Category: Regional Agencies
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After 4 passengers died in the Metro-North wreck on December 1, suspicion rapidly focused on the engineer after it became apparent that he either dozed off or was in some sort of “highway hypnosis” state before the crash—but does that put him at fault, or is he just human? According to reporting online by Murray…
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Two weeks after Metro-North (M-N) Railroad’s fatal crash on December 1, questions continue to surface regarding the railroad’s attention to safety. Significant changes in the line’s safety procedures were implemented startlingly quickly after the wreck, within days in some cases, leading observers to wonder why they couldn’t have been in effect earlier and prevented the…
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Following the fatal train wreck on December 1, the United States Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on December 12 ordered an “extraordinarily rare” review of Metro-North Railroad’s operations and “safety culture”, according to reporting by Matt Flegenheimer in The New York Times (Dec. 13). The FRA dubbed the review, expected to last 60 days, “Operation Deep…
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Acting quickly on December 8 after the Federal Railway Administration ordered enhanced safety precautions following the fatal Metro-North crash on December 1, Metro-North Railroad said it had enhanced its signal systems to warn trains approaching the slow-speed curve at Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx. In addition, if the train is within the curve and exceeding…
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If your subway train is late in New York, your boss may not understand, and a note from Mom may not further your career. However, in New York City, there’s an alternative: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will be happy to write the excuse note, and Mom won’t have to after all. Over the last…
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The National Transportation Safety Board’s on-site team investigating the December 1 fatal crash on Metro-North Railroad has completed its initial work and has returned to Washington; it may return to gather additional information. On December 9, it released a report on progress so far: Inspection of the train that crashed has uncovered no mechanical anomalies;…
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The Federal Railroad Administration issued an emergency order on Friday, December 6, ordering Metro-North Railroad to implement enhanced safety practices at certain track locations, according to reporting by Matt Flegenheimer in The New York Times (published online, Dec. 6). The order appears to apply to locations where the speed limit decreases by more than 20…
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The common operation of “push-pull” trains by railroads again came under investigation as it was revealed that the control cab at the front of the Metro-North train that crashed on December 1 did not have an “alerter” system in use. Such a system monitors the engineer’s actions and, if he or she does nothing for…
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According to the lawyer for the engineer who was running the Metro-North train that crashed on December 1, killing 4 passengers and injuring many others, the engineer experienced a momentary loss of awareness as he was zooming down the rails in a 70-mph speed zone; the train apparently failed to reduce speed in time as…
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New York City Subway ridership set a modern one-day record on Thursday, October 24, 2013, when 5,985,311 riders were counted entering the system, according to reporting by Matt Flegenheimer in The New York Times (Nov. 21). This is the highest one-day count since the subway started recording daily ridership in 1985. Subway officials say there…
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