Steve Carter
WASHINGTON – Investigators in a two-day hearing covering two recent fatal Amtrak derailments are questioning the safety of Talgo trains involved in one of the derailments. The equipment operates under a Federal Railroad Administration waiver.
The derailment in December 2017 killed three and injured more than 60. It occurred on the first Amtrak Cascades trip using a new route, the Point Defiance Bypass.
“Now that we have evidence of how the Talgo trainset performs in a crash, does the FRA have any concerns that would cause you to re-examine your decision to grandfather this equipment?” National Transportation Safety Board investigator Michael Hiller asked a witness from FRA, as quoted by Bloomberg.
In response, the FRA’s Gary Fairbanks said, “I didn’t see anything as the way the cars performed that would cause us to go back and reconsider the grandfathering petition because the items that were covered in the grandfathering petition performed adequately.”
Trains News Wire will have more details from the hearing as they are available.
Agree with Charles Landey, misleading headline. Did the investigator also question Gary Fairback’s decision to have lunch?
America has always been “ass backwards” when it comes to safety on the rails.(or any other form of transportation for that matter). A certain number of casualties have always been considered “acceptable” as long as the end result is achieved. The all mighty dollar continues to rule and “waivers” continue to be issued.
When the hell are we going to get serious about crash AVOIDANCE, and not how the cars perform in a crash. America is ass backwards at the moment (last 50-60 years)
Aren’t these Series 8 Talgo cars? I thought they complied with FRA requirements vs. the Type 7 (VII) which did not and got the grandfather waiver. It would be interesting to compare this to the Talgo crash at Santiago de Compostela, Spain on July 24, 2013 where 80 people died in a similar accident although the death toll was very different.
The train cars did a good job protecting the passengers. That’s more than can be said for the operating crew.
Going 80 mph in a 30 mph curve, crashing down an embankment and off a trestle onto a freeway sounds like an ultimate sort of accident, not quite as bad as a head-on but close. Wouldn’t deaths be expected?
I’m not at all sure that the headline matches the text. Asking a “question” isn’t the same as “questioning” (i.e. doubting).