Passenger Trains > Coast Starlight (14) Fatal Crossing Accident

There is an initial media report of a car-train collision south of Oakland. The collision involves the Coast Starlight (14) and at least one fatality is reported, At this time 14 is still stopped at the accident scene.

John Wrote:
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> There is an initial media report of a car-train
> collision south of Oakland. The collision
> involves the Coast Starlight (14) and at least one
> fatality is reported, At this time 14 is still
> stopped at the accident scene.

Since we're on the subject of the Coast Starlight, how did #11 go from being less than an hour late to over 7 hours late? This happened south of San Jose today

Reports are that it occurred near High Street between Coliseum Way and Watling Street and the lone occupant of the vehicle was the fatality. Looking at the photos the vehicle does not look like much of a vehicle anymore. It looks pretty fused to the front of the lead unit. My mother in law was supposed to come up on train 14 today but changed her to the Train/Bus combination before departure. Seems like the train will be delayed for a while. Reports indicate around 200 people on board with no injuries reported.

Speaking of delays... anyone know why train 11 was in Salinas for just over 6 hours today (9/1)? Only thing I could find was on Twitter regarding a new engine arriving and the coach passengers receiving (the ever famous) stew. Seems like the Coast Starlight has been having bad luck the past few weeks with accidents and incidents.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 00:15 by roadman3313.

11 was held in SNS because of MU problems. It started of as an electrical/MU connection problem, so they swapped engines around (206 went from trailing to leading, and vice-versa), then they suffered brake problems. Just in the units, apparently, not the pax cars. Then the DS apparently (from what I've heard) allowed for the power swap between 14 and 11. Whether it actually happened or not, I do not know. Though I'm from Salinas, I'm currently 350 miles away (in the process of moving to Mt. Shasta).

11's problems started as an HEP problem near Aromas. A plug worked loose and was damaged, resulting in the trailing unit being unable to provide HEP, so the units were swapped. Then there were persistent brake problems, with one truck on one of the locos not setting up. There were no loco swaps with 14. By the time 14 arrived at SNS, the issues with #11 were resolved and it departed imediately upon 14's arrival.

HEP has gone out on me 4 out of the last 4 LD trips.