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Senator pushes for two-person crews on Amtrak trains
Chuckie is at it again does he know you did not put his picture with the story
If he wants all this added cost then he should make sure that Amtrack is funded to provide such. But like 80% in Congress he’s more mouth than action.
Yesterday’s movement of 10 new baggage cars from CAF had more than two crew members, including two NS crewmen - non-revenue, no passengers.
Schumer is a gas bag. We still don’t know why the train was operating at the speed that it was, but Schumer already has a solution to an undiagnosed problem. If he can say something, anything that will get his name in the papers and on TV he will.
Chuck-you really ought to ‘chuck’ his facts before running off his lack of them… Like this news article says. The NTSB has already recommended those cameras. What a typical Democrat insult to some union public employees, but they’ll probably still keep voting for these no-brains! Does he think that Amtrak engineers may be suicidal like some pilots? He should know that Amtrak only owns infrastructure in the ‘Northeast Corridor’ and to my knowledge bridges and track are being replaced and up-graded, but it will take years because the scheduled trains have to be able to keep running. Also, to my knowledge Jesse James and Butch Cassidy never-ever were robbing trains in the ‘Northeast Corridor’. Just thought you all might like to know!
Freight trains have a conductor in the cab. It is not too much to ask to bring back the fireman on Amtrak and commuter trains. There are too many lives at stake in a passenger train.
I didn’t need to read the article to know it was Chuck “chicken-little” proposing someone spend money on a solution long before the actual cause is identified.
Actually Amtrak owns more than the Northeast Cooridor. Amtrak and Michigan DOT own the entire ex-Michigan Central mainline from Dearborn MI to Porter IN which makes it a close 2nd. Plus Amtrak leases/ maintains miles of track around it’s terminals and lines where it is the primary user like some of the CSX lines in Upstate NY.
I guess safely running hourly Metroliners and Acelas since 1968 with one man in the cab was just a fluke?
The Crescent ran a stop signal and nearly sideswiped a train crossing over in front of it north of Charlottesville only a few months ago. Two men in that cab. I think the conclusion then was that they had distracted each other.
Choose your poison.
With 90 million Americans not working another man in the cab is a start.
I was going to offer an idea, very low cost, that if implemented might cut down train speed and signal violations, but Norton’s comment: “With 90 million Americans not working”…, said loudly “Whoa!”
We have over 330 million souls in this country…Right.
90 mli’ “not working.” In Nortons context, “they” should be gainfully employed If true an unemployment rate of in excess of about 25% exists.
I agree 90 million are “not working”
Included are our gruesomely injured handicapped “Wounded Warriors” and others disabled from industrial and traffic and other incidents, retirees scraping by on Social Security or like me Railroad Retirement;,some in cribs in Maternity Wards, and those in Shriner’s Hospitals, pre-schoolers, elementary, middle, high school, college, graduate schools;, those incarcerated, mentally disabled confinement.
There are 11 million undocumentede immigrants too. Afloating number of ER and other hospital patients.
Yes Norton, 90 million…
Some of them,not those I’ve Mentioned above are out of gainful employment and trying toget back to earnins wages…
…
Don, add to that two Union Pacific’s accidents the last two years with two crew in the cab. 2014 Hoxie, AR and 2013 Rockview, MO.
Where would the money come from. I heard the government wants to cut the funds for Amtrak.
Unless the inward cameras are tied into an automated train control system to stop the train in the case of the crew being incapacitated in some way, then they will only serve as a video evidence in the event something happens. Having two people in the cab can help with safety, but what’s really needed is the money to fully protect all rail lines with passenger train service with a unified train control. Even a simple ATS like there was in the past will work.
Since congress clearly will not approve additional money to pay for a second person in the cab, which trains does he propose Amtrak cut to pay for this? How many of those passengers will then die on the highway, which is far more dangerous than riding Amtrak?
Speaking of highway safety versus Amtrak, how many people would be dead if motor vehicles carrying 243 people left the roadway at 103 MPH?
Dumb. We don’t need two men if we have ATC. Passenger trains around the globe have one man crews.
Trains with two men crews have crashed… including a CSX freight two summers ago in the Mohawk Valley because of a SPAD incident. Both crew members missed the red light and crash right through a opposing freight that was transiting the interlocking. They not only missed the signal… they missed a whole train right there in their headlights.
No, the solution is just to get PTC installed, and Amtrak states it will be done by the end of the year.
Since human error seems to be the root cause of most of these accidents it would seem reducing the human factor with better technology would make more sense–not increasing it.
Technology is not foolproof