Since 2007, I have been writing a blog at http://jamesmcgillis.com. In order to reach more readers, I have selected the best of my blog articles and published them here. I hope that you enjoy...
Inadequate Track Maintenance Puts Metrolink Passengers At Risk
On June 24, 2016, I drove to the Metrolink Station in Chatsworth, California. My mission was to drop Carrie McCoy off for her Metrolink ride from Chatsworth to Los Angeles Union Station.
Since early 2016, all of the Metrolink trains that I have observed at
the Chatsworth Station have been “double-enders”. By that, I mean there
is a locomotive at each and of the train. On this occasion, the train
arrived in Chatsworth with a locomotive at the “head end” and a
Hyundai-Rotem cabcar at the trailing end.
The locomotives that Metrolink leased to ride ahead of the Hyundai-Rotem cabcars are massive Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) freight locomotives.
Such locomotives normally pull heavy freight trains on long hauls.
Before the Metrolink lease, nowhere in the country have such locomotives
pushed or pulled passenger trains. Because of their size, weight and
other factors, Metrolink has struggled to safely deploy their BNSF
locomotives. A recent Los Angeles Times report indicated that many
trains were still running without a locomotive at each end.
The original locomotive lease from BNSF was for one year. Even at that,
Metrolink now operates them on a Federal Railroad Administration
temporary waiver, not a permanent operating permit. By leasing the BNSF
locomotives, Metrolink made a de facto admission
that heading up a train with a Hyundai Rotem cabcar was inherently
unsafe. If so, why is Metrolink still running trains headed up by
Hyundai-Rotem cabcars?
While
at the Chatsworth Station, I walked the platform from south to north.
When viewing railroad tracks up close, I like to observe the condition
of the infrastructure. Are any of the railroad ties rotten? Are many of
the spikes loose? Are palm trees growing up between the rails? At
Chatsworth, I found instances of all these deficiencies. Why does any
of this matter?
If the Philips 66 Santa Maria Refinery has its way, several oil trains each day could pass through the Chatsworth Station on their way to Santa Barbara County. From the June 3, 2016 oil train derailment and fire near Mosier, Oregon, we now know that failure of even one bolt or rail anchor can lead to a catastrophe.
As I reached the north end of the platform, I stepped up some wooden
stairs to better observe the tracks. As I looked down from there, I
could see the milepost marker for that location stenciled on the side
of the rail. It read “MP 445.4”, with an arrow pointing down to that
exact location. In non-technical language, that means that it is 445.4
miles to the northern terminus of the Coast Line in San Francisco. In addition, that spot is where the wheel truck of an outbound Metrolink locomotive comes to rest at the Chatsworth Station.
As I looked more closely, I observed a broken rail anchor
lying by the tracks at that exact location. After the Mosier, Oregon
derailment, Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) admitted that despite repeated
visual inspections, specifically looking for deficiencies, inspectors
missed badly corroded and rusted bolts. In the case of Chatsworth, the
Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), better known as
Metrolink, owns and operates the double-track through Chatsworth
Station.
Allowing rotten railroad ties, loose spikes and small palm trees to grow
between the tracks at the Chatsworth Station is ample evidence that
SCRRA is not properly inspecting or maintaining its own rail
infrastructure. Allowing a broken or detached rail anchor
to lie where a 432,000-pound BNSF locomotive comes to rest several
times each day is inexcusable. Rather than relying on redundancy to
save us all from its next derailment, SCRRA should inspect and repair
its infrastructure in Chatsworth and throughout its railroad network.
Author’s Note: On July 8, 2016, just two
days after the publication of this article, Metrolink announced the
impending replacement of fifty-six failure-prone pilots on their
Hyundai-Rotem cabcars. Although the recent lease of BNSF freight
locomotives topped $20 million, Metrolink expects to replace the pilot
blades for a mere $1.5 million. That would bring the cost of each
replacement to $26,785. If the cost to replace the pilots is so low, why
did Metrolink not explore that option from the outset?
The Rodeo Drive 2016 Concours d'Elegance Classic Car Show
In the 1960s, my father shared his love
of classic cars with me. Each Father’s Day, we would attend the
Beverly Hills Concours d’Elegance at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
There we would see well-restored automobiles from the first half of
the twentieth century. In those days, just prior to the revolution in
automotive horsepower, large saloons and tiny sports cars dominated the
show.
As we walked the parking lot, we would see an old Packard
here and a Duesenberg there. Later, my father told me stories about Los
Angeles in the 1930s. As a teenager, he and his friends would walk to Wilshire Blvd.
There, they would wait at a traffic light for a suitably large
automobile to stop. Then, without the driver being aware, they would
dash out and sit on the wide rear bumper platform. Cars did not
accelerate or travel very quickly in the Los Angeles traffic
of the day, so there was little danger of ejection from their perch.
