Amtrak: Mandated braking system will make rails safer

The Federal Railroad Administration ordered Amtrak on Saturday to immediately install an electronic braking system at the Frankford curve that - if it had been in place last week - likely would have prevented the train derailment that killed eight people and injured more than 200.

Amtrak officials said the system would be in place by the time the damaged line is reopened, perhaps as early as Tuesday, and "most certainly will be safer." Service between Philadelphia and New York remains suspended through Monday, affecting thousands of commuters.

Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman has said flatly that the accident would not have happened if the braking system had been in service on the northbound track.

The speed-control system uses electric circuitry in the track to automatically brake a train that exceeds the posted speed limit if the engineer doesn't respond, Amtrak said Saturday.

The speed control has been in use for years on the southbound curve; Amtrak officials have said they had not anticipated a need for the system on the northbound side.

The safety orders came as the NTSB widened the scope of its inquiry, asking the FBI to examine possible projectile damage to the windshield of Amtrak Train 188. The windshield of a nearby SEPTA commuter train, whose engineer reported being struck by a rock or gunfire in the minutes just before the Amtrak train derailed, will also be examined. Both windshields bear similar bull's-eye-like circular breakage patterns.

In addition, the engineer of an Amtrak Acela train reported that something was thrown at the side of his train in the same area Tuesday, causing window damage.

"We're gathering information about both of those events," NTSB spokesman Paul Knudson said.

The engineer whose SEPTA train was hit was expected to be interviewed by federal investigators this weekend, SEPTA said Saturday.

An assistant conductor on the doomed Amtrak train told the NTSB she overheard radio communications in which her train's engineer, Brandon Bostian, told a SEPTA engineer that Train 188 had been struck by something. Moments later, the train rapidly accelerated and derailed.

Bostian, 32, suffered a concussion when his train careered off the track. He told the NTSB in an interview that he did not remember anything about the crash, officials said. He has declined to answer questions from Philadelphia police.

Boardman said the railroad had not installed the technology on the northbound tracks because it assumed trains just leaving 30th Street Station would be going slower than those barreling south from New York. The speed limit before the curve is 80 m.p.h.; the curve itself is 50 m.p.h.

The train that derailed Tuesday had accelerated in the 65 seconds before the crash to more than 100 miles an hour.

Called Automatic Train Control, the system is in use at three other locations on the Northeast Corridor: at sharp curves in Elizabeth, N.J., Baltimore, and approaching Washington.

Along with ordering the electronic braking system, the Federal Railroad Administration also instructed Amtrak to analyze all curves along the corridor. Dramatic curves requiring a significant drop in speed like the Frankford curve must have "appropriate technology" installed immediately.

The order also directs Amtrak to increase the number of speed-limit signs.

Massive emergency repairs over the weekend were aimed at getting the Amtrak system restored by Tuesday, reopening service between New York and Philadelphia. Crews worked to replace damaged rails and overhead power lines called catenaries.

In addition to the mystery projectile issue, investigators want to know why Train 188 suddenly accelerated toward the sharp Frankford turn, causing the derailment.

NTSB investigators were obtaining recordings of the conversation between the train operators, Knudson said.

Two other trains were apparently struck Tuesday by projectiles in the area within a half-hour of the derailment. About 9:05, an Amtrak Acela train was struck. At 9:10, something hit the engineer's windshield on SEPTA Train 769 near the North Philadelphia Station, said Jerri Williams, SEPTA spokeswoman.

That northbound train, carrying 80 passengers, was pulled from service and stopped just above the North Philadelphia Station, she said. It was waiting for a relief train when Amtrak Train 188 passed it, heading north toward disaster on an adjacent track.

Minutes later, Train 188 derailed.

It is unclear what hit the SEPTA train, Williams said.

Train operators regularly report projectile strikes in the area north of 30th Street Station, she said, estimating it happens several times a month. They usually cause dents, but once or twice a year, a damaged train is pulled from service.

"I think it's vandals or kids," she said. SEPTA tries "to identify the culprits involved," she added.

Paul Pokrowka, legislative director of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union, whose members include Amtrak engineers, said moving trains were frequently the target of thrown objects. In his 15 years as an engineer, he has seen and heard of numerous items thrown, including rocks and bottles.

"Have my members been shot at? Yes," he said.

"The locomotives have been shot at with a gun, rifle, pistol, we're not exactly sure," Pokrowka said. "Rarely have these people been caught."

A New Jersey ballistics expert told The Inquirer that determining what hit the Amtrak train would require chemical analysis, a close look at shatter patterns, and some complicated physics.

"A projectile doesn't have to be a bullet," said James Storey, who has done ballistics analyses for New Jersey law enforcement. "It can be a bird. It can be something thrown."

Even a slow-moving object can cause big damage if it strikes a speeding vehicle, he said, and the most sturdy glass can crack if hit with enough force.