Northeast Regional 188 - Accident In Philadelphia

American Airlines added two additional round-trip flights Thursday from D.C. to LaGuardia Airport to meet the uptick in demand, spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said. Elizabeth Wolf, a spokeswoman for Delta Air Lines, similarly wrote in an e-mail that the airline has seen an increase in passengers booking its D.C.-to-New York shuttle service. As a result, Delta has increased the size of its planes traveling the route.

Both airlines say they have not increased their prices as a result of the unexpected rush of customers. Still, a search online shows that booking a last-minute flight from D.C. to New York could cost upwards of $1,000.

“You’re not seeing anything above the norm,” said Brett Snyder, who writes the Cranky Flier, a travel blog. “It’s just doing what airlines do, managing supply and demand. This is already an extremely expensive market for buying last minute flights. … The fluctuations that you’re seeing probably have to do with the fact that the planes are more crowded.”

If commuters don’t want to pay those steep prices, some private bus companies — much cheaper but also far slower than planes or trains — added additional vehicles to accommodate customers that had planned to take a train along the East Coast.

Greyhound Lines, which owns Greyhound and BoltBus, has increased its bus offerings this weekend on routes between New York and D.C.

The company has added a total of 16 Greyhound buses to its existing schedule — 10 buses have been added to the New York-to-Philadelphia route and six to the New York-to-D.C. route, according to spokeswoman Ashley Sears. BoltBus secured an extra 10 buses to make the trips; eight to Philadelphia and two to D.C.

Until Amtrak service resumes, Sears said Amtrak customers can exchange their tickets for Greyhound bus tickets.

MegaBus has not added additional buses, but said trips along that corridor sold out Wednesday and are expected to do the same Thursday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/loca ... rak-crash/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Arlington wrote:

glennk419 wrote:Reports are that both an Acela and a SEPTA commuter train were hit by "projectiles" within an hour or so previous to this incident. Despite the mayor's assertion that there is no connection between incidents, I'm sure that is all being very closely scrutinized.

The only (available) thing that makes me doubt the rock-strike theory is that the NTSB (Mr Sumwalt) didn't include it in its/his narrative where Mr Sumwalt describes the train tipping 10 degrees and then the recording going blank. Not that it must have been detected by the camera if it happened, just that so far the circumstantial evidence supports rock-strike, but the available narrative does not.

Could be that the officials don't want to let the perps know that they are "on to them"...

There are some pretty stupid people in the world, but I suspect if a rock drop were related, the perps would have probably made the connection themselves and already suspect someone was on to them.

Regarding immediate postings by Messrs. Arlington and GlennK, if a projectile caused the visible damage to the Engineer side windshield of #601, I have full confidence that the Board will be able to determine such.

However, I can understand why Mayor Nutter wished to discredit such speculation out of hand. He wisely wishes to keep his city from being named a Defendant in what would likely be groundless litigation.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:However, I can understand why Mayor Nutter wished to discredit such speculation out of hand. He wisely wishes to keep his city from being named a Defendant in what would likely be groundless litigation.

Wise politically (doesn't want city kids blamed 'cause their parents vote), but frankly if it is stuff dropped from bridges with low fences, I'd think that those injured would be perfectly within their rights to try to include the City of Philadelphia as a defendant. Or it may be that it was a bridge crumbling onto the trains directly.

For those not aware, it's actually a 100% possible to suffer retrograde and anterograde amnesia from a concussion. I have suffered both types after having major concussions. The bigg issue is that his unwillingness to talk could lead to information being lost. Concussions can also effect the formation of long term memories. After my last serious concussion I wrote down as much as I could remember at the time. Almost all the details of the next 24 hours before and after the injury were gone within a month. I had pieces and moments, but most of it was reconstructed from what other people told me.

But keep in mind this was a serious concussion, the type where I had symptoms for months afterwards.

n2cbo wrote:

Arlington wrote:

glennk419 wrote:Reports are that both an Acela and a SEPTA commuter train were hit by "projectiles" within an hour or so previous to this incident. Despite the mayor's assertion that there is no connection between incidents, I'm sure that is all being very closely scrutinized.

The only (available) thing that makes me doubt the rock-strike theory is that the NTSB (Mr Sumwalt) didn't include it in its/his narrative where Mr Sumwalt describes the train tipping 10 degrees and then the recording going blank. Not that it must have been detected by the camera if it happened, just that so far the circumstantial evidence supports rock-strike, but the available narrative does not.

Could be that the officials don't want to let the perps know that they are "on to them"...