When they reached their destination, they would hop down and walk away.
The Classic 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 on Video Several
years ago, I restarted the Father’s Day car show tradition. For
twenty-three years now, Beverly Hills has sponsored its Concours d’Elegance
on the famous shopping street, Rodeo Drive (pronounced “Row-day-o”).
It is free to the public and often includes classic cars and super cars
seen nowhere else except a museum. Last year, I saw the same 1915 Cadillac that my father and I had seen in the 1960s. In 2015, it was one hundred years old and arrived under its own power.
This year, I hit Rodeo Drive
at eight o’clock. Many of the cars were still arriving and taking
their places along the curb. Although the 1915 Cadillac did not show
this year, there was a 1933 vintage V-16 Cadillac and a 1930s Packard
to ogle. In addition, there were at least a dozen red Ferrari to spice up the show.
Having grown up in Southern California, I was hoping to see the
quintessential American sports car – The Shelby Cobra. As a tingle went
up my spine, I heard a 289 cubic inch V-8 engine rumbling up the
street. I ran to a spot where I was able to capture a classic 1965 Cobra preparing to park in its appointed spot.
With only 150 of the 289-Cobras produced that year, I was looking at a
rare automobile. After the driver parked, I stood with him and admired
his classic Cobra. He told me that he had purchased it from a private
party about twenty years ago. Without my asking, he told me that he had
paid $175,000 for the car.
He
had repainted it in a dazzling red and done some engine work, but
otherwise had kept it in “stock” condition. According to a classic car
valuation website, his Cobra may now be worth $1.2 million. If you are in the market for a concours-condition Shelby Cobra, he does not plan to sell.
Although the field of classic cars was a bit smaller this year, the 23rd
Annual Father’s Day Concours d’Elegance was as exciting as ever. If you
want to see the cars arriving next year, I suggest that you get to the
show prior to the 10 AM start time. Perhaps I will see you there.
As BNSF Freight Locomotives Fail The Test - It's Time to Audit Metrolink Operations
At 5:39 AM on February 24, 2015, Metrolink Train No. 102 departed the Oxnard Transit Center. Its intended destination was Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS). After negotiating a sweeping arc of track, the train crossed Rose Ave., at Milepost 405 of the Coast Line.
Leading the way was Hyundai-Rotem Cabcar No. 645. After negotiating
the initial curve, ten miles of straight track lay ahead. Under the
control of a student engineer, the diesel pusher train quickly
accelerated to seventy miles per hour.
With Metrolink Sr. Engineer Glenn Steele
occupying a jump seat behind the student engineer, it would be less
than one minute before the cabcar reached Rice Ave. at Milepost 406.23.
Unknown to the engineer and his student, an abandoned Ford F-450 work
truck lay high-centered on the tracks eighty feet west of Rice Ave. In
the early morning darkness, the headlights and emergency flashers of
the disabled truck pointed toward the oncoming Metrolink train.
Until it was too late to avoid a collision, neither the student engineer
nor Steele determined that the truck’s lights represented a hazard.
While traveling at seventy miles per hour, and with less than three
tenths of a mile to go, the student engineer saw the headlights looming
before the cabcar. Sounding the horn and applying the brakes was
insufficient to prevent a collision. On orders from Steele, the student
applied emergency braking and both men bailed out, heading toward the
rear of the cabcar.
With
the brakes engaged, less than 1500 feet separated the cabcar and the
work truck. As momentum carried the entire train forward, the impact
with the truck was catastrophic. The pilot, a blade intended to clear
debris from the tracks, detached from its support structure and
disappeared beneath the cabcar. As the wreckage traveled along the
tracks, the cabcar and its following coaches derailed and whipped in
opposite directions. As the first two cars rotated and toppled on their
sides, the whipsaw effect injured dozens of passengers and crew. One week later, Sr. Engineer Glenn Steele succumbed to his injuries.
In early reports, Metrolink touted the crash energy management
(CEM) features of the Hyundai-Rotem cabcar. Without its safety
features, a spokesperson said, the severity of the incident could have
been greater. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) made such statements seem hasty and ill informed. By
September 2015, the NTSB had determined that both the steel within the
pilot and welds in its structural supports were deficient. Further, the
entire assembly had ripped loose at stress levels below its design
criteria.
After
receiving an NTSB report regarding failure of the pilot assembly,
Metrolink officials skirted discussions regarding any potential design
flaw or culpability in the collision. Instead, Metrolink management
initiated a conference call with its board members. During that call,
the Metrolink Board approved a one-year lease of forty BNSF freight
locomotives at a total of $20,000 per day. According to Metrolink Chief
Executive Art Leahy, the forty freight locomotives would soon head up
all Metrolink trains on their return trips to LAUS. Using the “rule of
tonnage”, Metrolink management wanted to rule out the possibility of
another deficient pilot or cabcar causing injury in a collision. Lost
in the publicity regarding this supposed safety measure was the fact
that no regional rail carrier in the nation had ever utilized freight
locomotives to head up passenger trains.
