NTSB Urges Braking System on Chicago Rails

By MIKE COLIAS

CHICAGO – A federal agency has urged Chicago’s commuter train service to install an automatic braking system along tracks where two trains derailed in recent years and injured scores of passengers.

The National Transportation Safety Board described it as an “urgent safety recommendation.”

The two Metra trains derailed at nearly the same location on Chicago’s South Side, one on Oct. 12, 2003, and the other Sept. 17, 2005. The latest derailment killed two passengers and injured more than 80.

The NTSB recommended installing equipment that automatically slows the train if the engineer misses or ignores a signal.

“The Safety Board believes that had an automatic train control system … been in place at the time of the accidents, the accidents could have been avoided,” NTSB acting chairman Mark Rosenker wrote to Metra on Thursday.

In each derailment, the engineer later told investigators he believed he saw signals indicating he could continue at near the 70 mph speed limit. The NTSB said the signals in both cases had directed the engineer to slow to 10 mph to switch tracks.

Last month, the NTSB recommended Metra install a similar but more sophisticated technology along all 11 lines, but Metra argued it was too expensive at up to $300 million per line.

Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said that it will review the latest recommendations.

“We need to look closely to see what they consider to be the urgent part,” she said.

The NTSB also wants the entire route equipped with in-cab signals that replicate the signals along the track, serving as a backup for engineers. Although parts of the route have that capability, the derailments were on a stretch that does not.