Philadelphia Train Derailment

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by BeamOn

I have been going back and for from Portland to the Bay Area via Amtrak/Coach Starlight forl fifteen years. When our daughter was going to school in Boulder, CO. took the Zephyr a few times to Denver. Both these trains have killer scenery that I will miss if I am the driver.

We went from Glenwood MD to Glenwood Springs CO on Amtrak in a bedroom first class the scenery as you say was fantastic and the food simply delicious. The reason was because the flight left BWI at 6:30 AM and it was during the time when they wanted you at the airport 2 hours before flight time.

[merrylander]

One wonders why trains only have a single driver/engineer? All commercial flights have a pilot, co-pilot and sometimes even an engineer in the cockpit. What if the driver needs to use the bathroom, does he stop the train? They need to get that idiot Mica off the transportation committee.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by BeamOn

I believe that this Amtrak train had just under 300 people on board, just about what an average wide body jet can carry. So in terms of efficiency, airplanes are far more efficient and economical mode of transportation compared to trains. But what about accessibility to people living in small towns even within in a high traffic corridor? Greyhound?

Wonder how much we subsidize the airlines with TSA, airport construction and maintenance, air traffic control, emergency services and other infrastructure investments.

There is tremendous passenger traffic in the NE corridor between Boston and Washington. Amtrack has 80% of it, airlines have 20%. The corridor is Amtrack's cash machine, if it was all there was to Amtrack, they would be rolling in money.

Efficency? Operational efficiency varies depending on how full the vehicles are, how many stops, and all sorts of things. But just comparing basic fuel efficiency, looks like trains get maybe 1.1 miles per gallon, while a 747 gets something like a third of that.

(numbers gleaned from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_...transportation )

[Rajoo]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

There is tremendous passenger traffic in the NE corridor between Boston and Washington. Amtrack has 80% of it, airlines have 20%. The corridor is Amtrack's cash machine, if it was all there was to Amtrack, they would be rolling in money.

Efficency? Operational efficiency varies depending on how full the vehicles are, how many stops, and all sorts of things. But just comparing basic fuel efficiency, looks like trains get maybe 1.1 miles per gallon, while a 747 gets something like a third of that.

(numbers gleaned from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_...transportation )

Last month I took Amtrak between DC and Raleigh and the train was full in both directions but ran close 2 hours late either way on around a 6 hour trip. This was caused mainly by right of way issues rather than Amtrak's inefficiency.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by BeamOn

Last month I took Amtrak between DC and Raleigh and the train was full in both directions but ran close 2 hours late either way on around a 6 hour trip. This was caused mainly by right of way issues rather than Amtrak's inefficiency.

Because Amtrak only owns track from DC to Boston where the Accela runs*. So as beggars on CTX, BNSF, and other lines tracks they take second place behind freight traffic. We got bumped onto sidings a few times on our trip out west. The Europeans think we are nuts.

*Excellent track most of it being steel&concrete ties and welded rail. BNSF is doing a lot of that as well.

[mech986]

:lurk: Whoops, guess there's no smilies here.

Sad to say, that train had no business running 100mph, and having done that in just over 11 minutes from its last stop. Engineer has got plenty to explain, yet has a very convenient "no recollection" of anything about the trip.

Wonder if they have video cams inside the engineer cabin area?

[nailer]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Because Amtrak only owns track from DC to Boston where the Accela runs*. So as beggars on CTX, BNSF, and other lines tracks they take second place behind freight traffic. We got bumped onto sidings a few times on our trip out west. The Europeans think we are nuts.

*Excellent track most of it being steel&concrete ties and welded rail. BNSF is doing a lot of that as well.

I know we are.

BTW, putting citizens after freight is American Fascism in action.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by mech986

:lurk: Whoops, guess there's no smilies here.

Sad to say, that train had no business running 100mph, and having done that in just over 11 minutes from its last stop. Engineer has got plenty to explain, yet has a very convenient "no recollection" of anything about the trip.

Wonder if they have video cams inside the engineer cabin area?

They thought about that but did not do it. However why just one man at the controls? And they used to have Dead Man throttles, take your hand off and the throttle shuts down.

[donquixote99]

The problem is more likely that he kept his hand on the throttle while nodding out.

[merrylander]

^^^That could be because the Black Box says a minute before the crash it sped up from 70 to over 100.