Thursday, May 3, 2007

Amtrak vs. Rail Crew; Forums Update

This morning, an Amtrak train struck a rail crew car near Back Bay station, leading to the death of the flagman due to a heart attack. This is the second train vs. crew incident in recent weeks, and leads to many more questions about crew safety on the MBCR/Amtrak network. Why was the train allowed to pass into the same block as an active crew team? Had the crew filed for appropriate protections while working on the busy line? It is unfortunate that this has lead to another death, but hopefully something good will come from this by way of policy review...
For more on the incident, visit the Globe



Also, I'd like to update you all on the forums situation. This morning, the forums went down yet again, however a message was available on the BoardZero home page stating that they are aware of the problems, and think they are fixed, but are testing their system now. Hopefully this means The Forums will be back up and running for good later today. I'll refrain from opening the "backup" forums in anticipation of the BoardZero ones reopening today, but I'll keep you posted!

Thanks,

Mike

1 comment:

John Mc said...

They had permission to be on all tracks except the one in question. They should have been told which track was in use at their 1am 'safety meeting', so it remains a question if the driver forgot or just got confused what was what.

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