Citing
the unprecedented, yet unspecified safety issues involved with the
Hyundai Rotem cabcars, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority
(Metrolink) Board sidestepped the California Open Meeting Law. That
ill-conceived and illegal action set Metrolink on a path to its
potential demise. It also put the executive management team at
Metrolink in a position to either defend their actions or place blame
on its own board or others yet unnamed.
On December 5, 2015, I attended the “Steel Wheels Conference”, which is
the annual meeting for the rail passenger association known as RailPAC.
The meeting convened at the Metro Headquarters Building adjacent to
LAUS. While on a lunch break, I discovered a long line of BNSF freight
locomotives parked on LAUS Track Number 14. With no room to spare in
its maintenance yards, Metrolink had redirected at least sixteen of the
leased BNSF locomotives to the depot.
In "The Purloined Letter",
a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe, detectives assumed
that a blackmailer would conceal a damning letter in an elaborate
hiding place. Thus, he hid it in plain sight. In a flash of chutzpah
and hubris, the Metrolink executive team decided to hide almost
7,000,000 lb. of BNSF freight locomotives at LAUS.
Soon after their irrevocable one-year lease at $500 per day each ($7,300,000 total), Metrolink discovered that heavy freight locomotives are more expensive to outfit and operate than they originally thought. Although the BNSF locomotives
already featured positive train control (PTC), the software version
on the BNSF equipment was two generations beyond what Metrolink was
using (version 0 vs. 2.0). A new train management computer (TMC) and
retrofitted software were required for each BNSF locomotive placed into
service. By late December 2015, BNSF locomotives entered into limited
service on Metrolink lines. Almost immediately, problems developed with
their operation.
With
a gross weight of 420,000 lb., an overall length of seventy-four feet
and a wheel diameter of forty-two inches, the huge locomotives had
difficulty negotiating ten-degree radius curves such as the one
approaching Chatsworth Station.
As a result, the wheel-trucks on the BNSF locomotives create premature
wear on the inside edge of the outboard rail. In a metallurgical
process known as spalling,
the BNSF wheels shave steel filings off the rails. The dispersion of
filings into nearby electrical shunts often shorts out the signal
systems along those tight curves.
Although the horns on the BNSF locomotives fall within legal standards,
their blaring pitch can make them sound louder than a regular Metrolink
horn. With their twelve drive-wheels and massive sixteen cylinder
turbocharged diesel engines, the BNSF freight locomotives are louder
and create more vibration than their passenger locomotive counterparts.
In addition, regardless of their direction of travel, both the BNSF
and the Metrolink locomotives generate power, noise and pollution
whenever a Metrolink train moves. Despite Metrolink's claims of
environmental sensitivity, a double-ender Metrolink train produces
almost twice the engine noise and twice the pollution of a
single-engine train.
Because of the unprecedented use of freight locomotives in their train consists, Metrolink obtained only a six-month temporary waiver
to utilize the BNSF equipment. A stipulation of the temporary waiver
was that Metrolink would maintain compliance with all positive train
control (PTC) regulations as specified by the Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA). With a few of the BNSF locomotives entering
service prior to January 1, 2016, their six-month temporary waiver
shall soon expire. When the temporary waiver expires, will the FRA
recertify the freight locomotives under rules for passenger use or will
it require a full audit of their operations?
One requirement of PTC is that the speedometer on each locomotive shall
be accurate at any speed above thirty miles per hour. With a freight
locomotive geared for long hauls and a top speed of seventy miles per
hour, the stipulated variance of five miles per hour (plus or minus) is
difficult to achieve. For example, frequent starts, stops and delays
for other rail traffic make the use of freight locomotives on the San
Fernando Valley line problematic. Often operating at just above the
thirty mile per hour threshold, a wide variety of speed sensors can
cause the TMC to place the locomotive into “penalty mode”. Once it
enters penalty mode, the TMC automatically applies the brakes and stops
the train, no matter where it may be along the tracks.
Before
the penalized locomotive can resume service, pumps must refill the air
reservoirs that supply breaking power to the train. A locomotive that
experiences a penalty can stay in service for the balance of that day.
However, a penalized locomotive may not reenter passenger service the
following day unless Metrolink corrects the anomaly (inaccurate
speedometer) and certifies completion of that work. According to the
Los Angeles Times, Metrolink was able to average only twelve BNSF
freight locomotives in service per day during April 2016. With so few
BNSF locomotives in service, the majority of Metrolink trains returning
to LAUS are headed-up by Hyundai-Rotem cabcars. This also begs the
question; where are the remaining thirty-eight BNSF locomotives?
