Amtrak train crashes in Philadelphia, wreckage 'pretty bad'

/rant on/ I don't see why they are calling it a "crash" when actually it's a derailment /rant off/

An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, and several people appeared to be injured.

Train 188, a Northeast Regional, had left Washington, D.C., earlier Tuesday. The front of the train was going into a turn when it shook.

An Associated Press employee, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said it appeared it went off the tracks. He said he was fortunate to be at the back of the train and the front of it "looks pretty bad." He said he saw "some people mangled up."

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So far MSNBC says no death reported...

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So far MSNBC says no death reported...

As of 0400 gmt NBC is reporting at least 5 fatalities, more than 100 transported to hospital.

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As of 0400 gmt NBC is reporting at least 5 fatalities.

Sorry to hear....

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:(((

Five Dead In Amtrak Train Crash Outside Philadelphia

At least five people died when an Amtrak train bound for New York City derailed outside Philadelphia tonight, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said, with six cars overturning and the engine separating from the rest of the train.

Amtrak reported that there were approximately 238 passengers and five crew members on board. Dozens of passengers have been taken to local hospitals for injuries.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/amtrak-train-crashes-philadelphia/story?id=30997124

A short clip of Amtrak #601, the locomotive involved in yesterday's derailment, being rolled out and tested at the Transportation Technology Center, Pueblo, CO, in 2013.

Amtrak ACS-64 #601

Recent news claims that the train had hit 100mph shortly before the derailment.
Speed limit on the main track was 70mph, only 50mph on the curve it derailed on.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Well that should not have really been possible.

Amtrak
Alstom's and PHW's Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES) system is installed on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston. ACSES enhances the cab signaling systems provided by PHW Inc. It uses passive transponders to enforce permanent civil speed restrictions. The system is designed to prevent train-to-train collisions (PTS),protection against overspeed and protect work crews with temporary speed restrictions.

GE Transportation Systems' Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) is installed on Amtrak's Michigan line, allowing trains to travel at 110 mph (180 km/h).

The Siemens ACS-64 are fairly new and definitely had PTC(positive train control) installed.

Hopefully they will find out just what went wrong.

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From the New York Times:
Amtrak Train That Derailed Was Going 100 M.P.H., Officials Say; 7 Killed

PHILADELPHIA — The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing at least seven people, was barreling through a sharp turn at 100 miles an hour or more, at least twice the speed limit on that stretch of track, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The train’s speed was recorded in the “black box” data recorders that were recovered from the wreckage, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation, while emergency crews searched for more survivors and victims of a wreck that injured more than 200 people.

The recorders were taken to Amtrak’s operations center in Delaware to download information like the train’s speed, images from a video camera on the engine and a log of when the train’s operator used tools like the brake, throttle and horn, officials said at a news conference.

What We Know
â–ª The Northeast Regional train, No. 188, was traveling from Washington to New York when it derailed around 9:30 p.m.
â–ª The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that the train was traveling at more than 100 miles an hour or twice the speed limit in that part of the corridor.
â–ª More than 200 people, including eight now in critical condition, were taken to hospitals, officials said.
â–ª Officials have not accounted for everyone on board.

Developing coverage of the Amtrak derailment.

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US media report that the train was travelling over 100mph (160km/h) as it entered a sharp curve in the track - twice the local speed limit.

From BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32716462

Why You Can’t Talk About The Amtrak Derailment Without Talking About Our Infrastructure Crisis

At least six people have died and more than 140 people are injured in the wake of the deadliest Amtrak derailment in recent history. Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 rolled off the tracks while rounding a bend near Philadelphia, according to NBC Philadelphia, while carrying 238 passengers and five crew members. As officials sort through the wreckage and try to determine the cause of the tragedy, the Northeast Corridor — Amtrak’s busiest and most profitable route between Boston and Washington — will be shut down for an indeterminate amount of time.

Already the densest rail route in the U.S., aging Northeast Corridor trains are grappling with more riders than ever. The route has steadily broken ridership records every year for more than a decade — last year, 11.6 million people rode a Northeast Corridor train. But Amtrak has been starved of the funds required to keep up with this increased demand. The Northeast Corridor is shouldering a backlog of repairs expected to require $4.3 billion in fiscal year 2019, while federal funding is expected to dwindle to $872 million.


