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FRA launches “comprehensive” assessment of Metro-North
Looks to me like the investigation is employee-centric.
No questioning why administrators didn’t ask about some form of LIRR’s ASC (automatic speed control) working since the 50’s, which enforced track speed restrictions since then?
Or, not push for PTC?
Or, not try to program work patterns (schedules) more cognizant of 4 AM to 7 AM being dangerous hours…I fired the SP commutes…Wake up at 0330…off duty in the City about 9 AM, OD at 1600 hrs…off at 7 PM…drive home, Live, dine, love dance with your wife…children too, participate, educate, engage, play…play
Repeat! 5 days!, Maybe 2 days or 1, off! Try it!
Francis X. Carlin: Right on sir. You are right. But, how about some old school safety. How about the NYCTA trip arm to stop a train? For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, next to the signal, there is a trip arm. If an engineer ran a stop signal, the trip arm would be up, it would hit a trip cock that would cause the train to go into emergency. The engineer would have to reset the brake in order to resume. But the command center would see this on a monitor and a supervisor could meet the engineer at GCT. as well as his/her union rep.
The trip arm was a fail-safe also on Cleveland’s RTA heavy rail line from the airport to downtown. It was a simple, safe and reliable system that was in service for many years. The only issue was if the train hit a high snow drift it would also trip the brakes. The more complicated the solution the more chances there is of failure.
Railroads travel at much higher rates of speed than most subways. The trip arm or corresponding hardware under the train would probably be obliterated. lol Train Operators control subways, not Engineers.