This July, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) questioned officials with Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration, and Sound Transit over recent accidents that killed and hurt hundreds of people. On Dec. 18, 2017 one such crash occurred near Tacoma, Wash., when an Amtrak train rounded a curve at 78-miles an hour, hurling the train off the tracks and onto a busy interstate below and killing three people. Another on Feb. 4 resulted in two dead and 116 injured after an Amtrak train hit a parked freight train in Cayce, S.C. The hearings focused on finding one bit of information; why do tragic rail accidents like these keep happening? The question was possibly answered by no answer at all, as a pregnant pause in the room spoke loudly as investigators asked Amtrak officials, the FRA, and Sound Transit who was responsible for identifying the problems potentially associated with the curve in Tacoma. Human error was most likely a culprit in both accidents, documents release...

July 24, 2018

Brightline recently appealed to the State of Florida and Gov. Rick Scott for the right to run higherspeed passenger-rail service between metropolitan hubs Orlando and Tampa. The proposalwould create a service similar to Brightline’s West Palm Beach to Miami route, where concernsof fast-moving trains near densely populated communities have resulted in numerous deaths. Eight people have been killed by Brightline since it began its introductory service last July, inpart due to the new passenger trains that run along the West Palm Beach to Miami corridor canreach maximum speeds of 79 mph. A potential danger for this area of Florida, as it is home tothe three most populous counties in with more than 6 million people living along its Gold Coast. Brightline’s introduction to South Florida has been fraught with problems as safety upgrades atthe many railroad crossings failed to keep up with both the increase in train traffic, and thespeed at which these cars approach intersect...

July 13, 2018

Jacksonville-based railroad giant CSX experienced yet another train derailment last week—fueling dangerous propane fires that evacuated homes within a half mile radius of the 23-car freight train pile-up in Princeton, Indiana. This latest event comes on the heels of a string of CSX accidents, as 2017 incidents have continued to spill over into 2018—an August 2017 derailment in Pennsylvania sent dozens of cars off the tracks and spawned numerous small fires, while another Keystone state derailment in September sent more than 20 cars loaded with coal onto an adjacent roadway. In October, a train went off the rails and through a house in northwest Atlanta, and a train carrying hazardous molten sulfur derailed in Florida this past November. In February 2018, a CSX freight train collided with a commercial semi-truck near Frederick, Maryland while a railway bridge maintained by CSX partially collapsed in Alexandria, Virginia in May, causing 30 of 167 cars to derail when the e...

July 10, 2018

Did you know that trains carrying explosive chemicals are routinely running through Florida’s most densely populated counties, creating potentially dangerous situations that could pose a hazard to anyone living along such freight routes? While rail officials have attempted to convey minimal risk to locals, there have been hazardous material incidents elsewhere that border on being described as a worst-case-scenario. Recently in Centerville, Pa., a freight train carrying diesel fuel slammed into a truck hauling nearly 2,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid. Eyewitnesses said the street underneath the train was bubbling as the acid dissolved the asphalt. Homeowners nearby complained of headaches and upset stomachs from the acrid chemical. The ensuing mess forced evacuations of local residents and threatened the local waterways. Florida may not be far behind in experiencing such an event. Florida East Coast Railway (FEC), the owner of tracks that run from Jacksonville to Miami, has ...

June 15, 2018

In May, the higher-speed passenger train service Brightline silenced its horns at West Palm Beach railroad crossings and is expected to go quiet at other crossings across the tri-county area as infrastructure improvements finish this summer. The decision to stop the warnings comes at a time when safety is a significant problem for the fledgling company. In the last year, as many as six individuals have been either hit or killed by Brightline trains, as I discussed in a previous post. The safety measure that the owner of the tracks, Florida East Coast Railway (FEC), is pursuing in lieu of a horn sounding is the establishment of Quiet Zones (QZ). Typically, horns are sounded within one-fourth mile of a crossing, giving drivers and pedestrians about a 15-second warning of an oncoming train. The new zones are equipped with extra gates, raised medians and curbs, and lights and bells to warn of a train’s approach without the noise. Eventually, these QZ’s will extend through B...

