Train Accident Newsroom

New Commuter Railroad Track Safety System

New Commuter Rail Safety System That is Being Tested, May Make Millions of Train Riders Safer During a Crash

Thursday, March 23, 2006 (Washington, DC) The federal government is testing new safety devices for commuter trains that are designed to better protect passengers during crashes, Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta announced today.

Secretary Mineta unveiled the new safety measures and released footage of a crash test of a train equipped with them during a news conference in Glendale, CA, site of a deadly commuter train crash in January 2005. The test, conducted earlier in the day at the Department’s rail testing facility in Pueblo, CO, was designed to determine if the safety devices that are part of the Crash-Energy Management system will make the more than 414 million annual commuter train riders safer.

“You can’t just punch numbers into a computer, run a few programs and promise people that they will be safer,” said Secretary Mineta. “By smashing a few trains in the desert, we hope to find new ways to keep millions of commuters safe every day.”

Mineta said today’s crash test of a locomotive and passenger train equipped with special test dummies was the first ever to use the newly designed Crash-Energy Management system. The system includes crush zones that absorb the force of a crash to better protect the parts of trains where passengers sit and operators’ spaces. The crush zones have stronger end frames that act as bumpers to distribute crash forces throughout an entire train so passengers feel less of the impact.

Other devices tested include newly designed couplers, which join two cars together and are built to retract and absorb energy to keep trains upright on the tracks during a crash. New passenger seats and chairs designed with special padding and crushable edges also were tested today.

Mineta said that if the new safety system works as designed, they will more than double the speed at which all passengers can survive a train crash, from just 15 miles per hour to at least 36 miles per hour. “The new system turns once-rigid train cars into giant shock absorbers that help protect a train’s crew and passengers,” the Secretary added.

Mineta said his Department also developing new standards for train cars equipped with the Crash-Energy Management system in order to make it easier for other rail operators to acquire equipment using the new technology. He added that Los Angeles’ MetroLink commuter train system has already ordered new passenger rail cars that incorporate the technology.