Train Safety

25mph speed limit sign with blurred street with car and palm trees in background

Why Not Hold Traffic Safety to the Same Standards as Transit?

Many transportation modes, such as trains and airplanes, have robust, system-wide response mechanisms to investigate safety concerns when incidents occur. Why is traffic safety still seen largely as an individual responsibility?

July 6, 2022 - Greater Greater Washington

New York Subway

Speed Limits Increase for New York Trains

Brooklyn N and R trains can now move at faster top speeds, but only when there aren’t stopped trains ahead.

December 20, 2018 - The New York Times

Bay Area Rapid Transit

BART Rolls Out Upgraded Earthquake Alert System

The new sensor technology gives riders up to a minute to drop, cover, and hold on.

October 9, 2018 - Mercury News

Waze

Drivers: Beware Following GPS Navigation Instructions Too Closely

For the second time at the same railroad crossing in Atherton, California, a motorist followed his GPS navigation onto Caltrain tracks. In both cases, the motorists fled their vehicles before being hit by an oncoming train.

February 13, 2018 - (Palo Alto) Daily Post

Will GOP Reconsider Redirecting Amtrak Funding After Train Crash?

Republican lawmakers got a first-hand lesson in train safety Wednesday when their chartered Amtrak train hit a trash truck at a grade crossing in Virginia, killing one in the truck. Trump's infrastructure plan redirects Amtrak and transit funding.

February 2, 2018 - Bloomberg News

Loss of 'Situational Awareness' Caused Fatal Amtrak #188 Crash

The nation's transportation safety board determined that a distracted engineer caused one of the worst crashes in Amtrak's history, killing eight and injuring over 180 people just north of Philadelphia.

May 18, 2016 - RT&S (Railway Track & Structures)

Three Es of Grade Crossing Safety: Focus on Enforcement

Education, Engineering, and Enforcement. MTA police are taking the last one very seriously at grade crossings they monitor on the Metro-North and LIRR lines since the February crash in Westchester County that killed five passengers and a motorist.

April 13, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

America's Faulty, Dangerous Transportation Systems

Safety is an escalating issue in America across the maritime, air, highway and rail networks, as revealed in this extensive investigation by The Center for Public Integrity and News21.

October 1, 2010 - NEWS21

Rail Safety Bill Mired In Amtrak Politics

Federal legislation that would require and partially fund Positive Train Control technology, which, had it been installed by Metrolink, would have prevented the Sept. 12 crash, is held up in the Senate by a fiscal hawk wary of funding Amtrak.

October 1, 2008 - The Wall Street Journal

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