Rail line makes safety change
As a safety precaution stemming from February’s Oxnard crash, the Metrolink board on Friday approved an agreement that will allow the commuter railroad to place locomotives at both ends of its trains.
Metrolink, which serves six Southern California counties, will spend $23.9 million to lease 40 engines for one year from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. Officials say they hope to put them into service in the weeks ahead.
The locomotives will take the place of Metrolink’s new crash-resistant Hyundai Rotem cab cars — passenger coaches that include an engineer’s compartment. Metrolink has 57 of the units, which are designed to absorb impacts when accidents occur.
Cab cars are used at the front of trains when they are being pushed from behind by locomotives — a common practice among the nation’s commuter railroads when trains reverse direction at the terminus of a line.
Investigators are now evaluating Metrolink’s cab cars, including the one involved in the Feb. 24 collision between a Metrolink train and a heavy-duty pickup truck and trailer at a crossing near Oxnard.
Officials say the lease will allow Metrolink to place heavier locomotives at both ends of trains until safety issues involving the cab cars are resolved. The units, however, will still be used to carry passengers.
“This is a preemptive measure taken out of an abundance of caution due to an unusual event,” said Art Leahy, Metrolink’s chief executive.
In the Oxnard crash, a train with a cab car in front derailed, and several trailing coaches turned over on their sides, throwing passengers around.
Twenty-eight people were injured, including the engineer, who later died.
‘This is a preemptive measure taken out of an abundance of caution due to an unusual event.’
— Art Leahy,
chief executive of Metrolink
Among other things, investigators are trying to determine whether the cab car’s steel deflector, or cow catcher, failed during the collision, allowing wreckage to get under the wheels.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is looking into the accident, has yet to determine the probable cause of the crash. NTSB officials have declined to comment on their inquiry.
Leahy said during the board meeting that federal investigators will do further examinations of the cab cars and that three have been taken out of service “due to a potential safety issue.”
The Oxnard crash represented a setback in Metrolink’s campaign to acquire advanced safety technology and rebuild public confidence after a 2008 head-on collision in Chatsworth that killed 28 people and injured 135.
The effort included a $263-million investment in a fleet of Hyundai Rotem coaches and cab cars, which have such safety improvements as stronger construction and energy-absorbing crush zones.
Following an internal report about the accident, rail officials announced in early September that they would limit the use of Rotem cab cars and seek to lease engines from Burlington Northern. Several weeks later, the board authorized renting the locomotives.
Without the lease, officials said, commuter service would have to be cut almost in half from 165 trains a day to 80 or 90.
On Friday, the Metrolink board approved the execution of the contract with Burlington Northern and agreed to supplement the budget to pay for the lease and related expenses.
The agreement is contingent on approvals of the five county transportation authorities that help finance the railroad. San Diego County, which is served by one Metrolink station, in Oceanside, does not contribute to the line.
The plan’s $23.9-million budget will pay for the lease, fuel, maintenance, modifications, training and adapting the Burlington Northern engines to Metrolink’s positive train control emergency braking system.
So-called PTC, which relies on global positioning technology, digital communications and sophisticated computers, monitors trains and can automatically stop them to avoid accidents.