Expert: Underfunding Blocked Installation Of Device That Could've Prevented Train Derailment
By Molly Daly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - On Wednesday, an increase in funding for Amtrak requested by congressional Democrats died in committee.
One of the world's foremost scholars on transportation system engineering says Tuesday's high-speed train derailment could've been prevented, but chronic underfunding of the rail system has delayed the installation of a device that would've automatically lowered the train's speed.
It's called "positive train control" -- a device that reduces a train's speed to an appropriate one for its location.
"The system is checking on him, how fast he's going," explains University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus Vucan Vuchik . "If he is exceeding that, it'll pull him back immediately. It pushes you into the safe zone, and nobody derails if he goes 50 miles an hour."
Vuchik says the government was right to mandate the device's industry-wide installation by the end of this year, but provided no funds to get the job done:
"You cannot impose on a system all kinds of safety devices without any financing, because you have to eat into everyday operations, or into training of your engineers' time. You cannot operate a system when there's less and less funding."
But that's how Amtrak has been operated for the past 45 years.