(The following article by Phil Pitchford was posted on the Press-Enterprise website on July 15. Timothy Smith is Chairman of the BLET Calif. State Legislative Board.)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A controversial method of operating commuter trains that has been blamed for contributing to a Metrolink derailment that killed 11 people earlier this year actually is no more dangerous than more conventional train operations, according to a preliminary report from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The report backs the previously stated opinion from Metrolink that “push-pull” operations do not create a safety hazard for riders. The method involves using a locomotive to pull a train to a destination, then push it back the other way instead of using a locomotive at the front of every trip.
Metrolink was criticized for using the system after a Jan. 26 incident in Glendale in which a man pulled his Jeep Cherokee onto the tracks and caused a derailment that killed 11 people and injured more than 200. A Metrolink train hit the vehicle, derailed and sideswiped another train.
But a nationwide study has found that the incidence of derailments in the push mode versus the pull mode “is not statistically significant,” according to the FRA report. Even looking at the statistics from the worst possible view, the chance that a train will derail during an accident is only 1.5 percentage points greater in the push mode than in the pull mode, the study found.
“Commuter rail has operated in push-pull mode for many years and has an excellent safety record,” said Steve Kulm, an FRA spokesman in Washington. “The data that this report shows would support that.”
Metrolink officials maintain that a train derailment in Glendale in January still would have occurred even if the locomotive had been pulling the train instead of pushing it. In fact, having a locomotive in front of the train could have made the incident worse, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said.
Locomotives carry about 1,600 gallons of diesel fuel, Tyrrell said, and authorities have said the man who parked his vehicle on the tracks had doused it with gasoline, apparently to cause it to burst into flames.
“He did not get the big fire he was hoping for,” Tyrrell said. “There could have been more smoke, more panic — the smoke itself would be a danger, even if the fire got nowhere near a passenger. The fact that there was no locomotive in front must have been very disappointing to him.”
The report is a disappointment for opponents of the push-pull system. The conductors’ union has sought to eliminate the push-pull method for years. The widow of a train conductor killed in the January accident in Glendale has started a petition calling for the end of the push-pull configuration on Metrolink trains. She has said her husband regularly had nightmares about the arrangement.
A spokesman for the train conductors union has said that the pushing method is inherently dangerous because a cab car at the front of a pushed train is not as heavy as a locomotive and lacks a plow-like device on the front, making it more likely a train would derail instead of knocking away anything on the tracks.
“The FRA has typically taken the stance that it is a safe operation, and it’s not surprising that they would come forth with statistics that show that,” said Timothy Smith, chairman of California’s Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “But statistics can be manipulated. We can make swimming in shark-infested waters look safe as can be if we manipulate the numbers.”
Locomotives that weigh 160 tons are better equipped to blast through anything on the rails than a cab car that weighs 60 tons, Smith said. The cab car also has a blunt front compared to the plow on the front of a locomotive, Smith said.
“I don’t care what their statistics say,” Smith said. “They are wrong, and there are 11 dead people in Glendale who would tell you that if they could.”
Illustration: Click to enlarge
Kulm, the FRA spokesman, declined to respond.
“I’m not going to be debating that,” he said. “I will talk about the report itself, but not other ancillary issues.”
Since the Glendale accident, Metrolink has closed the seating area in the cab car that is closest to the front of the train when the train is being operated in push mode. Trains typically are in the push mode in the mornings as they chug towards Los Angeles and in the pull mode on the way back to the Inland area.
Metrolink plans to buy more rail cars this fall and is working to incorporate safety changes. Those include the possibility of more flexible tables, rear-facing seating in the cab car and “crush zones” that would absorb more of the impact from a crash before it can reach passengers.
Metrolink could drop the push-pull method, but it would have to embrace one of two very expensive options, the report found.
It could spend several million dollars to buy up land and build facilities that would allow the trains to be reconfigured when they reach their destinations so that they have a locomotive in front on a return trip. Tyrrell said the switching systems alone for such facilities would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Or the agency could buy 144 locomotives at roughly $3 million each so that each train the agency runs each day has two locomotives instead of one, Tyrrell said.
The agency would then have to maintain those locomotives, pay for 2.5 gallons of diesel fuel per mile traveled and generate more pollution, she said.
“It’s a much bigger problem than just purchasing the locomotives,” Tyrrell said. “You have to ask yourself, are you willing to spend billions of dollars on a 1.5 percent difference that is considered statistically insignificant? It’s your train company and your money.”
An engineering professor at USC who specializes in train safety said the report appears valid. But the larger issue is how to better prevent accidents, according to Najmedin Meshkati.
Studying the differences that occur when locomotives push trains versus when they pull them could yield important information about the likelihood of train derailments.
“But it doesn’t prevent the accident,” Meshkati said. “We really need to look at the causes of these accidents.”