Montana train derailment renews calls for automated systems to detect track problems
Montana train derailment renews calls for automated systems to detect track problems
The NTSB is renewing its calls for major freight railroads to equip every locomotive with automated track inspection devices that it believes could have prevented a 2021 train derailment that killed three people in Montana.
Montana train derailment renews calls for automated systems to detect track problems::The NTSB is renewing its calls for major freight railroads to equip every locomotive with automated track inspection devices that it believes could have prevented a 2021 train derailment that killed three people in Montana.
I was on this train. Amtrak paid me a settlement not to sue them, but it’s not Amtrak I blame, it’s BNSF, who owns the track. It’s very clear from the camera footage that the track was badly misaligned by the time the train went over it at 80 mph. That line is one of the busiest in the country, and if the freight locomotives (one of which had gone over that section of track barely an hour prior) had some kind of monitoring system, they would have alerted all the other trains to stop or slow down. I used to love riding trains, but our rail infrastructure is much too far behind places like Europe.
I'm surprised it isn't already automated, you'd think it'd save money
Just not fixing things saves even more money.
And then when it starts to cost money the government gives it to them.
It's kind of automated: when the locomotive spots a problem, it rolls over. Then people come along to fix it.
Its there,but it only monitors breakage. Warpage is much harder to detect without actually sending someone down there after every train.