After the embarrassment of letting the batteries die on the sixteen BNSF
locomotives parked at LAUS in late 2015, Metrolink crews jumpstarted
those units and repositioned them to the Metrolink Keller Street Yard.
To keep their electrical and motive power units in working condition,
the non-operating BNSF locomotives remain in temporary storage at the
Keller Street Yard. Placed in “automatic mode”, the engines cycle
periodically, bringing them up to operating temperature and charging
their batteries. Among other things, this periodic cycling of the
engines produces wear on the starter motors, flywheels and the diesel
engines themselves.
In 2015, a Los Angeles Times article detailed Metrolink’s plans to purchase twenty-nine so-called Tier-4 locomotives.
They were touted as state-of-the-art, low pollution passenger
locomotives. According to the article, Metrolink intends to replace up
to forty-nine of its aging and ill-maintained passenger locomotives
over the next several years. Meanwhile, forty BNSF Tier-1 (high
powered, high pollution) freight locomotives sit largely idle in the
middle of Downtown Los Angeles. Hidden from public view, cycling their
massive engines, these locomotives pump out untold amounts of air
pollution into the Los Angeles Basin.
Metrolink’s temporary waiver to operate the BNSF freight locomotives
will soon expire. When it does, it will be appropriate for the FRA, the
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD)
and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) to
conduct a complete audit of operations and practices at Metrolink.
Fifth Street at Las Posas Road Now the Deadliest Rail Crossing in Ventura County
April 21, 2016, the Fifth Street at Las Posas Road grade crossing in Camarillo, California regained the title of “Deadliest Rail Crossing
in Ventura County”. Around 6 PM, Garrett Vongunten, 26, piloted his
2015 Harley Davidson motorcycle south on Las Posas Road toward Fifth
Street. On the rear seat, Nadya Unger, 23, rode as his passenger. With
the late afternoon sun in their eyes, they approached the railroad
crossing at an undetermined speed.
At
4:33 p.m. that day, Metrolink Train No. 117 had departed Los Angeles
Union Station, heading toward its final destination at the East Ventura
Station. Near 6:00 PM, the train approached Las Posas Road from the
east at normal speed, which can be as high as seventy miles per hour.
If the traffic control system operated properly at the grade crossing,
the approaching train would activate warning bells, flashing lights and
crossing gates to warn vehicular traffic of an oncoming train.
According to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) guidelines, the
rail crossing gates should be down at least twenty seconds prior to a
train crossing Las Posas Road.
For reasons that included
impairment from unspecified drugs and possible excessive speed,
Vongunten may have seen the warning lights and gates too late
to stop safely. As a result, Vongunten’s motorcycle broke through the
crossing gate arm and struck the side of the Metrolink train. Passenger
Nadya Unger died at the scene and Vongunten sustained critical
injuries, including partial loss of one leg. The motorcycle, missing
its operator, its passenger and its front wheel, came to rest upright,
facing in the opposite direction of original travel. "You could assume
that the motorcycle wasn't in the middle of the track per se because of
the location that it ended up," California Highway Patrol officer
Gregory Bowcock told the Ventura County Star newspaper.
With the collision unseen by the Metrolink engineer, Train No. 117
proceeded to the Oxnard Transit Center, which was its next scheduled
stop. Prior to arrival in Oxnard, a passenger who had witnessed the
collision notified the train’s conductor of the event. Metrolink held
the train in Oxnard until officials could inspect it for signs of
damage. A preliminary report indicated that there was evidence of a
side impact, including motorcycle parts embedded into a coach and blood on the side of that coach.
In recent years, there have been multiple train collisions on the Oxnard Plain. In February 2015, a train collision at the Fifth St. and Rice Ave. grade crossing in Oxnard took the life of Metrolink Senior Engineer Glenn Steele.
By that time, Fifth & Rice had gained notoriety as the “deadliest
rail crossing in Ventura County”. In recognition of the many deaths and
injuries at Fifth & Rice, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) secured $1.5 million in federal funds for the design of a grade separation at that location.
With the recent death of Nadya Unger, the Las Posas Road and Fifth
Street grade crossing now takes the mantel as “deadliest rail crossing
in Ventura County”. Here is a chronology of four prior rail collisions
at Fifth & Las Posas:
-
At 10:49 AM on December 30, 2013, as an Amtrak train passed by, a car
entered the grade crossing at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. The driver of
the vehicle died at the scene and a nearby railroad service worker
received injuries resulting from the accident.
- At 10:30 AM on January 24, 2014, crews responded to a train collision
at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. A seventy-seven year old woman who drove
her minivan into the side of a passing Amtrak train succumbed to her
injuries at the scene.
- At 8:25 AM on April 23, 2015, a Union Pacific freight train collided
with an SUV at the intersection of Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. The
driver, a fifty-seven year old man, drove through the crossing gate arm
and into the side of the freight train. The driver succumbed to his
injuries at the scene.
