Federal Railroad Administration Calls for Immediate Amtrak Safety Reviews

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Federal Railroad Administration Calls for Immediate Amtrak Safety Reviews

Regulator cites violations that came to light after Sunday’s fatal crash in Pennsylvania

By Ted Mann and Scott Calvert
[e-mail]
@AndrewTangel
@scottmcalvert
[e-mail]
@TMannWSJ

Updated April 7, 2016 9:41 a.m. ET

The Federal Railroad Administration directed Amtrak on Wednesday to conduct immediate safety reviews, citing violations that came to light after Sunday’s fatal crash in Pennsylvania. ... The U.S. Department of Transportation’s FRA said it told the national passenger railroad on Wednesday to perform a “safety stand-down”—a review of basic work-safety protocols—with its track workers and train dispatchers, even as two federal investigations into Sunday’s collision continue.
....

The train that hit the backhoe was on an active track that had previously been “fouled,” meaning it had been temporarily removed from use because of the chance that workers on the adjacent track could veer into harm’s way as they worked. Investigators are trying to determine how the train was cleared to proceed through that stretch of track, these people said.

Though officials haven’t yet completed their investigations into what went wrong, they already have uncovered violations of safety protocols that are “sufficiently troubling” that the agency decided to step in, an FRA official said.

Investigators have learned that the foreman of one of the work crews contacted a dispatcher using a cellphone, not an Amtrak-issued radio, a person familiar with the matter said. That is a frequent practice, some in the industry said, and it is permitted in some cases by Amtrak rules, where dead spots don’t allow radio communications to work. ... But others warned that the use of cellphones poses greater danger, because unlike a radio, cellphones don’t allow other workers to overhear interactions with rail controllers, or to correct misunderstandings about who may be using different sections of a track.
....

—Andrew Tangel contributed to this article.

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-railroad-administration-calls-for-immediate-amtrak-safety-reviews-1460000996

[gussmith]

1. New Level of Incompetence

This action is beyond tragedy, beyond comprehension. Amtrak has cornered the market on malfeasance.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Amtrak crash: state-of-the art safety gear was operational at time of fatal collision

Amtrak crash: state-of-the art safety gear was operational at time of fatal collision

Positive train control system was ‘functioning’ at site of Sunday crash that killed two workers, but did not slow locomotive or alert engineer of maintenance ahead

Gregg Levine

Wednesday 6 April 2016 14.44 EDT

A newly upgraded safety system and regulations governing track maintenance should have been enough to prevent a fatal collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a construction vehicle on Sunday.
....

The railroad industry’s state-of-the-art safety technology – a package of communications and engineering upgrades known as positive train control (PTC) – was in place and operational at the site of the deadly crash, an Amtrak spokesman confirmed. But some actions normally expected from the system did not occur: the alerting of the train’s engineer and the automatic slowing or stopping of the locomotive.

PTC “was installed and functioning on the track and the locomotive” involved in the Sunday crash, Craig Shultz, an Amtrak senior communications officer, told the Guardian. ... Light maintenance on active rail lines is not uncommon, according to Allan Zarembski, director of the railroad engineering and safety program at the University of Delaware. But, Zarembski told CNN, the presence of heavy construction equipment is.
....

Sunday’s fatalities were the second and third for workers on Amtrak’s North-east Corridor in just the last five weeks, according to the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, a union that represents track workers. After a death in early March, Amtrak said it enhanced its safety protocols to include a “zero-tolerance” policy for violations.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Feds confirm Amtrak failed to follow safety rules

Hat tip, Trainorders: PHL Inquirer: Feds confirm Amtrak failed to follow safety rules

Feds confirm Amtrak failed to follow safety rules

Updated: April 7, 2016 — 11:58 AM EDT

by Jason Laughlin, Staff Writer
[e-mail]
215-854-4587
@jasmlaughlin

A federal directive issued to Amtrak Wednesday night confirms the rail agency's workers weren't following basic safety rules when a weekend train crash killed two people in Chester.

The directive of action from the Federal Railroad Administration is the first official confirmation that safety rules weren't followed in the Sunday crash. Specifically, it highlighted concerns about the way personnel working on tracks follow safety standards. It stated both federal regulations and Amtrak's internal rules were not being followed at the time of the crash, according to information provided by a senior FRA official.
....

Sources with knowledge of the crash near Booth Street have said a communications lapse between changing shifts contributed to the crash. Two veteran Amtrak workers in or near a backhoe directly in the path of an oncoming train were killed. Multiple federal and agency rules and regulations are designed to prevent trains from traveling on tracks occupied by workers and their vehicles.

The FRA ordered Amtrak late Wednesday night to require all railroad maintenance workers and their supervisors to review safety rules applicable to their jobs. The regulatory agency also required Amtrak to review the rules governing communication between rail workers, their foremen and dispatchers. FRA also recommended that the rail agency conduct a similar safety review for all safety sensitive workers.

Here's a reply in the thread at Trainorders:

Date: 04/07/16 08:43
Re: PHL Inquirer: Feds confirm Amtrak failed to follow safety rul
Author: abyler

Another good article on Amtrak's policies about shunting tracks.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/in-transit/Amtrak-train-crash-mirrors.html

Hard to believe it is or was a controversy that a track occupied by MOW should be shunted to ensure the ATC prevents entry of misrouted trains!

