Deadly 2011 Union County train wreck prompted calls for more technology on U.S. tracks

A 2011 collision that killed two train operators in the Union County town of Mineral Springs prompted stronger calls for railroad companies to use a 45-year-old technology that could have prevented derailments such as the one Tuesday night in Philadelphia in which eight passengers died.

The May 2011 rear-end collision of two CSX freight trains in Mineral Springs and a 2012 collision of two Union Pacific trains in Oklahoma led the National Transportation Safety Board to add the technology to its 2013 “Most Wanted List,” according to NTSB documents.

The NTSB says the technology, called positive train control, can stop many rail accidents before they happen.

But most of the nation’s railroads will not meet a Dec. 31 deadline for installing the collision avoidance technology. Congress in 2008 required that railroads install positive train control by the end of this year, and although the rail industry has made progress on the $9 billion system, equipping 60,000 miles of track and 22,500 locomotives with the technology has proved to be complicated.

The technology has to work across not only the seven largest freight railroads, but also 20 commuter railroads, Amtrak and dozens of smaller carriers. It requires 36,000 wireless devices that relay information to train crews and dispatchers from signals and track switches.

It also must work in densely populated regions where multiple rail lines intersect and are heavy with passenger and freight traffic, such as Chicago, Southern California, New York and New Jersey.

“Each of these systems has to be able to talk to each other,” said Ed Hamberger, the president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, an industry group.

Even lawmakers who months ago wanted to hold the industry to the 2015 deadline have softened their position in recognition that the system simply won’t be ready.

Hamberger told reporters Thursday that the industry needs another three years just to get the equipment installed, and two more to make sure it works. Of the 60,000 miles of track where the system is required, he said only 8,200 miles would be ready by year’s end.

A bill approved by the Senate Commerce Committee in March would give railroads until 2020 to complete the task. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who wrote the legislation that contained the 2015 deadline, said a five-year blanket extension was not the answer.

“In my view, that is an extremely reckless policy,” she said in a statement Thursday. Feinstein has introduced a bill that would extend the deadline on a case-by-case basis.

The NTSB also opposes a blanket deadline extension and has used the 2011 Mineral Springs wreck to illustrate the urgency. The Union County collision happened shortly before 3:45 a.m. on May 24 that year. Neither train carried hazardous materials, but thick black smoke rose from the wreckage until midday.

James Gregory Hadden, 36, a locomotive engineer, and Phillip Crawford Jr., 33, a conductor, died in the collision. Two crew members aboard the other train, which was stopped on the track, were injured.

“When I woke up, it was a noise like nothing you ever heard before,” one nearby resident told the Observer at the time. “I said, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ I thought I was dead.”

In response to inquiries from the Observer and other media Thursday about where positive train control technology is installed and what the timetable is for finishing the installation, Amtrak issued a statement saying that it’s “in the process of implementing” the safety technology.

Amtrak said it now uses an “automatic train control” system that’s in service throughout its Northeast Corridor that ensures trains comply with the signal system. Automatic train control notifies the engineer when it receives a more restricting signal and applies the brakes automatically if the engineer does not respond, Amtrak said.

Amtrak said it is installing a form of positive train control that goes beyond signal enforcement. Called the advanced civil speed enforcement system, it uses transponders installed in the tracks that can be programmed with specific speed limits, Amtrak said. If the engineer doesn’t comply with the programmed speeds, a warning is sent. If the engineer doesn’t acknowledge or reduce speeds, the system applies the brakes, Amtrak said.

Amtrak has installed the technology on the entire 156-mile New Haven-Boston leg of the Northeast Corridor and two segments south of New York, but the system is in service on only 50 miles of the 226-mile route between Washington and New York.

Amtrak said it has spent $110.7 million since 2008 to install positive train control technology and plans to have it installed on the entire Northeast Corridor by December. Amtrak’s statement didn’t mention other parts of the country.

The NTSB said that “each death, each injury, and each accident that PTC could have prevented, testifies to the vital importance of implementing PTC now.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Deadly 2011 Union County train wreck prompted calls for more technology on U.S. tracks."