At least two signals warned an Amtrak engineer his passenger train was on the wrong track as it barreled toward an oncoming train at more than 75 mph, railway officials said.
Human error likely was the cause of a near head-on crash of two trains near Syracuse Feb. 20. "It's clear the Amtrak train shouldn't have been there," Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said Tuesday. "The only unanswered question is how it got there."
The Amtrak train carrying 128 passengers and the 105-car CSX train carrying hazardous chemicals sped toward each other near Kirkville, on the same track in a zone where the train speed limit was 79 mph.
Four miles away, the "distant" signal system had warned the Amtrak engineer that another train was on the track and the Amtrak train would have to reroute to an alternate track, railroad officials said. Two miles later, an interlocking signal system reiterated the command. The Amtrak train continued another two miles past that second signal before coming face to face with the CSX train. When both trains had stopped, they were 400 feet from each other.
How the Amtrak employees missed the signals is the focus of the on-going investigation involving the Federal Railroad Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
"Everything happened very quickly and close to the signals," Stessel said.
Amtrak is scheduling a hearing soon, similar to a trial in its formality, to question the engineer, Stessel said.
The signals were operating properly, "so now we've moved into a phase dealing with the employees," Stessel said. "They have certain rights we have to protect and be mindful of as we enter this process." He would not comment on when the hearing will be. Crew members are being interviewed "and if any actions are taken against any of them for rules violations, they will have an opportunity to appeal," he said.
Engineers, he said, are trained on the territory on which they'll travel and "know where the signals are located and where to look for them."
Other standard parts of the investigation will likely involve drug and alcohol testing and tests to check for color-blindness. Stessel would not comment on whether tests results are available.
CSXT officials have said from the start that their employees were not at fault. "We had trained crews operating in the area who were complying with all the appropriate rules and regulations," CSX spokesman Adam Hollingsworth said.
The locomotive engineer and conductor on the CSX train immediately applied the emergency brakes when they spotted the Amtrak train heading straight toward them. They were the only two on the freight train, which was carrying propane and other hazardous materials. The two jumped off as the train was screeching to a halt.
The radios on each train enabled engineers to tune to the same frequency and talk to each other or the dispatchers, "but if you have a train coming at you, you may not have time to reach for your radio," Stessel said.
The Amtrak train was heading from New York City to Niagara Falls; the CSX train was traveling from Buffalo to Selkirk. The tracks are owned by CSX. The federal government in 1971 granted Amtrak authority to use the tracks, with the understanding the schedules would be cleared with other railroad companies.
CSX dispatchers control the track switches and signals. "Smart" train-controlled systems that could automatically slow or stop trains have not yet been installed.
Rep. James Walsh,R-Onondaga, has requested a hearing to review the safety of the Upstate railway system, in the wake of the Feb. 20 incident and a Feb. 3 incident in a Rochester suburb in which a train killed two people when it struck a car at a crossing. Walsh asked Rep. Jack Quinn, R-Hamburg, and chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, to set up the meeting but it has not yet been approved or scheduled, said Dan Gage, Walsh's communication director. "We didn't expect a quick response," Gage said.
