WASHINGTON — For more than 30 years, federal transportation officials have recommended that trains have automatic systems that would help prevent one train from running into another, but the systems have never been implemented, ABC World News Tonight reports.
The lack of such a system came into clearer focus Tuesday when a freight train collided with a Los Angeles commuter train in Southern California. Two people died in the crash, the second fatal train accident in a week.
The system is called “positive train control” and the one example is being tested in Illinois. It uses satellites and computers to pinpoint the location, speed and direction of trains.
Dispatchers monitor the information and would have the ability to remotely slow or stop a train to prevent an accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board first asked for a study of the feasibility of automatic train control after a 1969 accident between two Penn Central commuter trains near Darien, Conn. Four people died and 45 were injured.
In 1986, a Boston and Maine Corp. commuter train and a Conrail freight train were in a rear-end collision that injured 153 people. The next year, the NTSB asked the government to come up with standards requiring the instillation and operation of a train control system that would provide for positive train separation.
A Heavy Cost
The NTSB put this issue on its most-wanted list in 1990.
The Federal Railroad Administration insists it is taking every action possible and says it is still working out technology and costs.
“We believe it has great potential, but there is a cost,” said FRA spokesman Warren Flatau. Officials estimate that installing these systems nationwide could cost $3 billion.
Amtrak has a similar, less advanced system on parts of its Northeast Corridor line called the Advance Civil Speed Enforcement System. If an Amtrak engineer blows a signal or if a train is perceived to be going too fast, it can be slowed or stopped remotely.
In 1999, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers issued a report saying that positive train control could serve as a “guardian angel” to save lives.
Beyond stopping trains from crashing into each other, the federal government is examining ways to keep passengers inside train cars safe. One option being examined is to use seat belts on train cars to reduce injuries during collisions.
But railroad officials said the best protection to prevent serious injuries appears to be strong rail cars that can withstand the impact of a crash.