Safety

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued nine safety recommendations, six of which are urgent, as part of its investigation into the collision between two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains on June 22, 2009. The trains crashed on the Red Line near the Fort Totten station in Washington. The NTSB’s recommendations address concerns about the safety of train control systems that use audio frequency track circuits, authorities said. As part of its investigation, the NTSB said it discovered that a failure occurred in which a spurious signal generated by a track circuit module transmitter mimicked

MARIETTA, Ga. – It was the Fourth of July, and the town square was packed with revelers waiting to see the evening’s fireworks display. The town square was closed for the event, and the nearby railroad tracks were quiet – or so it seemed. Before long, that unmistakable sound ruminated in the distance. The warning bells started to clang. Red lights flashed. The gates started to lower. A locomotive with freight cars in tow started to round the corner. The engineer sounded the customary warning horns – long, long, short, long. At that moment, it became obvious to some pedestrians

OAKLAND, Calif. — Amtrak and the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) are joining efforts during September to raise public awareness about highway-rail grade crossing safety and trespass prevention as part of California’s first ever “Rail Safety Month.” Working with California Operation Lifesaver, freight and passenger railroads and other rail safety partners, Amtrak will participate in “Officer on the Train” events in cities throughout the state during the month of September. The key element of this program is to have local law enforcement officers ride in the locomotive to witness what train engineers observe daily — motorists driving illegally through