Expert: Railroads 'Didn't Think It Was An Important Issue' To Implement Positive Train Control
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Questions are beginning to be floated as to why NJ TRANSIT didn't have a system known as positive train control which might have prevented Thursday's deadly train accident in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Dr. Carl Berkowitz, who studies rail systems, explained the system establishes speed limits for different sections of tracks and "to make sure the train operator adheres to that speed positive train control is used."
"You can't leave everything in the hands of the individual because there's human factors involved and the reason of positive train control is to take the human factor out of the equation and make the system safe," Berkowitz told CBS2, adding that it's used in Europe and Asia.
Positive train control was mandated to be put in years ago, but NJ TRANSIT has yet to do so. Berkowitz said the railroads didn't want to spend the money to implement the system.
"They didn't think it was an important issue, so they let it go. This system was supposed to be in every mile of rail in the United States, I think, by 2015 -- every mile of rail," Berkowitz said.
Berkowitz added, "It's a simple system. It's not sending a man to the moon."
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said cost should be an excuse when it comes to safety.
"If you can save lives, there's no cost to that," Menendez told CBS2. "That's why we provided nearly $200 million in the last federal highway bill that we passed to include money to transit agencies like NJ TRANSIT, and in my own fight as the senior Democrat on the transit subcommittee, we've brought to New Jersey alone, under this new bill $600 million a year. Now it's for entities, like transit, to decide are they gonna spend that on operating expenses or are they going to do capital expenses, which could be positive train control."
Menendez stated that the 2016 report from the Federal Railroad Administration showed that NJ TRANSIT doesn't have the positive train control system.
"They don't even have the foundation. NJ TRANSIT has to figure out how they respond to, I don't know whether it's the subject of this particular tragedy … but under any set of circumstances when speed can be an issue, you need to have and deploy the technology. So it seems to me they have to prioritize this and so we're gonna have to get a sense from them why they haven't."
The National Transportation Safety Board will look at the issue of positive train control in this crash.
One person was killed, and 114 others injured, when the train crashed at the Hoboken terminal Thursday morning.
