Train ridership is higher in the northeast than anywhere else in the U.S. Last year on Amtrak alone, nearly 12 million people rode the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C.
Despite so much riding on the reliability of trains, government and industries responsible for maintaining the rail system have been slow to make crucial safety improvements.
Last week, an Amtrak passenger train derailed outside of Philadelphia, killing eight passengers and injuring over 200 as the train sped around a curve at nearly twice the appropriate speed. Many experts said that an existing technology called Positive Train Control could likely have prevented the whole thing.
The technology was mandated by Congress in 2008 to be installed on passenger trains by this year. We talk this hour about rail travel safety.
GUESTS:
- Stephen Szegedy - Electrical engineer from the Connecticut DOT as well as a former Connecticut State DOT Representative to Metro-North's Positive Train Control Committee
- Ana Radelat - Washington correspondent for The Connecticut Mirror
- Robert Halstead - Railroad industry expert, crash investigator with IronWood Technologies, President of the National Association of Railroad Safety Consultants and Investigators
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John Dankosky, Heather Brandon and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
