Category Archives: Rail accidents

Public safety funding, Rail accidents, Rail crossings

Senators Call for More Funding to Improve Safety at Rail Crossings

Repost from The Albany Times Union

Senators push for safety: Schumer, Blumenthal unveil their plans to improve rail crossings

By David McCumber, Hearst News Service, February 15, 2015
This February 4, 2015 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) board member Robert Sumwalt(L) and other members of the investigation team, view a damaged rail car involved in Metro North train accident in Valhalla, New York. Safety on one of America's busiest commuter rail services was under the spotlight Wednesday after a packed passenger train slammed into a jeep, killing six people north of Manhattan. It was the worst of three deadly crashes in less than two years on the Metro North line that carries around 280,000 passengers a day. The woman driver of a jeep, which became stranded on the tracks, and five rail passengers were killed in the February 3 rush-hour accident, which ripped up tracks and ignited a major explosion. Fifteen other people were injured, seven of them seriously, in what should have been a monotonous but totally safe journey home to the suburbs after a busy working day in America's largest city. AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / NTSB == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: "AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / NTSB "/ NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / NO A LA CARTE SALES / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==--/AFP/Getty Images ORG XMIT: New York Photo: -- / AFP
This February 4, 2015 members of the NTSB investigation team view a damaged rail car involved in Metro North train accident in Valhalla, New York. Safety on one of America’s busiest commuter rail services was under the spotlight Wednesday after a packed passenger train slammed into a jeep, killing six people north of Manhattan. It was the worst of three deadly crashes in less than two years on the Metro North line that carries around 280,000 passengers a day. The driver of a jeep, which became stranded on the tracks, and five rail passengers were killed in the February 3 rush-hour accident, which ripped up tracks and ignited a major explosion. Fifteen other people were injured, seven of them seriously, in what should have been a monotonous but totally safe journey home to the suburbs after a busy working day in America’s largest city. AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / NTSB

Washington – Reacting to a safety threat both regional and national, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Richard Blumenthal announced new federal legislation Sunday to improve safety at rail crossings like the one at which six people died in an accident on Metro-North’s Harlem line in Valhalla, Westchester County, earlier this month.

“The pain is still fresh … and Sen. Blumenthal and I feel compelled to act,” Schumer said as the two Democratic senators announced the bill at a Grand Central Station news conference. “We must improve safety at rail crossings for the sake of our drivers and our rail passengers.”

In 2013, more than 200 people died nationwide in 2,096 rail-crossing accidents, and the rate has held steady at about 2,000 accidents a year for several years. Over the decade from 2005 to 2014, there were 341 accidents in New York state, causing 59 deaths and 96 injuries, according to Federal Department of Transportation records.

The legislation would provide about $800 million over four years to local governments, states and the federal railroad and highway administrations to improve crossing safety, by focusing on engineering fixes, public education and safety enforcement.

Among the bill’s provisions is $100 million a year for four years to revive a tool provided to the Federal Railroad Administration by Congress in 2008 — but never implemented. It is a grant program designed to provide funding to states for specific engineering and technological fixes, public education and targeted law enforcement.

“It’s very unfortunate that Congress has neglected these programs,” Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said in an interview later Sunday. “Programs that the federal government had instituted to remedy these gaps … have gone unfunded and ignored.”

Blumenthal said that of the 212,000 rail crossings nationwide, nearly half have no active warnings — no lights, sounds or barricades, just a stop sign. “What you have are death traps for the unwary and unwarned,” he said. “We’re using 19th-century technology in the 21st century.”

He said the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Highway Administration have failed to focus on the problem. “They have not sounded the alarm,” he said. “They have been as silent about this danger as the unprotected crossings themselves.”

The bill would also:

  • Reauthorize yet another defunct FRA program to help states and communities relocate rail lines to fix glaring safety problems, providing $25 million per year for four years;
  • Increase funding for the Federal Highway Administration’s Railway-Highway Crossing Program, which provides for “separation or protection of grades at crossings, the reconstruction of existing railroad grade crossing structures, and the relocation of highways to eliminate grade crossings.” The $50 million per year for four years provided by the bill is in addition to the fund’s current budget of $220 million per year.
  • Increase FRA’s manpower to focus on grade-crossing issues;
  • Require the FRA to analyze new technology the public can use to report grade-crossing dangers;
  • Strengthen the federal government’s collaboration with Operation Lifesaver, a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to rail-safety education.

Blumenthal has been one of the Senate’s most strident advocates of increased rail safety, particularly since a spate of injuries and fatalities in accidents on Metro-North in 2013. He has been sharply critical of enforcement lapses at FRA, which regulates passenger and freight rail safety.

Schumer and Blumenthal are optimistic that the bill will find bipartisan support. “Many of these crossings are in states with Republican senators,” Blumenthal said. “And this bill can more than pay for itself if it reduces accidents. The 2,000 accidents each year — nearly one every three hours — cost $2.2 billion in property damage alone.”

“Too many innocent victims, drivers, train passengers and railroad employees have died,” Blumenthal said Sunday. He said these tragedies “are preventable … but without the decisive steps we urge, rail grade crossings will continue to be accidents waiting to happen.”

