Passenger Trains > FRA Focused Safety Assesment of Metra

http://www.fra.dot.gov/eLib/Details/L16015

Usual FRA drivel but at least it does contain some specifics on the latest
two attempts on the part of Metra Rock Island District engineers to tip their
trains over. The specifics were lacking in all the news reports at the time of the
incidents.

One would think the employees on that line would be a little more sensitive to such
antics following the successful tipping over of TWO trains due to excessive speed
through a crossover (the same crossover in both of those instances) the first on Oct. 12, 2003 and then
again on Sept. 17, 2005. The 2005 tip over caused the death of a passenger. Read the NTSB version
on their website.

The FRA natters on and on about PTC, an unproven system whose implementation is still years
away, ignoring the fact that FRA should have ordered METRA to extend its Rock Island District
cab signaling north of Blue Island after the first tip over in 2003 (ELEVEN YEARS AGO).
That would have stopped the recent attempt to go through a 40 MPH crossover at 79 MPH.

Instead of ordering METRA to extend its cab signals the FRA played along with METRAS attempt to
implement ETMS an interim type of PTC which is not yet operative.
Perhaps something for the Illinois Inspector General to investigate.

The train dispatcher in me wants to know what the reason would be for crossing a train over at
that point anyway; a question that will for me probably forever go unanswered.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/14 13:16 by Englewood.

This is an excellent post. Just a few notes for those of you playing along.

While the Rock Island District is not Metra's busiest line in terms of ridership (the BNSF Chicago-Aurora line holds that title) it is in many ways Metra's home. Metra's operating entity, the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation, was formed to carry forward with the Rock Island's commuter operations as that railroad faltered. Many of Metra's current and recent officers got their start on the Rock Island and the Rock Island district. This includes Metra's current CEO, Don Orseno, who began as a Rock Island engineer. Prior to being CEO, he was Metra's director of Director Safety & Rules.

Having a CEO who was previously the rules guy wold seem to suggest a tighter, more quality controlled environment. I'm surprised that the tone suggests just the opposite.

Orsino took over maybe a year ago.
Clarence