Amtrak crash raises Brightline safety concerns

The fatal Amtrak train derailment in Washington state this week has led Brightline critics to renew their safety warnings.

Brightline trains, which are supposed to start service in the near future, are expected to go 79 mph between West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. They will hit 110 mph going to Cocoa and up to 125 mph to Orlando.

The Amtrak train derailed going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone, according to federal investigators who recovered the data recorder from the crash site over Interstate 5 near Seattle. The train was on its inaugural trip on a new service from Seattle to Portland, Ore., when it derailed Monday while crossing an overpass, killing at least three people and injuring about 100.

Officials from Indian River and Martin counties have long voiced opposition to Brightline trains approaching their towns at 110 mph — and the Washington crash reinforced their safety fears.

“I am afraid of this happening on the Treasure Coast,” said Indian River County Attorney Dylan Reingold. “I think it paints a real picture of our real concerns.”

South Florida does not have the same hilly terrain as Washington state, but there are obstacles. Curves would be taken at high speed, the trains would be passing through about 200 railroad crossings and there’s a railroad drawbridge in Fort Lauderdale.

Brightline has said it would begin service between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach before the end of the year. But so far, it is still in the testing phase and no startup date has been announced.

Brightline officials would not give specifics about how they

intend to make sure the Amtrak derailment is not repeated in Florida. But they issued a statement that said each passenger train will have an engineer and a train manager in every engine and an automatic alert system to notify them of dangerous speed levels when service begins. Railroad crossings are also outfitted with an early warning system so gates will close well in advance of approaching trains.

Brightline is also installing a new technology called Positive Train Control that uses satellite GPS, ground-based radio towers and sensors in railroad tracks to automatically slow or stop trains to prevent derailments and other potential crashes. The federal government is requiring it on all rail systems nationally by December 2018.

But Brightline will not have that installed when the trains start rolling in South Florida. Officials said it will be installed before the deadline and before the trains run to Orlando.

“The safety of Brightline’s guests, teammates and stakeholders is our highest priority,” the company’s statement read.

Broward County Commissioner and Regional Transportation Authority board member Tim Ryan wants to hear what investigators find out about the Amtrak derailment.

“Whatever comes out of that, we need to incorporate into our rail operations,” he said. “We will do so. Safety is our No. 1 concern.”

A group that opposes the train’s high speed, Citizens Against Rail Expansion in Florida, said the trains should not roll before the new technology is installed.

“It would be a tragedy if the Brightline trains were to start running without the [system] in place,” CARE Florida chairman Brent Hanlon said.”That would just be devastating.”

Brightline has already derailed once, though it was a minor occurrence. In February, an engine going 4 mph left the track at a switch in the West Palm Beach rail yard, according to a Federal Railway Administration report.

Brightline is now conducting test runs between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach at speeds of up to 79 mph.