He also said that he was not presented with any video prior to that timeline he presented & was given the info on the way over to the press conference.

Arlington wrote:

glennk419 wrote:Reports are that both an Acela and a SEPTA commuter train were hit by "projectiles" within an hour or so previous to this incident. Despite the mayor's assertion that there is no connection between incidents, I'm sure that is all being very closely scrutinized.

The only (available) thing that makes me doubt the rock-strike theory is that the NTSB (Mr Sumwalt) didn't include it in its/his narrative where Mr Sumwalt describes the train tipping 10 degrees and then the recording going blank. Not that it must have been detected by the camera if it happened, just that so far the circumstantial evidence supports rock-strike, but the available narrative does not.

Unless it was deliberately "Lie by omitted" in order to preserve an ongoing criminal investigation (not tip off the folks that they're being looked for).

Doubtful, I know, but possible.

jamesinclair wrote:

Until Amtrak service resumes, Sears said Amtrak customers can exchange their tickets for Greyhound bus tickets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/loca ... rak-crash/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This insistence by several intercity bus companies to accommodate displaced passengers by accepting rail tickets seems to be in no one's best interest. If I'm a traveler, why not just request a refund from Amtrak for my scheduled train that doesn't run, and get a bus ticket for about one third of the price, if that? Am I missing something?

ryanov wrote:That is one obviously likely scenario. I'm not sure how possible that is to do. When you have two severe curves, can you really lose track of one of them? I'm not an engineer.

Loss of situational awareness --> spatial disorientation.

"When someone fixates on one task or becomes preoccupied with work or personal matters, they lose the ability to detect other important information. Early detection of both fixation and preoccupation is essential to safe operation."

Missing a visual cue, even on a familiar route, can be deadly.

It may be that a windshield strike put him off task and contributed to the accident chain. Or not. The NTSB will figure it out.

First Lawsuit Filed In Philadelphia Train Derailment
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/0 ... erailment/

“We brought this lawsuit on his behalf, not only for common law negligence claims but for a claim which allows injured railroad workers to bring a suit for lost wages and pain and suffering against their railroad employer due to the railroads negligence,” said Myers.

Re "first lawsuit filed" - YGTBSM! They don't even know what happened yet - might be 100% Amtrak's fault, might be 100% engineer's fault, might be 100% an outside 3rd party's fault, might be equipment related, or some combination of any of those. Or something else entirely.

It sounds like the guy was indeed seriously injured, but whenever I see an immediate lawsuit like that I can't help feeling it's more about getting big money than anything else.

Ridgefielder wrote:This article, from this morning's Wall Street Journal, is so far the best explanation I've read of a) how regular ATC could have prevented the wreck and b) why it wasn't installed on this curve.

Amtrak Crash Might Have Been Avoided by Tweak to Signal System
The existing signal system can be set up to prevent a train from exceeding speed limits
May 14, 2015 9:52 p.m. ET

A safety system to stop speeding trains had been installed on the southbound tracks near the derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight people, but not on the northbound side, where the Amtrak train hurtled off a sharp curve at over 100 miles per hour.

People familiar with Amtrak’s signal system said speed-control measures used elsewhere by the railroad could have prevented Tuesday’s crash, which also injured more than 200.

Amtrak officials said they were concerned enough about the curve to install the added protection on the two southbound tracks. But it wasn’t installed on the northbound side because officials didn’t believe the tracks leading to the curve would allow trains to build up enough speed to topple over.

http://on.wsj.com/1EJHy0r

boy, if there was ever a more damning sentence, I can't think of one. Obviously, terribly, and tragically, that was a wrong conclusion on the part of the officials.

Considering the plaintiff is an Amtrak employee this appears to be more of a "standard procedure" thing. In order to get the compensation, etc. that they are entitled to as employees they technically need to file a lawsuit even if there are no "hard feelings" if that's the way to describe it.

Something else to think about ...

NTSB says the engineer applied the emergency brakes ... how do they know this?

They haven't read the data recorder yet (that was mentioned at the press conference; it's still being "analyzed" ...) ... so all they have is the witness camera, which would have captured the sound of the air escaping the pipe.

So, unless they are going by the position of the brake handle, all they have is the sound of the emergency brake application ...

Is that enough to determine if it was done by the engineer himself vs done by the alerter mechanism timing out?

65 seconds from the start of the acceleration phase, is right around the time the alerter would have started alerting, then timed out and started the brake application.

(and is this a penalty application, or an outright emergency application, to stop the train?)