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    AnarchyOfTasteAleksander Chan
    5/14/15 8:31am

    Anyone know why is it so hard to control these trains? Why are these sensors so difficult to install and test?

    If google can make self-driving cars with impeccable safety records, then similar systems that control trains should be far easier, right?

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      HoldenCashAnarchyOfTaste
      5/14/15 8:40am

      It’s a question of funding, not technical ability.

      Republicans are trying to destroy America and defunding improvements like this is one way.

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      SoMuchStupidAnarchyOfTaste
      5/14/15 8:41am

      Well. All trains already have something to prevent going to fast for the situation. It's called a conductor. Same thing airplanes, submarines, and cars use. I person with their hand on the throttle.

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    IkerCatsillasAleksander Chan
    5/14/15 8:58am

    I wonder how many people who comment on these posts about Amtrak have actually taken the train, especially on routes beyond the NEC. I know anecdotal evidence doesn’t count for much, but having gone from Raleigh, North Carolina to Newark by Amtrak, I can tell you that my experience of the ridership was that it was a lot less well off than people have been suggesting.

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      Ruby_de_la_BoobyIkerCatsillas
      5/14/15 9:11am

      I take Providence to NYC fairly often. Easiest way to get to NYC. Hardly ever any delays. Clean cars. I can nap/read/watch TV. Beers in the cafe car. Plenty of room. I can show up 10 minutes before the train arrives. I am an Amtrak fan.

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      CitizensnizzipsIkerCatsillas
      5/14/15 9:19am

      I seriously doubt there’s a ton of people saying the Amtrak experience is awesome. Even people who ONLY take the NEC knows it sucks.

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    CleverUsernameAleksander Chan
    5/14/15 9:12am

    Once again, Conservative defunding process in action:

    1. Fail to secure necessary funding for continuing operations of a government program.

    2. Watch the government program fail.

    3. Suggest that government programs shouldn’t be funded because they suck, ignoring that you caused them to suck.

    4. Campaign for privatization of government program; deny obvious need for government to run said program.

    5. Completely defund program.

    6. Watch campaign donors take over the services that the program provided, but with worse service and higher cost, making millions for the senior management and nothing for the employees.

    7. Get more donations from those managers.

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      InvalidnostCCCPCleverUsername
      5/14/15 9:45am

      Exactly.

      My favorite phrase about public vs private operation is that: “Yes, the public sector might be incompetent; but the private sector is just incompetence combined with greed. At least the public sector is well-meaning incompetence” (Jeremy Hardy).

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      flamingolingoCleverUsername
      5/14/15 10:03am

      Please ignore the dummy questioning the “obvious need of passenger trains”. It’s that kind of “only profit counts” mindset that leads, among other things, to remote/rural areas becoming cut off from utilities like highspeed internet and public transportation. For his ilk, something can only be deemed useful or necessary to society if it enriches some jerk in a suit.

      Anyway, I fully agree with you. You can see the consequences of this defund/blame/defund/privatize vicious cycle in the UK, which began privatizing rail service decades ago. Costs have risen, leading to higher fare prices and much bigger public subsidies.

      Not to mention the fact that private companies controlling formerly public infrastructure can an do go bankrupt. In that case, taxpayers are left holding the bag.

      The only people this process benefits are a rentier class of 1%ers whose greed is parasitically destroying their host country.

      Public goods and services like transportation, mail delivery, and schooling which the state is funding or subsidizing with tax dollars should be controlled by the state as well. These weird private-public deals are inherently a conflict of interests since private companies care more about profit than serving the public.

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    Misteaks were madeAleksander Chan
    5/14/15 8:28am

    The likelihood of the 2015 deadline being met is about nil since the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut Amtrak’s funding further. Now Amtrak will be further hard pressed to install these safety systems where it’s needed. However due to this crash, I imagine the Port Richmond section will be next.

    Bring back the PRR and Reading Lines.

    GIF
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      Tim RMisteaks were made
      5/14/15 8:32am

      I’m from Reading,PA and the damage Conrail and Amtrak did to the prestige of RR is pretty much irreversible.

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      HoldenCashMisteaks were made
      5/14/15 8:41am

      Amtrack would be as good as the best trains in France or Japan if Republicans didn’t defund it to keep it from competing with the oil/auto industry.

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    BlergAleksander Chan
    5/14/15 8:35am

    America

    Needs

    To

    GIF

    Spend

    More on infrastructure

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      N51fanaticAleksander Chan
      5/14/15 8:32am

      Systems Engineer who implements PTC for a living, ask away

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        sober-ishN51fanatic
        5/14/15 8:34am

        How does it actually slow the train down?

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        N51fanaticsober-ish
        5/14/15 8:41am

        Basically, through use of the sensors on the train and on the wayside (tracks), the system knows where the train is on the tracks. The characteristics of the track/property/right of way have been mapped into the system. The system knows where trains are in front of said train, where curves are coming, inclines, stations etc. If at anytime the train is exceeding the speed restriction set in the system, the system sends a signal to slow the eff down to the wayside radio which then sends it to the train. The system knows how fast and how long it takes to brake said train so that it stops before an accident happens.

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      Booger DavisAleksander Chan
      5/14/15 9:29am

      In the National Transportation Safety Board’s ongoing investigation into Tuesday night’s deadly Amtrak derailment, investigators have found that a technology designed to prevent trains from traveling at dangerous speeds had not been installed on the stretch of track where Amtrak 188 derailed.

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        QuickWeevilBooger Davis
        5/14/15 10:03am

        Thanks, Captain Obvious!

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        Booger DavisQuickWeevil
        5/14/15 11:03am

        No need to thank me since I didn’t help you in the slightest

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      SoothsayersAleksander Chan
      5/14/15 10:05am

      So basically, amtrak needs to money to update its trains and tracks to make them safer and effectively take it out of the stone ago, but republicans decide the best thing to do is cut finding because....they like our train system to be the laughing stock of the world?

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        ARP2Soothsayers
        5/14/15 10:41am

        So they can privatize it, and get money from those donors.

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      PeteRRAleksander Chan
      5/14/15 11:44pm

      Amtrak had installed the “Positive Train Control” system on the track where a speeding train fatally crashed Tuesday, but the system was not switched on.

      The system could have automatically slowed the Amtrak 188, but instead it jumped the rails, killing 8 people and injuring more than 200.

      According to a top congressional aide, Amtrak told the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday that the PTC system was installed along the section of track outside Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, where the crash occurred, but it was not operating.

      The aide said Amtrak informed the committee it has encountered delays turning the PTC on throughout its system because of the need to get the bandwidths required to upgrade the radios to a higher MHz, which improves reliability.

      Amtrak has worked out a deal with the Federal Communication Commission to get the broader bandwidth either late last year or early this year, an aide said.

      Link

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        dothedewAleksander Chan
        5/14/15 10:36am

        In the National Transportation Safety Board’s ongoing investigation into Tuesday night’s deadly Amtrak derailment, investigators have found that a technology designed to prevent trains from traveling at dangerous speeds had not been installed on the stretch of track where Amtrak 188 derailed.

        I know there is a lot of train track in the US, but you would think this fact would not be something that needed to be uncovered in an investigation, especially as it concerns the busiest rail corridor in the US.

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