June 7, 2018

The number of incidents where both passenger and commercial trains collide with cars or hit pedestrians has surged in recent years, often a dangerous combination of fast-moving trains, lacking safety measures at railroad crossings and improper protocol followed by railroad employees. Unfortunately, the ones who suffer most are the members of the communities with which the railway lines intersect. In May of 2018, a mother and child in Rosepine, Louisiana were driving to a neighboring subdivision when they almost died as they attempted to traverse a railroad crossing that separated the two areas. Fortunately, they were both wearing seatbelts—a fact that kept them alive as the train hit the rear, right side of their vehicle. What’s troubling is that the crossing site had no guard rail, crossing arms, or flashing lights, despite having been the site of seven other accidents involving trains. “If there is a crossing, there should be lights and crossing arms that block ...

June 1, 2018

Brightline provides transportation between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale with plans to extend service to Miami, and ultimately, through to Orlando. Yet the company’s expansion could come to an abrupt halt as the clock counts down to a deadline that will might require the installation of safety upgrades after numerous injuries and deaths have occured since the passenger service started in December 2017. Capable of reaching speeds up to 79-miles-per-hour, this high speed passenger rail service runs along tracks operated owned by Florida East Coast Railway—a route that, along with other railway lines across the country, is under a Congressional order to install new safety upgrades called “positive train control” (PTC) by the end of 2018. More than two years ago when Florida East Coast first submitted a plan to the Federal Railroad Administration for implementing PTC, they promised the high tech safety measures would be in place by the time Brightline beg...

May 16, 2018

On the evening of April 24th, an Amtrak worker in the midst of a work assignment fell victim to a fast-moving train and a failure by the crew to follow certain safety procedures. The incident occurred just five months after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) strongly suggested Amtrak adopt the policy of slowing their trains in the presence of work crews—advice they did not heed. The recommendation came as a result of a detailed report that followed a similar accident which happened in 2016. In April of that year an Amtrak train traveling through Chester, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia, struck a construction vehicle while traveling at 106 mph—killing two members of the work crew before derailing and injuring 37 passengers in the process. The ensuing NTSB investigation pointed the proverbial finger at Amtrak—blaming a lax safety culture and pressures of maintaining a schedule as the primary reasons for the collision. “Amtrak’s sa...

May 4, 2018

In March of 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a Request for Information (RFI) on the “the future of automation in the railroad industry.” FRA spokesman Warren Flatau explained that such information is part of a directive from U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to employ automation technologies across all modes of transportation with the intent to increase the “safety, reliability, and the capacity of the nation’s railroad system.” Such an inquiry comes at an interesting time, as other modes of transportation have already embraced the idea of automated safety features at a much faster rate. Semi-truck manufacturer Freightliner currently produces the Cascadia with computer-controlled active safety systems such as brake assist, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warnings.  And automakers such as Cadillac, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz are allowing drivers to go “hands free” on the highway than...

April 20, 2018

Brightline is a new high-speed passenger rail service that recently began serving West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale commuters in 2018—it is also a train that has been striking people at an alarming rate with more than one encounter ending in death. While the train has only been officially running since January 13, 2018, there have already been multiple accidents. On January 17th, Jeffrey D. King was on a bicycle when he was struck and killed by a train traveling at 78 mph, according to Boynton Beach police. A 55-year-old man suffered a broken leg, arm and pelvis after a train collided with him on January 19th. A pedestrian was injured in Wilton Manors on February 8th, but was able to walk away. A car was damaged in Boca Raton on February 14th. On March 11th, a man standing on the tracks was struck and killed in West Palm Beach. Even more astonishing, there were three pedestrians struck by the train while still in limited testing—a Boynton Beach woman (Melissa Lavell) ...

April 12, 2018