I hope that everybody survives today's terrible train crash in Hoboken.
As somebody who works on trains every day I can imagine the horror.
Can members here who travel that route or who live in metro NY and post here please check in so we know you are ok?
I lived in northern New Jersey for awhile a number of years ago and took that exact train daily to Hoboken. I knew exactly where the train was located in the station by looking at the pictures.
I remember once, thinking to myself, while looking at the barriers that were supposed to stop a train, that these would never stop a moving train. Probably more as a cushion for one that might roll into it.
It's sad that one person died but luckily it looks like that is the only expected fatality.
I''m heading to Europe in just under two weeks and will be there for nearly the remainder of the year. I have quite a few train trips planned. The accident hasn't prevented me from taking any.
And Nigel....many of those trips will be in England. Perhaps I'll run into you.
Hi Nigel,
I live in the city, but have colleagues from Cambridge University Press who travel that route. Fortunately, they were all early birds that day or on holiday. Interesting article from the NY Times points out that New Jersey Transport was/is under audit from the Feds.
They've not even gotten into the train due to the damage to the station and possible abestos. This article outlines some of the latest news.
As after the AmTrak crash not long ago, the big question is about Positive Train Control. Evidently, AmTrak has installed it on the Northeast Corridor, but NJ Transit doesn't have it. Does the UK railway system use it anywhere?
And interestingly, there is a huge article re-imagining Penn Station. This is taking Cuomo's plans a bit further. But as anyone who works in Manhattan knows, the big railway issue is the need for new tunnels under the Hudson. Governor Christie who put the kaibosh on them a few years ago. He's recently seen the error of his ways--at least in this regard.
Pam
Good to hear, Pamela.
Here in the UK we have two overlapping systems, AWS and TPWS.
A quite good explanation of the two systems is in the Railway Technical Web Pages at http://www.railway-technical.com/sigtxt7.shtml
No system is perfect but excellent train drivers backed up by AWS and now TPWS makes for a very safe network.
Christie had to stop it because the plan was to leave the State of
New Jersey paying for all contractor overage and delay costs.
Rose,
That was the original plan. After he raised objections the feds offered to take over all the over runs. Despite this he still backed out of it in favor of short-term political gains, screwing over thousands of commuters and the long-term economic growth of the region.