- At 10:30 AM on November 21, 2015, a twenty-three year old man drove
his car through the crossing gate and into the side of a moving Amtrak
train at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. At the time of the collision, the
crossing gate arm was down and the safety lights were flashing. The
driver died days later at a local medical center.
In less than three years, there have been five fatal train collisions at
Fifth & Las Posas. The common denominator of all five collisions
was that the crossing gates were down, warning lights were flashing and
bells were ringing. Even so, each ill-fated vehicle entered the
railroad right of way and collided with a moving train. There is no
evidence that any one of the five most recent fatal accidents at Fifth
& Las Posas was a suicide.
Unlike the Fifth & Rice grade crossing, the Fifth & Las Posas grade crossing has only the minimal safety features mandated by law. At the tracks, Rice Ave. is a divided road, with overhead safety lights, signage,
and four crossing gates intended to seal the rail corridor from errant
vehicles. At the tracks, Las Posas Rd. is undivided, with no overhead
safety signage and only two crossing gates. Even if the gates were
down, a driver could cross over the double-yellow lines and drive
around the crossing gates. To the unsuspecting driver, the Las Posas Rd.
southbound approach to Fifth St. looks like a little-used rural grade
crossing.
On Friday April 22, 2016, one day after the death of Nadya Unger and the
critical injury to Garrett Vongunten, the Ventura County
Transportation Commission
(VCTC) voted to support a half-cent transportation sales tax for
Ventura County. Nineteen of the fifty-eight counties in California have
such a tax, including all the major counties in Southern California.
If it makes the November 2016 ballot, the measure will still require
approval by a two-thirds majority of county voters. If it passes that
hurdle, the new sales tax will provide $70 million annually, earmarked
for transportation improvement projects within Ventura County.
Five fatal train collisions at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. should be
enough to place that grade crossing at the top of Ventura County
transportation improvement projects. Suggested improvements include
realigning Las Posas Rd. to make it a divided road as it crosses the
tracks, installing overhead warning signs and creating a four-gate
system of vehicle barriers. Although foot traffic is light at that
location, the new safety plan should include sidewalks and pedestrian
gates there, as well.
Proposed
upgrades to the rail crossing will not stop speeders from trying to
beat a train to the crossing nor end inattentive driving, but they will
increase the chances that motorists will receive warning in time to
stop safely at Fifth & Las Posas for an oncoming train. I hope that
public officials throughout Ventura County support a half-cent sales
tax dedicated solely to transportation improvement projects.
$1.5 Million Allocated to Design a Railroad Grade Separation at Fifth St. & Rice Ave., Oxnard, California
In April 2015, I published an article
regarding the March 24, 2015 Metrolink collision in Oxnard,
California. That predawn collision injured thirty-three passengers and
took the life of Metrolink Senior Engineer Glenn Steele. With its daily traffic count of 35,000 vehicles, the Fifth Street and Rice Avenue (Fifth & Rice) grade crossing already ranked as the deadliest in Ventura County.
During my April 2015 visit to the site, I noted that the southbound
Rice Ave. approach to the crossing remained as derelict as it was prior
to the collision.
Since then, I have published a series of rail-safety articles,
each of which mentioned specific unsafe conditions at Fifth &
Rice. To be fair, Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) completed minor repairs
to the traffic warning system and rebuilt a fence destroyed by the Metrolink cabcar
during the collision. Now, thirteen months after the latest deadly
collision at Fifth & Rice, the busy rail crossing still looks much
as it has for decades.
In
past articles, I have called out the UPRR, the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC), the California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans), Rail Corridor Agency LOSSAN, Metrolink, the City of Oxnard and the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC)
for their sluggish response to the ongoing dangers at Fifth &
Rice. Simple upgrades, such as repaving the Rice Ave. southbound
approach, restriping its safety lines and adding additional pylons and
street-level reflectors have not happened. Inexpensive changes of this
type could militate against an accidental turn on to the UPRR tracks.
It was just such a wrong turn that led to the 2015 Oxnard Metrolink
collision.
According to evidence at the scene, all of the agencies listed in the
previous paragraph dithered, delayed or ignored short-term fixes of the
obvious deficiencies at Fifth & Rice. Meanwhile, one person made
it her mission to help solve both the short-term and long-term safety
issues existing there. That person is Congresswoman Julia Brownley
(D-Westlake Village). Soon after the February 2015 Oxnard Metrolink
collision, Brownley stepped up her communications with several
agencies, including Caltrans, the CPUC and the Federal Railroad
Administration.
In a March 2, 2015 letter to Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty and CPUC President Michael Picker,
Brownley implored both agencies to free up some of the unallocated $42
million in federal safety grants then languishing within those
agencies. On April 30, 2015, Dougherty wrote a letter
to the Brownley, indicating that none of the rail grade crossings in
Ventura County ranked high enough on the “priority diagnostic list” to
warrant funding at this time.
