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Cause of Amtrak Train’s Speeding Still Unknown, Panel Is Told
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators told Congress on Tuesday that they were still working to understand why an Amtrak train was traveling at double the designated speed when it derailed in Philadelphia last month, killing eight people and injuring about 200.
Investigators said during a hearing of the House Transportation Committee that they were examining several potential causes. The possibility of human error was a focus of the hearing, but the investigators said they were also looking into whether there had been any mechanical problems.
The train, en route from Washington to New York on May 12, was traveling at 106 miles per hour as it entered a curve where the speed limit was 50 m.p.h. Christopher A. Hart, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency was continuing to examine data from the crash, as well as the cellphone of the train’s engineer, Brandon Bostian, 32.
Mr. Hart said that Mr. Bostian had given regulators the pass code to the phone and that the agency had access to its data. But he added that technological issues made it difficult to determine whether the phone had been turned on at the time of the accident. “It’s been far more complicated than we anticipated,” he said.
Several lawmakers expressed frustration at the pace of the investigation. “My concern is that N.T.S.B. made definitive statements after the accident, but here we are weeks later and they still can’t say what led to the accident,” said Representative Jeff Denham, Republican of California and the chairman of the committee’s railroad subcommittee.
Democrats and Republicans on the panel also clashed over whether funding shortfalls played any role in the crash. Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and others in his party repeatedly questioned whether Amtrak had enough money to carry out changes to make trains safer, including the installation of technology known as positive train control.
Mr. Hart reiterated the safety board’s position that the accident could have been prevented if positive train control had been installed. Amtrak has installed the technology in parts of the Northeast Corridor, which stretches from Washington to Boston. But the system, which can automatically slow or stop a train to prevent accidents, was not in operation on the stretch of track where the crash took place.
After a deadly commuter train accident in California in 2008, Congress mandated that the technology be installed throughout the nation’s railroad system by the end of this year. But that has proved to be a challenge both for railroads and regulators, in part because of the complexity of the technology, which provides real-time information to locomotives, engineers and train dispatchers about train speed and location. That allows trains to automatically respond to sensors placed along the tracks.
Congress is considering extending the deadline to 2020 at the urging of some freight and passenger rail systems.
Mr. Hart said the safety board was examining other measures that could prevent deaths in train crashes, including installing seatbelts, recording audio in cockpits and examining the crashworthiness of trains. Many Amtrak trains were built in the 1970s.
Sarah Feinberg, the acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, said her agency was also preparing a series of proposals that would address train speed, distractions in the cab and further training for engineers. She did not give a timetable for possible recommendations.
Joseph H. Boardman, Amtrak’s chief executive, told lawmakers that the railroad would have positive train control fully installed by Dec. 31. He said the railroad had made a number of changes since the Philadelphia accident to ensure the safety of passengers, including installing inward-facing cameras in train cabs.
Dennis R. Pierce, the national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, told lawmakers that the union had concerns about the cameras because railroads could use them to punish employees. “We just think there needs to be some controls in place on the use of cameras, and currently there are not,” Mr. Pierce said.
Despite the crash, Mr. Boardman said that the Northeast Corridor was the safest train route in the country.
“In no other place is a comparable volume of traffic moved with such a solid record,” he said. “In addition to a thorough training, oversight and coaching system for our crews, we have a layered signal system that provides trains with multiple levels of protection.”
Democrats criticized Republicans for moving to cut Amtrak’s budget the day after the crash. House Republicans approved $1.14 billion in funding for Amtrak next year, about $262 million less than the current level and well below the $2.45 billion requested by the Obama administration.
But Republicans rejected the suggestion that Amtrak’s funding had contributed to the derailment. Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, pointed to the railroad’s losses on its food service and the bonuses given to employees. “Why can’t they spend 10 percent of what they lost on food service on P.T.C.?” he asked, referring to positive train control.
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