Brightline & Positive Train Control
Posted by Sandy on November 15, 2022 · Leave a Comment
What I have learned about Brightline death train was witnessed by me while traveling Banyan Blvd. heading for City Hall. A few years ago the traffic light turned from green to red, bells rang, lights flashed and the crossing gate came down followed by the Brightline train. I can honestly tell readers I was shocked and frightened by the train’s speed.
The train passed, the crossing gate was raised, the traffic light turned green and people were off traveling over the tracks when the traffic light turned yellow then red. STOP! People trying to make the light stopped at the red light leaving cars behind them sitting firmly on the rail tracks. Foolish, foolish, foolish, but does not deserve the death penalty.
If you repeat a lie enough times it becomes a fact. Brightline claims people stand on the tracks to commit suicide. I don’t by it. If someone is depressed enough to want to end their lives there are easier ways to do it than standing on railroad tracks waiting for a train traveling at 80 miles an hour, and unable to stop.
Lets examine walking to your destination. Your walking when suddenly the crossing gates come down in front and behind you. Your standing between the two when you hear a train barreling down the tracks and your in the way. If your young and in good health you may manage to cheat death. If your my age good chances are you meet your maker, ready or not.
Brightline is testing runs from Cocoa to Orlando where trains will travel at 125 MPH. If people are not safe with speeds of 80 MPH what chance do they have at 125 MPH?
Why the speed? Common sense tells us the faster they travel, the more trips they make equals more money. Greed can’t see the blood left on the tracks.
It’s time for City, County and State leaders to step up and say enough is enough. You can’t speed through my City, County or State. Time for politicians to stop telling us they love us and start showing us.
Below are excerpts from stories written be media and I have enclosed the link if you care to have more information. The dates are important to the story, along with important facts concerning PTC (Positive Train Control.) If underlined please pay close attention.
WPTV Channel 5 12/19/2017
“Brightline plans to install Positive Train Control technology that could have prevented Amtrak crash. Amtrak confirms that technology could have prevented this derailment in Washington State was installed, but not active when the train left the tracks and crashed down on interstate five.
Positive Train Control slows down a train automatically when going too fast. This train was traveling at 80 miles an hour in a 30 mile-per-hour zone.
When Brightline launches its high speed service to Fort Lauderdale and Miami in a matter of days, those trains will not have positive train control either. Safety and speed are two reasons why leaders on the Treasure Coast oppose extending Brightline to Cape Canaveral, and then to Orlando.
Brightline plans to install Positive Train Control before Congress’ 2018 deadline, but in Martin County engineers worry that if that deadline gets extended that trains that one day travel through the Treasure Coast will not have the important technology.”
Treasure Coast Palm May 7, 2018
“Clock ticking to install safety improvements for Brightline trains. The speedy Brightline trains will present a unique hazard when they begin zipping through Treasure Coast communities. But unless Florida East Coast Railway gets its act together, the fast trains could be even more perilous.
By the end of the year, Florida East Coast Railway — which owns and operates tracks between Miami and Jacksonville, including the main corridor through our region — is supposed to install important safety upgrades known as “positive train control.” The technology, which uses GPS and other technologies to monitor train positions, can automatically slow or stop trains to prevent collisions. A 2015 congressional order instructed Florida East Coast and 40 other railroads to implement PTC by Dec. 31, 2018.
As of the last quarter of 2017 — the most recently available report — Florida East Coast reported that none of 69 trains had received PTC upgrades; no PTC track improvements had been completed; and only 24 of 347 employees had received PTC training.
By the end of the year, Florida East Coast Railway — which owns and operates tracks between Miami and Jacksonville, including the main corridor through our region — is supposed to install important safety upgrades known as “positive train control.”
Florida Politics Feb. 24,2022 “Higher-speed train safety on agenda of Florida officials Brightline has had 58 deaths including 3 in past 10 days. Representatives of South Florida’s higher-speed railroad, other train lines and local governments met with federal safety officials Wednesday to begin working out plans that they hope will decrease the number of fatal collisions between locomotives, cars and pedestrians. Brightline has had 58 deaths since it began operations in 2017, including three in the past 10 days, giving it the nation’s worst fatality rate per mile, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis that began in 2019.
Other Florida railroads are not far behind. None of the deaths have been found to be the fault of Florida’s railroads or their crews, but that doesn’t mean the rail lines and federal, state and local governments can’t find mitigation strategies that work, said James Payne, who oversees the agency’s grade-crossing safety program. South Florida’s commuter service Tri-Rail has the 13th-worst fatality rate and the Florida East Coast freight line is 15th-worst out of more than 800 U.S. railroads, according to the AP analysis. Most of the fatal accidents have been caused by drivers going around crossing gates, pedestrians trying to beat trains and suicides.”
Chanel 5 WPTV Oct. 12, 2022 “Driver dies after freight train hits vehicle in downtown West Palm Beach. A 76-year-old woman has died after her vehicle was hit by a freight train Wednesday in West Palm Beach. The crash occurred shortly before 5:30 p.m. at the railroad crossing along Quadrille Boulevard and Fern Street. West Palm Beach police said the driver, a woman in her 60s, was extricated from the vehicle and rushed to a hospital in “very critical condition,” where she later died. The crash occurred shortly before 5:30 p.m. at the railroad crossing along Quadrille Boulevard and Fern Street. Witnesses said several ambulances were at the scene. One person described the incident saying the train “plowed into a car.”
Please let this be the last death caused by speeding trains. May God hold her in the palm of His hand, and her family and friends find peace in the aftermath of her tragic death. Speed kills! Stop the insanity!
The end