In defense of CPUC actions, Dougherty sited $7.4 million in funds
allocated to Ventura County in 2015. As the lead agency in the Sealed
Corridor Project, Metrolink utilized those funds to upgrade warning and
safety systems at three grade crossings in Simi Valley and another in
Moorpark. Why Fifth & Rice, the busiest and deadliest commercial
grade crossing in Ventura County received no mention or funding is a
mystery of bureaucratic communications and cooperation.
In his April 30, 2015 letter to Brownley, Dougherty made the following statement: “The
at-grade crossing at issue, on Rice Avenue in Oxnard, is equipped with
median islands, quad gates, flashing lights, audible warning bells,
and an interconnected traffic signal
in addition to the required pavement markings and advance warning
signage. Further improvements could be a grade separation. We will work
with Ventura County to consider the State of California’s Section 190 Program as a possible funding source for this solution.”
Technically, everything that Dougherty wrote at that time is defensibly
correct, but the actual conditions at that intersection are nowhere
near as safe as state officials would have us believe. Here are my
rebuttals, point by point:
“Median islands, quad gates, flashing lights, audible warning bells” – At the time of Dougherty’s letter, the support structure for the overhead warning lights, known as a crossbuck showed evidence of damage
from an earlier traffic collision. Only after I published photos
showing the perilous condition of the overhead safety equipment did the
UPRR replace the entire unit.
“An interconnected traffic signal” – When a
train approaches the crossing, the traffic signals on Rice Ave. turn
red. The left turn signal from Fifth St. East to Rice Ave. North also
turns red. When a train is present, those signals keep traffic
northbound on Rice Ave. from crossing the tracks. Normally, the traffic
signals approaching the tracks northbound work as intended.
“Interconnected traffic signal (cont.)”
– Southbound on Rice Ave, the traffic signals do not provide adequate
safety for vehicles stopping at Fifth St. The distance from the
crosswalk at Fifth St. to the railroad tracks is less than fifty feet.
As the major truck route to Naval Base Ventura County and the Port of Hueneme,
hundreds of big rigs travel south on Rice Ave. every day.
Inexperienced or unknowledgeable truck drivers often pull across the
tracks and stop at the intersection, waiting there for a green light.
While waiting there, the rear portion of a fifty-three foot long trailer overhangs the railroad tracks.
If cross traffic prevented an idling tractor-trailer from moving
forward in time, an approaching train could easily strike the trailer.
“Required pavement markings and advance warning signage” – On the southbound Rice Ave. approach, the pavement is cracked, rutted and generally worn out. Likewise, the pavement markings appear worn, cracked and faded. On approach to the tracks, there are no road reflectors of any kind,
thus making a nighttime approach a disorienting experience for drivers
unfamiliar with the intersection. Within a few yards of the tracks,
there are two small signs reading, “Do Not Stop on Tracks”. Other than
the crossbuck and the faded roadway markings, those two small signs are
the only visual warnings for big rig drivers. The overhead crossbuck
should include a lighted, flashing sign reading, “Big Rigs Stop Here on
Red Signal”.
The
cause of the February 2015 Oxnard Metrolink collision is not in
dispute. Mr. Jose Sanchez-Ramirez mistook the railroad right-of-way for
Fifth St. After making an errant right turn, Sanchez-Ramirez drove his
work truck and utility trailer on to the railroad tracks. Eighty feet
west of Rice Ave., his rig came to rest. Soon thereafter, Metrolink Train Number 102
struck the disabled truck, derailing all of the cars in the train,
injuring thirty-three and ultimately causing the death of Senior
Engineer Glenn Steele.
With the prevalence of faded or nonexistent roadway safety markings, it
is easy to see how Sanchez-Ramirez made that mistake. Almost one year
later, an unnamed agency installed one small reflective pylon near the
curb, on either side of the tracks. Although intended to warn drivers
not to turn on the tracks, the two pylons now appear to be the entrance
to a small roadway, thus creating the opposite of the intended effect.
To avoid continued confusion, especially at night, the responsible
agency should immediately install multiple reflective pylons and a
string of road reflectors spanning the railroad right of way.
In December 2015, President Obama signed a $305 billion highway bill,
intended to keep our highway infrastructure from deteriorating even
further. Within that bill was an allocation of $1.5 million designated
for the initial design of a grade separation and highway overpass at
Rice Ave. and Fifth St., in Oxnard, California. When no one else could,
or would do anything substantial to solve the problems associated with
that deadly grade crossing, Rep. Julia Brownley stepped up and secured
that funding. In doing so, she created the first step toward ending the
serial disaster that is the grade crossing at Fifth & Rice.
On March 29, 2016, politicians, bureaucrats and the press gathered at the Oxnard Transit Center to celebrate the $1.5 million federal grant.
