(The following story by Anna Bakalis appeared on the Ventura County Star website on April 21, 2009.)
VENTURA, Calif. — Metrolink plans to have the most technologically advanced rail cars in the nation by end of this year, Metrolink’s chairman said Monday night.
Keith Millhouse, a Moorpark city councilman and the chairman of Metrolink’s board of directors, gave a presentation to the Simi Valley City Council that outlined what Metrolink is doing to improve passenger safety since the Chatsworth crash Sept. 12 that killed 25 people.
Millhouse said he was personally affected by the crash because his friend was critically injured and because Moorpark and Simi Valley suffered the biggest losses. He said he would do “everything in his power” to make the passenger rail system the safest possible.
This was the first presentation in a series he plans to give throughout the county.
Simi Valley suffered the biggest loss of life in the collision — 10 of the victims lived in the city. The crash also injured 135 people.
The train’s engineer, Robert Sanchez, was sending text messages just seconds before the crash. Sanchez also died in the collision.
The crash led to a federal ban on cell phone use by rail workers and prompted Congress to pass a law requiring positive train control technology that can stop a train if it’s headed for a collision. Millhouse said Metrolink plans to install satellite-linked equipment on all trains by 2012, three years before required by federal mandate.
Millhouse said that by winter Metrolink will have outfitted all rail cars with technology called crash energy management, designed to spread the force of a crash throughout the train so the front of the cab car doesn’t absorb the brunt of the impact. Millhouse said it would prevent passenger injuries and reduce derailments.
Earlier Monday, an improved Metrolink railroad crossing debuted in Glendale. The first in the Sealed Corridor Program, improvements include dedicated turn lanes, gates to prevent drive-arounds and a pedestrian gate to cross the tracks safely.
The $5 million project was the first of 120 planned across the San Fernando Valley, and Ventura and Orange counties.
Millhouse said there would be more crossings installed by the end of the year.
Metrolink is also expanding its automatic train stop technology, to be completed by early summer. The Federal Railroad Administration has given Metrolink permission to install automatic train stop devices at 43 locations. The devices trigger a warning that a train engineer must respond to, or the train stops.
Metrolink officials are going through the procurement process to become the first commuter railroad system in the nation to install inward-facing video cameras in all of its locomotives and lead passenger cars. Installation is expected to begin in a few months.
Metrolink has already instituted new safety measures since the crash, including a policy that the conductor work with the engineer in the cab whenever possible.
Councilman Steve Sojka thanked Millhouse for giving the presentation.