Amazing too that this is really the same problem at Frankford Jct. - not using the existing capabilities of the 60 year old signal technology and its automatic braking features to protect workers, passengers, and railroad capital equipment.

Forget PTC. Every mention of it in an article is an infuriating red herring here. The existing ATC system with its nine speed codes is fully capable of being used to protect all restricting curves just like it protects restricting turnouts, and of being used to forbid entry into tracks out of service or fouled. The only reason given for not using it this way is money (i.e new code change point equipment would need to be installed at restricting curves, and work crews would need to have and use shunting cables and take the time to put them on). Apparently periodic catatrophes are considered to be cheaper than using the fail safe signal system already in place. Just a completely mind boggling attitude.

•Amtrak train crash mirrors Chester history
Jan 8 - 2:46 PM

•Feds had advised Amtrak to install safety backup systems
1:08 AM

•Workers likely failed to follow safety rules in Amtrak crash
Apr 6 - 1:08 AM

And a second reply to the Trainorders thread, from the same author:

Date: 04/07/16 08:58
Re: PHL Inquirer: Feds confirm Amtrak failed to follow safety rul
Author: abyler

http://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-railroad-administration-calls-for-immediate-amtrak-safety-reviews-1460000996

Wall Street Journal is now confirming that the foul time was given up by cell phone call.

Amtrak Mid Atlantic Division Dispatchers Manual reads:

"1.14 Cell Phones - The use of personal cellular telephones for the conduct of company business is prohibited. Cell phones may only be used for the purpose in the event of a failure of all other means of communication. Employees who must resort to their personal cell phones will upon submission of proper documentation, be reimbursed for their expenses.
"With regard to the use of cellular telephones by M/W foreman and other employees requesting foul time or form Ds, such employees must be directed to utilize the radio, except in the event that their particular location precludes radio transmission or reception."

I've worked on Amtrak's tracks in Chester with the MOW gangs under foul protection in 1996 on a nearly identical task as the one which got the two workers killed. I rather doubt that Chester is a radio dead zone because we used company radios there at that time in the days before cell phones, and I also doubt that the foreman who gave up track authority even bothered to try to use a company radio. I also doubt the dispatcher directed him to utilize the radio for the request. I am willing to bet that using cell phones to obtain and give up track authority was being done all the time, and that radios were rarely being used to do so. It is easy to slip into comfortable bad habits.

I have worked on a transit property in the past where it was procedure to call into the dispatcher to obtain track occupancy for certain activities. In these cases, the dispatcher would grant authority and would repeat over the radio to all train operators and others on the channel that track workers were going to be present at a certain location working under individual train detection or minimal flag protection. We would also give up authority via cell phone, and identical statements would be made by the dispatcher that track workers had now left the area and no longer needed to be watched for by crews. We had to use individual identification numbers to the dispatcher to confirm we had permission to make these requests. I kind of doubt that Amtrak's dispatchers are in the habit of doing radio repeats with requests via cell phone from MOW foreman.

Hopefully all of this is going to change for the better and safer soon!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/16 09:01 by abyler.

Feds had advised Amtrak to install safety backup systems
Updated: April 7, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT

by Jason Laughlin, Staff Writer
[e-mail]
215-854-4587
@jasmlaughlin

Federal agencies have repeatedly advised railroads to use backup safety precautions for workers on the rails after accidents hauntingly similar to Sunday's fatal Amtrak crash in Chester.

Sources with knowledge of the crash that killed two have said a communications lapse during a shift change contributed to workers' staying on the rails while safety precautions designed to route trains away from them were canceled.

This exact scenario, according to a 2014 Federal Railroad Administration safety advisory, has been an ongoing problem in railroad work.

"FRA is concerned about the infrequent, but repetitive incidents involving roadway workers being struck or nearly struck by trains that appear to be due to miscommunication," the advisory stated.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Amtrak crash shows U.S. anti rail-collision system may have gaps

World | Tue Apr 5, 2016 4:02pm EDT
Related: U.S.

Amtrak crash shows U.S. anti rail-collision system may have gaps

By Scott Malone

Sunday's fatal Pennsylvania Amtrak accident may have exposed possible blind spots in a nationwide collision prevention system that is meant to stop crashes on U.S. railroads.

Amtrak last year became the first U.S. railroad to fully install "positive train control" (PTC) systems on its routes {in the Northeast Corridor}, a congressionally mandated technology that uses antennae on locomotives and sensors on tracks to monitor trains' precise location and prevent collisions. ... A dilemma facing railroads is whether to spend funds expanding PTC systems to service vehicles like the backhoe involved in Sunday's crash, or put money into upgrades of aging rail infrastructure.

Officials are still investigating how the backhoe working on the tracks was struck by a Georgia-bound train in Chester, Pennsylvania, killing two construction workers and sending 35 people to hospital. ... It is not yet known whether the vehicle had a PTC device. Some railroads have considered installing them on maintenance equipment. It is not clear if Amtrak has done so, experts said.

"If you have a vehicle that's not riding the rails, but on the shoulder or across the rails or on rubber tires alone and you don't allow the circuit to know you're there, you're outside the PTC system," said Allan Zarembski, a professor at the University of Delaware's College of Engineering who specializes in rail safety.