As several Amtrak trains whizzed by just a few yards away,
representatives from the Federal Railroad Administration, Caltrans, the
Ventura County Transportation Commission, the City of Oxnard and
Metrolink all spoke about the need for safety improvements at Fifth
& Rice. With no half-cent sales tax levy in Ventura County
focused on transportation projects, none of the speakers mentioned that
it might take ten years to secure funding for the $42 million grade
separation and overpass. Still, the conclave and its message amounted
to a small step in the right direction.
After
the close of the public ceremony in Oxnard, I once again visited the
dangerous intersection at Fifth St. and Rice Ave. With news cameras from
several Los Angeles TV outlets
rolling, a Metrolink official and I watched typical midday traffic at
the grade crossing. In less than thirty minutes, a local freight train
traveled north and an Amtrak train traveled south along the tracks. In
the interval between the two trains, at least one big rig stopped for
the southbound signal at Rice Ave. For more than one minute, its trailer
blocked the tracks.
Moments later, as the Metrolink representative and I looked on, a late
model Camaro approached the tracks southbound on Rice Ave. As the
traffic signal changed to amber, the driver sped up to perhaps
fifty-five miles per hour. After the Camaro crossed the tracks, it
briefly went airborne, and then landed hard in the middle of Fifth St.
From there, it continued at high speed. In my mind, I pictured that
driver seeing flashing red lights at that grade crossing. Would he have
skidded to a stop or tried to drive under the safety gates as they
descended? In 2009, motorist Joel Anthony Arias,
20, tried to beat a train to the same crossing. Both he and his
passenger died in a high-speed collision with an Amtrak train.
Several
days after the ceremony, Julia Brownley continued her efforts to seek
interim solutions to the safety problems at Fifth & Rice. In a
letter to one of the passengers injured in the 2015 Oxnard Metrolink collision, Brownley’s staff members wrote; “Ms.
Brownley has visited the site, and has been trying to get the state to
address the marking issue. In fact, she spoke to CPUC President Picker
about the need to improve the markings. At Ms. Brownley’s urging, CPUC
sent a team to inspect the crossing. Ms. Brownley requested that our
District Director accompany them during the inspection. Our District
Director pointed out the deficiencies in the markings, and showed them
pictures of other crossings that had new, more visible, reflective
markings. We also provided those photos to President Picker. The CPUC
team is preparing a report based on that inspection, and we have
requested a copy.”
Now,
over one year after the death of Senior Engineer Glenn Steele and the
injury of dozens more, we begin to see some small steps toward
increasing public safety at the deadliest grade crossing in Ventura
California. When no one else could or would address rail safety at the
street level, Brownley and her staff persisted in their advocacy and
actions. On behalf of all who must cross the tracks at Fifth &
Rice, I offer special thanks to Congresswoman Julia Brownley and her
dedicated staff.
Mismatched Braking Systems on Metrolink Trains Presage Disaster
On October 1, 2015, I wrote about Southern California regional rail passenger carrier Metrolink’s decision
to lease forty Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) freight
locomotives. In September 2015, the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) had notified Metrolink that serious safety deficiencies existed on their Hyundai-Rotem cabcars. The deficiencies involved the February 24, 2015 Oxnard Metrolink collision that injured scores of passengers and took the life of Metrolink Senior Engineer Glenn Steele.
In Oxnard, the “pilot”,
a blade that rides just above track level at the front of each cabcar,
had failed in a collision with the work truck. As the Metrolink cabcar
swept over the truck, the pilot detached and disappeared into the
wreckage. Speculation was strong that the detached pilot had
contributed to the derailment of the cabcar and the several coaches
riding behind it.
Information from NTSB to Metrolink and then via Dan Weikel of the L.A.
Times to the public pointed to structural failure. The steel in both the
pilot and its support struts was too porous to withstand the load of
the Oxnard collision. In addition, welds between the struts and the
pilot showed gaps or porosity that weakened the entire assembly.
Confronted with an obvious public safety hazard, Metrolink made a snap
decision to place a locomotive at each end of every train set.
On December 31, 2015,
I rode on one of the first “double-ender” Metrolink trains traveling
from Chatsworth to Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS). It was quite a
sight to see a 420,000 lb. BNSF locomotive pulling a five-coach train
back toward LAUS. The conductor on the train told me that both the BNSF
locomotive and the Metrolink locomotive at the other end provided
motive power while operating in either direction.
Citing
available statistics for the weight of each locomotive and various
Metrolink coaches, I wrote in October 2015, “Riding on four axles,
current Metrolink diesel locomotives weigh 280,000 lb. At over 420,000
lb., the six-axle BNSF freight locomotives
are fifty percent heavier. A 2015 five-car Metrolink train weighed
approximately 460,000 lb. By adding a freight locomotive at one end,
each "heavy iron" BNSF train set will weigh 880,000 lb., an increase of
ninety-one percent.”
