PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A safety system that could have prevented the deadly Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia is not installed on Amtrak’s Downeaster service route because it does not meet traffic requirements.
The technology is called positive train control and is designed to prevent the human errors behind nearly 40 percent of train accidents. The system combines wireless radio, global positioning system signals, track sensors and computers to give engineers and dispatchers real-time information about train speed and location.
The service route runs through Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, said there are no plans to install the system in Maine and New Hampshire because the number of passenger trains on the line falls below a mandatory minimum, The Portland Herald reported (https://bit.ly/1IC3UaB ) on Friday.
Quinn said the Downeaster has to offer two more daily trips to qualify for the system. A 2008 law mandates that the system only be installed on lines that are used by freight and passenger trains that make more than 12 trips daily. The Downeaster operates 10.
National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters on Wednesday that the technology could have prevented the Amtrak crash in Philadelphia by forcing the train to stay below the speed limit. The system was installed but was not turned on. It was still being tested, Amtrak said.
Quinn said Amtrak locomotives on the Downeaster line are equipped with over-speed technology, which keeps trains from exceeding the 79 mph speed limit by more than a few miles an hour.
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