Metro-North Railroad has installed new protections focused on a curve near the Spuyten Dyvil station in the Bronx, where a Hudson line train derailed last week killing four passengers and injuring 60 others.
Signals will now alert train engineers when to reduce their speed and will automatically apply the train’s emergency brakes if the speed isn’t lowered to the 30 mph speed limit as the train travels around the curve, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced.
The operator of the locomotive that derailed reportedly told officials he had “zoned out” and possibly dozed off before the crash, with the train reaching speeds of 80 mph at the 30-mile-speed zone on the curve.
By Tuesday morning, all Metro-North trains will require verbal communication between conductors and other employees at four critical curves and five movable bridges, the MTA said, a step no doubt to ensure the alertness of the driver at critical stages.
Conductors will now stand in the train’s control cab with the engineers and monitor the speed limits around the curves or communicate via radio when the train reaches curves and bridges.
Metro-North engineers will develop automated speed control signals around these critical areas by September, the MTA said. The four critical curves in addition to Spuyten Duyvil are at Yonkers on the Hudson Line, White Plains on the Harlem Line, and Port Chester and Bridgeport on the New Haven Line. All five movable bridges are on the New Haven Line.
MTA chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast said in the wake of the derailment the agency was undertaking initiatives including:
◠Implementing safety stand-downs for 4,500 employees in more than 200 sessions at more than 80 locations to be conducted quarterly
â— Participating in the Federal Railroad Administration’s confidential close call reporting system, which allows employees to anonymously signal warnings of potential safety hazards
â— Identifying technical solutions to enforce speed control, compliance with operating rules and engineer alertness
