Speed Control Was Installed, Not On at Time of Amtrak Crash

[B2G]

Speed Control Was Installed, Not On at Time of Amtrak Crash

A system that could have remotely slowed the Amtrak train that crashed wasn’t enabled.


By Alan Neuhauser

May 14, 2015 | 6:23 p.m. EDT

A computer system that allows speeding trains to be slowed remotely – potentially averting deadly derailments – was installed in the section of track in Philadelphia where Tuesday’s fatal Amtrak crash occurred but had not been turned on, congressional sources tell U.S. News.

“The PTC was installed in the section of track where the Philadelphia accident occurred, but for whatever reason had not been turned on, the PTC in that section,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., tells U.S. News, referring to "positive train control."

His account was corroborated by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.

“The tracks had PTC, the train had PTC,” Harris says.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/14/exclusive-train-control-was-installed-turned-off-at-time-of-amtrak-crash-congressmen-say

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is outrageous. WHY was it not turned on? Perhaps it should be on, always. ALL THE TIME.

[yeoman6987]

2. Well egg on a lot of faces today.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Not just egg, unfortunately.

There's a lot of blood too...

[Lochloosa]

5. Blood.

[B2G]

4. Fucking stupid government contracts and red tape.

"According to Amtrak, PTC was installed in the section of track where the Philly accident occurred," a committee source writes in an email to U.S. News. "There have been delays in 'turning it on' associated with FCC dealings and getting the bandwidth to upgrade the radios from 900 MHz to something higher (for more reliability)."

Amtrak's application for the bandwidth needed to use the positive train control system was approved in "early March," an FCC official says.

“The spectrum Amtrak wanted to use in 2011 was owned by someone else," the official says. "It took them three more years to negotiate with private parties to acquire the needed spectrum for the Washington, D.C.-to-New York corridor. Once Amtrak finalized their application, the commission approved it within two days.”

Amtrak President Joseph Boardman said Thursday the technology was installed where the crash occurred, according to The Associated Press, but it had not been turned on because the system needed to be tested further."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Perhaps they can consider this awful crash "further testing"???

[joshcryer]

7. Private ownership of spectrum is such BS.

[B2G]

8. I just knew someone would find a way

to blame this clusterfuck on the private sector.

Well done, and in record time!! Seize all companies of the world!!

[joshcryer]

11. Nope, I'm just saying get rid of de facto leases.

Technically it's not privately controlled as the FCC retains all rights, but the way the leases work create a clusterfuck of paperwork. Odds are they were doing everything they could to get the spectrum.

You blame the red tape, I blame the way leases are handled. If there's an important public safety concern, the FCC should've been able to simply override any spectrum lease on a fast track. It can't be that the private spectrum owners wanted to get as much out of the transfer as they possibly could and fought tooth and nail for spectrum that was obviously a public safety concern.

It's not so much red tape in that the FCCs hands were and are tied by these lease arrangements.

[B2G]

12. And Amtrak blames the delays on the FCC

God knows what really happened.

[joshcryer]

13. FCC had no authority here.

“Railroad representatives said that obtaining spectrum is a critical challenge in high-density urban areas,” the General Accountability Office, the independent agency that audits federal agencies, concluded in an August 2013 report. “Without acquiring sufficient spectrum, railroads may be unable to adequately test their PTC systems, potentially causing further delays.”

Lacking deals to buy spectrum, Amtrak executives and other public transportation officials began calling on the FCC to provide access to unused bands of spectrum in the 220Mhz frequency. Had the rail lines sought other spectrum, their safety system operations would not have been compatible with the private firms that were already operating on that frequency, they argued.

But the FCC declined their requests, telling Amtrak that it did not have legal authority to bequeath spectrum, while insisting that the rail operator could find licenses in the 220Mhz band on the private market.

http://www.ibtimes.com/amtraks-failure-gain-wireless-spectrum-rights-stymied-safety-technology-1924499

Giving Environmentel LLC all the negotiating power over this spectrum killed 8 people. Maybe Amtrack could've shopped around for a more expensive license, but that's the nature of the market, for you. Always the lowest bid. Safety be damned.

[LanternWaste]

14. Reductio ad absurdum. Well done, and in record time!!

"Seize all companies of the world!!"

Reductio ad absurdum. Well done, and in record time!!

[jberryhill]

15. Because Amtrak does not have the right to use the radio frequencies the system uses

[Raine1967]

9. I am skeptical of this until the NTSB finishes its investigation.

It says that the system needed further testing, which is terrible, but these republicans are already making it sound like they have finished the investigation, when that is not the case.