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From: cb@hlwpc.UUCP (Carl Blesch)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: VIA rail train collides head-on with freight.
Message-ID: <675@hlwpc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Feb-86 10:04:08 EST
Article-I.D.: hlwpc.675
Posted: Thu Feb 13 10:04:08 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Feb-86 07:45:49 EST
References: <6389@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ
Lines: 80

> As you may well have read, a VIA rail train crashed head on into a freight
> train at a combined speed of some 200km/hour a few days ago in Alberta.
> 
> Extrordinarily, some 100 people survived this, with (current estimates) some
> 30-50 people being killed.  Of the freight train crew of 3, seems that only
> the conductor survived.
> 
> Initial investigations indicate.
> 
> 1. The freight may have ignored 2 signals not to proceed (it is not known yet
>    if drinking was involved...).
> 2. Freight trains share tracks throughout the system with passenger trains.
> 3. The accident occurred just after the passenger train left double tracks
>    for the single tracks which proceed through the mountains.
> 4. Freight trains in Canada do not run on schedules.  
>    They simply proceed as signal
>    lights dictate.  Only passenger trains have schedules.

Thanks for the info, as sketchy as it may be.  The few press accounts
I've seen here in New Jersey had no reasons for the accident.  The
New York Times did note one thing unrelated to the accident, however,
which I experienced once when I rode VIA cross country.  It said that
freight trains have the right of way over passenger trains, and that
since most of the lines are single track, the passenger trains spend a
lot of time in sidings, and end up running as much as a half-day late!
I found this true when I rode VIA Rail in 1980 -- we'd pull into a siding
when nary a freight train was in sight, wait a half an hour, and finally
a freight train would go by and we'd proceed.  Very aggravating!
Going west, we were five hours late into Vancouver, and coming back
east, we were four hours late into Winnipeg (we missed our air connection
back to Chicago by five minutes as a result!).

In the good 'ole days, passenger trains ALWAYS had the right of way
over freights.  I imagine that the situation has changed in Canada
because VIA is a "guest" on the freight railroads, and the railroads
are going to care about their own traffic first.  In the states, the
freight railroads jerked Amtrak around like this during Amtrak's first
few years of existence, but then Amtrak set up an incentive plan that
rewarded freight roads for getting Amtrak trains through on time.
I believe this plan worked . . . 

> So, a few questions arises (among many...)
> and this may have been discussed on the net but I am a fairly new reader of
> this group
> 
> 1. Does Amtrak share tracks with freights?

Yes, as I noted above.  As a rule, Amtrak contracts the freight railroads
to run its trains.  In the northeast, Amtrak owns some of its own lines
(most notably the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor), and runs its own
show (Amtrak employees run the trains).

> 2. Do American freights run on schedules?

I think most are "extras", but there are some scheduled freights.
I believe there are some "high-speed" piggyback or containerized trains
that run on schedules.

> 3. Are there shut off levers (as on many (ALL?) subway systems) which throw
>    the break on immediately if a train runs a red light?

Some railroads had these, if they still don't.  I believe the New York
Central did at one time.

>    (Otherwise, with
>    should the engineer have a heart attack, for instance, 
>    the train would just keep rolling).

Engines have "dead-man" controls.  I know that the E- and F-unit diesels
had foot pedals that the engineer had to keep depressed continuously.
If the engineer let up on the pedal, emergency brakes would be applied.
I'm not sure the pedal system is in use today, but some variation is.
On GO Transit in your neck of the woods, for example, the engineer has
to be in contact with some part of the controls regularly (the throttle
or brake lever, for example).  If he/she hasn't touched the controls
for 30 seconds, an alarm buzzes in the cab, telling him/her to touch the
controls at least briefly to confirm that he/she is still alive.  If
no contact is made, on go the brakes!

Carl Blesch