CREDIT: Andrew Breiner

House Republicans will debate another massive cut to Amtrak on Wednesday. But even if they keep Amtrak funding levels where they are, Congress is guaranteeing more dysfunction and more breakdowns in the system as maintenance costs rise. Those breakdowns can range from creating minor inconveniences, like being 20 minutes late to work, to potential catastrophes, like Tuesday’s derailment.

It’s not yet clear what caused Train 188 to go off the rails, but it is the most recent in a series of train derailments on the route. Metro-North, a commuter line shares tracks with Amtrak, has suffered several serious derailments over the past two years. Besides posing serious dangers to riders, these derailments set off a ripple effect that paralyzes the entire system, causing untold setbacks for riders and businesses. Northeast Corridor trains carry “a workforce that contributes $50 billion per year to the United States gross domestic product,” according to the Northeast Corridor Commission.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Why You Can’t Talk About The Amtrak Derailment Without Talking About Our Infrastructure Crisis

Guess it would have been too much to hope that the corpses had time to cool before the issue got politicized. :(

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Well that should not have really been possible.

Amtrak
Alstom's and PHW's Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES) system is installed on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston. ACSES enhances the cab signaling systems provided by PHW Inc. It uses passive transponders to enforce permanent civil speed restrictions. The system is designed to prevent train-to-train collisions (PTS),protection against overspeed and protect work crews with temporary speed restrictions.

GE Transportation Systems' Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) is installed on Amtrak's Michigan line, allowing trains to travel at 110 mph (180 km/h).

The Siemens ACS-64 are fairly new and definitely had PTC(positive train control) installed.

Hopefully they will find out just what went wrong.

Yeah, I'm also wondering just how this could have happened. The Northeast Corridor has the most advanced train control system on the continent.

I am also stunned by how that one Amcoach was so completely and utterly destroyed. If you don't know it was a train car, you can't really tell what the twisted pile of stainless steel was.

I have been somewhat avoiding the detailed coverage of the crash, though.

(Yes, I said crash. First it derailed and then it crashed.)

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Why You Can’t Talk About The Amtrak Derailment Without Talking About Our Infrastructure Crisis

Guess it would have been too much to hope that the corpses had time to cool before the issue got politicized. :(

Yeah, really.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

From TV news reports here this morning the train was doing 170km/h when it hit the 80km/h curve and the resulting force on the outer rail caused that rail to separate from the track. :-)

Cheers.

Why You Can’t Talk About The Amtrak Derailment Without Talking About Our Infrastructure Crisis

Guess it would have been too much to hope that the corpses had time to cool before the issue got politicized. :(

Yeah, really.

Actually the budget cuts came before the accident, not the other way around. Republicans in Congress have been trying to defund this and that since taking office in early 2011. They want Limited Government, like was under the Articles of Confederation from 1783-1791...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Vic I really don't want to see this in Politics, so please stop!

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

One hundred and seven mile per hour in a fifty miles per hour zone. It amazes me that a modern train can be driven with such recklessness and get away with it.
The driver had to know that he was doing well over the local limit - you don't have in-cab signalling so he would be "head up" rather than "head down", he's passed through a few stations, by a few yards, and round a few curves so he would know where he was, and so would know that the local speed limit was considerably below 100mph, so what was he playing at?

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Chris has posted the cause - speed.
The train was doing 106mph at a point where the speed limit is 50mph....
Having had a quick look at a map of the area it is obvious that the the train has passed through a number of curves, junctions, stations, yards which would give an attentive driver his position, and likewise an attentive drive would know that the speed limit would be somewhat less than 100mph, so would have taken action some way back to reduce train speed - so what was the driver doing in the minutes before the crash?
I know there are technological solutions like ERTMS, ETCS (vastly complex and expensive), to the simpler TPWS/AWS, but in reality with any of these systems it comes down to the driver being aware of his location, and "route knowledge" - if the driver is in control of his train he will be reacting to the location and be slowing down for that curve, even if the (in-cab) signalling system is telling him to accelerate....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Suicide by train?
Yes I know he survived.
If I could walk home I would.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt