Kind of glad Amtrak is slower than Europian Trains

[Trogdor]

Many European trains don't even have room for two people in the cab.

 

[Nathanael]

As for the others... we can agree to disagree on a few topics.. you mention the Automatic train stop in Europe and yet the FRA does not allow high speed trains like the one in Spain to operate without automatic train stop. Do the European countries require trains running only at speeds under 80 mph to operate without ATC? (I am asking that as a legitimate question, I do not know the answer).

The Spanish crash was specifically caused because the Spanish regulators allowed trains to operate on "low speed" track without ATC. And the operator proceeded to drive along the "low speed" track at very high speed.
Now, the regulations are different in each European country. But most of them have stronger "automatic train stop" and "overspeed prevention" requirements than the United States (or at least the US before the PTC mandate goes into effect). The UK requires "TPWS", which automatically stops trains which are speeding, for nearly all operations with line speeds faster than *25 mph*.

The US allows pure paper-based signalling systems -- no electric or mechanical safeguards whatsoever -- up to 59 mph, and there's a *lot* of lines like that, whereas that is extremely uncommon anywhere in Europe. The US allows signalling systems which can be completely ignored by crazy speeding train engineers for line speeds up to 79 mph, and that is how most of the lines in the country operate.

The Spanish crash was caused by a train driver on a "low-speed" line (like most of the lines in the US) speeding. A crash like that one could happen on pretty much any freight-owned railroad line in the US. At least until PTC is installed.

Such a crash would be much less likely to happen on the lines equipped with PTC (or ATS or ATC), which is mostly the Amtrak-owned lines (NEC, Michigan line, Empire line), some of the commuter railroads (NJT, SEPTA, etc.), and various urban rail systems.

The EU-wide push to install ERTMS/ETCS will install speed control on pretty much every line, with the exception of museum operations, isolated industrial railways, etc.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Hey Ryan, how did the CS reach 94.7 mph? And the EB actually has a really fast moving average, 57.6 mph! That's pretty amazing for an Very-LD train, anywhere in the world.

 

[VentureForth]

My question is where was the other driver? What was he doing? Was he even in the cab?

What makes you think there was another driver?

Almost all amtrak trains operate with one engineer. I would think the high speed passenger trains all run with one driver.. all though that's just a guess.

Because many early reports like this one said so. None us are part of the investigation - we all rely on the news.

 

[Ryan]

Hey Ryan, how did the CS reach 94.7 mph? And the EB actually has a really fast moving average, 57.6 mph! That's pretty amazing for an Very-LD train, anywhere in the world.

I'm sure we didn't, probably a glitch where the GPS lost track for a second and then "jumped" to catch up.

 

[jis]

Because many early reports like this one said so. None us are part of the investigation - we all rely on the news.

Yeah, I noticed that and was a bit puzzled. My first question was, was the second driver in the head cab, or somewhere else on the train deadheading as a relief driver. The latter does happen. I have seen such on Amtrak for example, even on an Acela, where a deadhead engineer was camping out in the rear cab ready to take over in case the operating engineer timed out on a late running train.

In general two drivers in the cab is highly discouraged in HSR trains since studies have shown that the second driver is a major distraction.

 

[PaulM]

Many European trains don't even have room for two people in the cab.

It wasn't exactly high speed but we did have a nice chat approaching Innsbruck.