Derailment victims are remembered before trains roll again Monday

Amtrak and SEPTA trains were scheduled to roll again early Monday over newly restored rail lines that replaced those mangled by the derailment last week of a Washington-to-New York commuter train.

Both transit agencies said a monumental repair effort since Tuesday's fatal accident at Frankford Junction had enabled service restoration to tens of thousands of commuters left stranded by the outage.

"Amtrak staff and crew have been working around the clock to repair the infrastructure necessary to restore service for all the passengers who travel along the Northeast Corridor," said Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman in announcing the restoration.

Amtrak's Northeast Regional Train 110 was set to depart Philadelphia for New York at 5:53 a.m., while Train 111 would leave New York at 5:30 a.m., for Philadelphia and Washington. Amtrak's Acela Express service was also restored.

SEPTA said its Trenton regional rail service, which operates on Amtrak rails, would not stop at some stations until later Monday or Tuesday. Riders on both the Trenton Line and the Chestnut Hill East Regional Line were advised to expect delays because of fewer operating tracks.

As the reopening was finalized, the derailment site drew dozens of officials, first responders, neighbors and others touched by the crash to a service of remembrance and reflection for the eight people killed and more than 200 others injured.

It was a somber gathering on a warm and humid afternoon on a street near the rail yard.

Laura Finamore, Jim Gaines, Abid Gilani, Bob Gildersleeve, Derrick Griffith, Rachel Jacobs, Giuseppe Piras, Justin Zemser.

As each name was read, a bell rang out and a white dove of peace was released into the sky.

"Before a train could pass this way, we must take a moment - a human moment - to recognize what happened," said Mayor Nutter. A proper memorial service will be planned for a later date, he said.

Nutter gave credit to those who ran into the "darkness and danger" to give aid to the passengers on the twisted Amtrak train just five nights earlier.

They included, he said, neighbors who opened their doors to stunned victims, police officers and firefighters who helped the injured from broken train cars, medical personnel at area hospitals, and volunteers and city staff who worked for days.

"They are truly Philadelphia at its best and we thank all of them," he said.

Gov. Wolf said the city's response "made all of us in Pennsylvania very, very, proud."

But it was the victims who were front and center as speaker after speaker vowed never to forget them - and pledged that the tragedy would not happen again.

"They will be great angels reminding us that everyone should get home safe and sound," said Anthony Foxx, U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

After Lauren Hart sang "God Bless America," Amtrak's Boardman called Tuesday "the worst day" he's experienced as a transportation official.

"My prayers are out for those who lost their lives," said U.S. Rep. Robert Brady.

The Philadelphia Heritage Chorale conducted by J. Donald Dumpson, performed an emotional rendition of "Amazing Grace."

After the doves had been released, Nutter had one last message for the grieving families of those injured or killed.

"Please accept our heartfelt prayers and expressions of sympathy," Nutter said. "We are with you in your pain and sorrow."

The National Transportation Safety Board, investigating the derailment, said Sunday the engineer of the doomed Amtrak train apparently did not radio his dispatchers that his train had been hit by a projectile just before the crash.

A review of taped conversations by the engineer, Brandon Bostian, to dispatchers shows no mention of anything hitting his train, as one of his assistant conductors has reported.

NTSB's Robert Sumwalt, the lead investigator, said the Amtrak dispatchers were also interviewed about a possible report of a projectile impact.

"This idea of something striking the train - that's one of the many things we're looking at right now," Sumwalt told ABC This Week on Sunday.

"We interviewed the dispatchers and listened to the dispatch tape, and we heard no communication from the Amtrak engineer to the dispatch center to say that something had struck his train."

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said Sunday that all conversations between SEPTA and Amtrak engineers would have been recorded, and investigators have reviewed those tapes as well. "Our investigators did not hear any transmission from the Amtrak engineer."

The FBI, at NTSB's request, was expected Monday to examine the windshield of the Amtrak train, particularly an area about the "size of a grapefruit," with breakage that emanates out in a circular pattern. Sumwalt said it did not penetrate the glass and did not appear to be from gunfire.

Similar damage is apparent on the windshield of the SEPTA train that did report being hit by something thrown or gunfire that night.

A third train, an Amtrak Acela, also reported being hit by something thrown around the same time Tuesday night. Knudson said the agency is "aware of it and gathering information about it."

An assistant Amtrak train conductor told the NTSB on Friday that she overheard a radio conversation between Bostian, 32, and the engineer of a SEPTA train, in which the SEPTA train reported being struck by something thrown or gunfire. That report has been substantiated by investigators.

The NTSB said she then heard Bostian say that his own train had also been struck by something. That is not heard on any tapes, however, the NTSB said Sunday.

Bostian has said he suffered a concussion and has no recollection of the crash, which came as his train accelerated to more than 100 m.p.h. - twice the posted speed limit on the Frankford curve.

Sumwalt made the rounds at various major networks' Sunday programs, discussing the projectile issue, the investigation and rail-safety improvements.

He told ABC the projectile possibility is "one of the things we're looking at." In addition to the train's accelerated speed up to 106 m.p.h., investigators will consider drug and alcohol analysis of Bostian and whether he used his cellphone while operating the train.

Bostian's lawyer has said the cellphone was put away and that Bostian had not taken drugs or alcohol.

Sumwalt called Sunday for the installation of inward-facing video cameras in trains, which he said would have helped the investigation. The trains already have outward-facing cameras.

He and Boardman reiterated Sunday the need for installation of the state-of-the-art safety control system known as Positive Train Control.

The Federal Railroad Administration on Saturday ordered Amtrak to immediately install the current decades-old technology, known as Automatic Train Control, at the Frankford curve and throughout the Northeast Corridor. Such a speed-control system is already in place on the southbound line at the curve.

If a train exceeds the speed limit, the system alerts the engineer to manually slow the train. If that doesn't happen in a few short seconds, the technology begins braking the train automatically.

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@MariSchaefer