(The following article by By Mary F. Albert was posted on the San Francisco Examiner website on January 28.)
SAN FRANCISCO — As authorities continue to investigate the factors that led to a deadly commuter rail crash in Southern California on Wednesday, Caltrain officials said Thursday it is possible but unlikely for a similar tragedy to strike the Bay Area’s rails.
“What happened in Southern California was incredibly unusual,” said Caltrain spokeswoman Jayme Kunz. “For a vehicle to cause a derailment — obviously there were extenuating circumstances.”
During the Joint Powers Board’s history of overseeing Caltrain’s operations, a vehicle-on-train collision has never caused a derailment or death, Kunz said.
Even so, Kunz acknowledged that Caltrain’s trains share similarities with the Metrolink commuter trains that derailed in Glendale on Wednesday morning when a suicidal man parked his sport utility vehicle on tracks and then abandoned it after he changed his mind. The resulting crash killed 11 people.
Both Metrolink and Caltrain operate in dense urban areas with a high volume of trains, Kunz said. Both use the push-pull method of operation that union leaders from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen say made the accident all the more fatal.
“By virtue of the fact that a locomotive was pushing the train from behind was a factor in making the damage worse,” said Timothy Smith, California Chairman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “Any time you have that kind of power collide with something ahead, it creates an accordion buckling effect.”
Caltrain’s trains are pushed forward by a locomotive in one direction and then pulled in another when the train reverses its destination, according to Kunz.
“Most passenger railroads operate that way,” said Kunz, who explained that the alternative to this push-pull method requires reducing the number of trains that can operate at any given time. It also costs more, since the method requires wide turnaround points, she added.
Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steve Kulm did not deny that the push-pull method has become a common practice in the train industry.
“We don’t tell the railroads how to operate,” said Kulm. “We do establish standards for safety and structures.”
But Smith questioned whether the method should be used in the future.
“I understand the fiscal responsibility of railroads,” said Smith, who argued that while building turnaround points are expensive, they are worth the investment. “How much is a life worth?”
Early Thursday, police in Irvine found another suicidal man in a sport utility vehicle parked on railroad tracks and arrested him after he led officers on a pursuit and was finally talked into surrendering.