acelafan
Conductor
An article on businessweek.com talks about stronger (and heavier?) new trains.
The rule, which starts taking effect in March, requires stronger front-end frames on new passenger railcars and some locomotives to help prevent them from collapsing or telescoping on impact.
A 1996 crash between two New Jersey Transit trains killed both trains’ engineers and one passenger. The same year, a Maryland commuter train collided with an Amtrak train, killing three crew members and eight passengers. In 1993, near Gary, Indiana, a moving Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District train crashed into a stationary one at 32 miles per hour, killing seven people.
Is this requirement going to be another obstacle to getting faster train service in the US, or is it a needed design change? The article notes accidents from 1993 and 1996...has the US been working on accident prevention like our friends overseas instead of crash survivability? I know PTC is very expensive. Just curious if we will always have the idea of building "tanks" instead of preventing mishaps.
The rule, which starts taking effect in March, requires stronger front-end frames on new passenger railcars and some locomotives to help prevent them from collapsing or telescoping on impact.
A 1996 crash between two New Jersey Transit trains killed both trains’ engineers and one passenger. The same year, a Maryland commuter train collided with an Amtrak train, killing three crew members and eight passengers. In 1993, near Gary, Indiana, a moving Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District train crashed into a stationary one at 32 miles per hour, killing seven people.
Is this requirement going to be another obstacle to getting faster train service in the US, or is it a needed design change? The article notes accidents from 1993 and 1996...has the US been working on accident prevention like our friends overseas instead of crash survivability? I know PTC is very expensive. Just curious if we will always have the idea of building "tanks" instead of preventing mishaps.