoked marijuana, plugged the alarm warning so it didn’t bother him. With this, he brought out his engines and train onto the Northeast Corridor and was hit by Amtrak train #94, The Colonial. That is why that Amtrak, which owns the Corridor, forbids freight railroads from being on the Corridor except on late night operations.
In the meantime, on the day of the derail, the operator said he applied the brakes and nothing happened.
Then the next day he changed it to he was in a ‘daze.’
Does the Hudson river line have in cab signaling? Would pentaly braking Ala the n.y.c. subway make sense?