The sole purpose of adding the BNSF locomotives was to assure that any
motor vehicle encountered on the tracks would be obliterated. Still
unclear was how the braking systems on a double-ender would perform
while stopping a 440-ton train. I reflected my concern by titling my
October 1, 2015 article, “Metrolink Plans for Live Brake-Tests of BNSF
‘Heavy Iron’ Train-Sets on Commuter Tracks”.
At
the Chatsworth Station on March 15, 2016, I discovered the answer to my
questions about “heavy iron” and braking safety. The answer is that
Metrolink double-ender train sets appear to be unsafe. The newly
configured Metrolink train sets are a hodgepodge of engines and
coaches. The BNSF freight locomotives
are better suited to dynamic (engine) braking, rather than using their
pneumatic braking system. Each train set also includes an
ill-maintained Metrolink locomotive pushing from the rear. In normal
“stop and go” usage between Metrolink stations, both locomotives rely
on their pneumatic braking systems.
In between the two locomotives are the heavy, steel-sheathed Hyundai-Rotem coaches and lighter monocoque aluminum Bombardier Bi-level coaches. While both locomotives rely on pneumatic “brake blocks”
similar to old-fashioned brake shoes, the Hyundai-Rotem coaches employ
outboard disk brakes. Depending on their state of refurbishment, the
Bombardier Bi-level coaches appear to utilize various combinations of
disk brake and block brake systems.
Each locomotive and coach in any train set connects to its mates with
high-pressure air hoses. When the engineer applies the pneumatic brakes,
every block or disk in the system activates, creating friction and
heat, thus slowing the train. With such diversity in ages and types of
braking systems, each wheel-truck may receive a different level of
braking power, leading to different stress and patterns of wear.
By
Metrolink’s own admission, the agency does not conduct major
preventative maintenance or periodic overhauls of its locomotive fleet.
The agency prefers, instead, to run its locomotives until breakdown,
and then conduct maintenance sufficient only to get a broken locomotive
back in service. While allowing its current fleet of locomotives to self-destruct on the tracks, Metrolink is spending $338 Million
in taxpayer money on new "Tier-4" locomotives. Metrolink may or may
not conduct preventative maintenance on its locomotive braking systems.
Since Metrolink does not publish information regarding maintenance of
braking systems, no one knows.
In addition to aging and mismatched locomotives, Bombardier Bi-level
coaches, are included in virtually every Metrolink train set. With over
one million miles of service each, wheels with flat spots are a common
problem on the
Bombardier Bi-level coaches. On those coaches, some wheel-trucks
include retrofits to disk brakes while others appear to utilize the
older brake-block systems. With so many mismatches and deficiencies
elsewhere, the relatively small disk brakes on the newer Hyundai-Rotem coaches and cabcars absorb much of the total braking load.
With all of the mismatched coaches and locomotives, the easiest way to
detect brake wear on a Metrolink train is to inspect the Hyundai-Rotem
brake rotors, which ride outboard of the wheels. While conducting a
casual inspection of the Hyundai-Rotem brakes, I was shocked to see
that every visible brake rotor displayed thermal-fatigue cracks (heat checking) radiating from the hub towards the outside edges of the rotors.
I
am not a metallurgical engineer, but I have driven many vehicles that
include disk brakes. The Hyundai-Rotem disk brakes are larger and
feature pneumatic actuation. Otherwise, automotive disk brakes are
quite similar to the Hyundai-Rotem type. After an automotive brake
inspection, no competent mechanic would allow me to drive away with
extensive thermal damage evident on my rotors. With the heat-induced
cracks that I recently discovered on Hyundai-Rotem brake rotors, why
are those damaged safety components still rolling on Metrolink coaches
today? As Metrolink knows from the deadly Glendale (2005), Chatsworth
(2008) and Oxnard (2015) collisions, greater attention to safety might
prevent the next Metrolink rail disaster.
Inadequate Track Maintenance Puts Metrolink Passengers At Risk
While
at the Chatsworth Station, I walked the platform from south to north.
When viewing railroad tracks up close, I like to observe the condition
of the infrastructure. Are any of the railroad ties rotten? Are many of
the spikes loose? Are palm trees growing up between the rails? At
Chatsworth, I found instances of all these deficiencies. Why does any
of this matter?
As I looked more closely, I observed a broken rail anchor
lying by the tracks at that exact location. After the Mosier, Oregon
derailment, Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) admitted that despite repeated
visual inspections, specifically looking for deficiencies, inspectors
missed badly corroded and rusted bolts. In the case of Chatsworth, the
Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), better known as
Metrolink, owns and operates the double-track through Chatsworth
Station.
In his April 30, 2015 letter to Brownley, Dougherty made the following statement: 
