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| Metrolink statement to LAT Re: Metrolink collides with freight (680854) | |||
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Metrolink statement to LAT Re: Metrolink collides with freight |
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Posted by trainsarefun on Sat Sep 13 20:45:56 2008, in response to Re: Metrolink collides with freight, posted by timz2 on Sat Sep 13 20:34:29 2008. There's a google map of the area in question here, with the line traced out.LAT reports: I spoke earlier to Francisco Oaxaca, a spokesman for Metrolink. The following is an overview of the systems in place that are supposed to help trains safely travel tracks in the Southland. A quick review: The accident happened on a stretch of single track that runs through the Santa Susana Pass. There is double track immediately to the south of the crash site near the Chatsworth station (it runs from about DeSoto Avenue to Rinaldi Street). To the west of the pass, there is about 7,600 feet of double track near Simi Valley and another 8,000 feet of double track about five miles south of the Moorpark station. In Los Angeles County, Metrolink owns the tracks used by the Ventura County-bound trains. That means it's also up to Metrolink to maintain the tracks and signals and to dispatch its trains. The Metrolink dispatch center is located in Pomona. At the center, dispatchers look at computer screens with schematics of all the rail lines in the area on which they can electronically monitor the progress of trains -- dispatchers can also see trains on tracks owned by others, such as the Union Pacific. Electronic signals are sent to the signals along the tracks from the center. It is up to the engineer on the Metrolink train to see the signal and abide by it. “The engineer sees the signal, and then will contact the conductor over the radio and will call out the signal he or she has observed and the location and the conductor will repeat back that they did receive the communication from the engineer,” Oaxaca said. I asked him if Metrolink knows if such a communication occurred on Friday. “That’s going to be part of our investigation and that’s what we’re working with the NTSB on,” Oaxaca said. The train that crashed on Friday had one engineer and one conductor, as is usual for Metrolink. The engineer was killed, according to Metrolink, but Oaxaca said that the conductor, who survived, is believed to have been in the rear car of the three-car train. “I haven’t seen any statement from the conductor yet,” Oaxaca said. Metrolink has 20 of its trains cross the Santa Susana Pass each day. Oaxaca did not know the number of freight trains that use the tracks (Amtrak also has service on those tracks), but said the Union Pacific freight train is a regular train. “That is a daily freight train," he said. "It’s a regular traveler on those tracks…They don’t fall on a regular schedule like we do. It’s my understanding that an encounter of our train and the freight train is a fairly regular occurrence -– not necessarily in that particular location. It can be in other locations depending on how early or late that freight train is coming.” Note to readers: Obviously, there is still a lot of information that has not been released about the crash of Metrolink Train 111. Metrolink officials said earlier that the train crash was their fault and that the engineer ignored a red signal telling him to stop. --Steve Hymon |
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