Fasten Your Seatbelt

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mtrak Jumps the Track

In December an Amtrak train in Washington State went off the tracks killing three people and injuring about 100 others. The cause of the accident is still a mystery. The main questions: Why was the train — on its first run — going 80 mph in a 30-mph zone? Why wasn’t Positive Train Control (PTC) a system that automatically slows trains going too fast not installed on that stretch of track?

Why it was traveling over the speed limit is not known. But we have a pretty good idea about why it didn’t have PTC to slow it down when it did: It’s the fault of Congress which approved PTC but “didn’t give any money for it ” according to Allan Zarembski director of the Railroad Engineering and Safety Program at the University of Delaware.

It also seems the tight curve where the train derailed was supposed to be straightened to allow high speed without hazard. But since it would cost $412 million to rebuild it they decided to lower the speed limit to 30 mph instead.

One thing to keep in mind about such accidents: they’re big news but rare. In Amtrak’s case from 2006 to 2014 only five people were killed in train accidents. In an average year there are only seven passenger fatalities on US trains overall. Or 0.43 per billion passenger miles. That’s a lot safer than cars where the risks are 17 times higher.