Charges reinstated against engineer in Amtrak wreck

A judge in Philadelphia on Tuesday reinstated criminal charges against the engineer in the fatal 2015 derailment of Amtrak Northeast Regional train 188 that killed eight passengers and injured more than 150.

Amtrak Acela breaks apart at high speed

An Amtrak Acela Express train on its way from Washington to Penn Station in New York broke apart at high speed Tuesday on its way through Maryland.

Probers focus on truck driver in fatal Amtrak GOP crash

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are looking into whether a garbage truck drove around crossing gates before it was struck by an Amtrak charter carrying dozens of Republicans to a retreat Wednesday, killing a passenger in the truck and and injuring others.

Commentary

Safety, translated from planes to trains?

Amtrak is “adopting a safety management system approach used by commercial aviation” as it responds to the Dec. 18, 2017 derailment of Amtrak Cascades train 501 that killed three people and injured more than 60, a railroad spokesperson told me Jan. 29.

Amtrak 501 wreck: Engineer “missed” approach sign

The engineer of Amtrak Cascades 501, which derailed on Dec. 18, 2017 in DuPont, Wash., has told the National Transportation Safety Board that he does not recall seeing an approach sign with a speed restriction placed two miles before the 30-mph curve upon which the derailment occurred.

Amtrak improves Michigan line

Amtrak says rail infrastructure improvements along its Chicago–Detroit/Pontiac line have been made to enable safe, faster travel along the Michigan passenger and freight corridor.

Feds reject Gateway Tunnel financing plan

Federal Transit Administration Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams outlined a series of concerns regarding an updated financial plan for the Hudson Tunnel project in a letter to New York State Director of Budget Robert Mujica on Dec. 29.

HrSR coming to Illinois

Amtrak should begin higher-speed rail (HrSR) service between Chicago and St. Louis this summer, the result of a $2 billion project that is in the final phase of construction.

Commentary

Can Amtrak avoid creative destruction?

Watching Washington, December 2017: Ignore Professor Plum in the library with a candlestick as being responsible for Amtrak inefficiency. Refocus on reform—and clues leading to Amtrak’s new President Richard Anderson, who ideally possesses the determination, means, motive and opportunity to correct decades of fuzzy accounting, impose financial transparency and purge waste.

UPDATED DEC. 20: Overspeed cause of Amtrak Cascades fatal derailment

Three people were killed and more than 70 were injured as an Amtrak Cascades train derailed early Dec. 18 while traversing a curve leading into an overpass at Interstate 5 southwest of Tacoma, Wash., sending a locomotive and passenger cars crashing onto the highway below.

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