Rail accidents, San Francisco Bay Area

Train Collides With Truck Carrying Gasoline In Contra Costa County

Repost from The Contra Costa Times
[Editor: This happened just outside the Point Edith Wildlife Area and less than a mile from the Waterbird Regional Preserve.  I have not been able to determine what, if anything, the train was carrying.  If you hear more on this, please send me an email (rogrmail at gmail dot com).  – RS]

Contra Costa: Union Pacific Railroad train collides with truck

Bay City News, 02/01/2015
Google Street View
View from Waterfront Road toward Solano Way. (Google Street View)

A Union Pacific Railroad train collided with a tractor-trailer carrying gasoline in Contra Costa County on Saturday night, a spokesman said.

The collision occurred shortly before 10 p.m. at Waterfront Road and Solano Way, Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Aaron Hunt said.

The intersection is northeast of Martinez and east of Pacheco Creek.

The train crew and truck driver were not injured, Hunt said.

On Sunday, trains were running on the line where the collision occurred, he said.

The collision remains under investigation.

Derailment, Double shelf couplers, Rail accidents

Collision and derailment in Missoula rail yard – ‘double shelf couplers’ helpful?

Repost from The Missoulian
[Editor: Significant quote: “the cars were rigged with double shelf couplers designed to prevent individual cars from detaching and potentially causing punctures.  ‘This safety feature of the tank cars worked properly, resulting in all 30 cars rolling on their side(s), as designed,’ Lewis said in a written statement.”
Here is more about double shelf couplers.  And note p. 23 of a 2010 Transport Canada study which found that “Double shelf couplers also have disadvantages: sometimes string of ’empty’ tank cars derail.”  – RS]

Montana Rail Link: Trains collide, tank cars derail in Missoula

By Kim Briggeman, December 16, 2014
derailement in Missoula
The first of 30 derailed tank cars in the Missoula rail yard is put back on the tracks Tuesday morning by a Montana Rail Link crew. The stationary tank cars were rerailed after being hit by a loaded car at low speed. Michael Gallacher

An early Tuesday morning train collision in the Missoula rail yard resulted in the derailment of 30 empty tank cars but no injuries or spills.

Montana Rail Link officials said the accident occurred about 4 a.m. when a rail car loaded with company scrap metal made low-speed contact with a stationary empty tank car coupled to 29 others.

MRL spokesman Jim Lewis said the cars were rigged with double shelf couplers designed to prevent individual cars from detaching and potentially causing punctures.

“This safety feature of the tank cars worked properly, resulting in all 30 cars rolling on their side(s), as designed,” Lewis said in a written statement.

Lewis said there was minimal equipment damage. The loaded car did not derail and was moved from the site.

Crews with heavy equipment started putting the tank cars back on track before noon and worked until 8 p.m. They’ll resume Wednesday morning, Lewis said.

Mainline service was not interrupted, and the cause of the incident is under investigation.

MRL has released no further word on its investigation into a collision east of Missoula near the mouth of the Blackfoot River on Nov. 13. That crash resulted in the derailment of three locomotives and 10 empty grain cars.

Both engineers in one locomotive were hospitalized and released. The shells of the grain cars remain along the tracks by a trestle below the former Milltown Dam as salvage work continues.

Derailment, Rail accidents, Track geometry

Derailment not human error: report cites ‘track geometry’ issues

Repost from The Missoulian

MRL report cites ‘track geometry’ issues in July derailment of Boeing fuselages

By Kim Briggeman, November 6, 2014
110614-mis-nws-boeing-derailment
A raft floats by Boeing 737 fuselages on the Clark Fork River during recovery efforts in July. TOM BAUER, Missoulian

Montana Rail Link has ruled out human error as the cause of a July 3 train derailment that destroyed six Seattle area-bound Boeing 737 fuselages along the Clark Fork River in Mineral County.

Simulations performed by a contractor hired by MRL were inconclusive, but company spokesman Jim Lewis said Wednesday they “suggest a track geometry issue.”

Railroads are required to conduct an investigation after derailments and file their findings with the Federal Railroad Administration.

An FRA spokesman said Wednesday the agency’s own investigation of the July wreck is ongoing and could take anywhere from two months to a year. The report by the railroad company is used as “another piece of evidence,” Mike Booth said.

The 19-car derailment occurred in a remote stretch a mile above the mouth of Fish Creek on the south bank of the Clark Fork River. The ruined fuselages were shipped a few miles downstream to a landing at Rivulet, where they were scrapped out later in July.

The initial investigation by Montana Rail Link, the Missoula-based railroad operated by industrialist Dennis Washington’s Washington Cos., found no evidence of operator error either on the train or in the loading or stacking of the train cars.

The fuselages themselves were shipped from Wichita, Kansas, where they’re fabricated by Spirit AeroSystems.

Safety and accident prevention have always been a top priority of Montana Rail Link, Lewis said.

“We have numerous employee safety programs, as well as rigorous track inspection policies,” he said. “In addition, we invest millions of dollars in track maintenance annually to operate the safest railroad possible.”

Boeing continues to use the Wichita company as its sole supplier of fuselages, sending the blue-green plane shells more than 1,500 miles to Renton, Washington. Almost half the route follows BNSF and MRL tracks in southern Montana.

Parts of Boeing 777 and 747 hulls were also involved in the wreck but were undamaged. They were sent on their way to a separate plant in Everett, Washington.

The smaller 737s are in unprecedented demand. Two assembly lines in Renton each completes a 737 roughly every working day, a total of 42 a month. Boeing has announced it will open another line next year in the same plant to build the 737 Max, upping the total capacity to 60 a month.