on an acela train last night, this accident would not have happened because there is automatic train stop that is part of the acela system. so it is possible to do this even though we don t have positive train control implemented nationwide. and frankly, i don t understand why we haven t implemented positive train stop on the northeast corridor. we can do it. professor, let me ask you about that the automatic train stop. how is it to put in trains and trains that don t have it as in this one? well there s unexpected problems. when they passed the law, there were nine systems under test throughout the united states and they re all they re all incompatible. and it literally took them years to agree on engineering standards. now that may sound like foot-dragging, but i like to illustrate that problem with well, ibm and apple computers were incompatible for decades. and they actually never solved
rules. the asella train has something called positive train control, or automatic train stop. so that speed is monitored, and if the engineer for whatever reason, is exceeding the speed, the train will automatically stop. you ve got an amtrak train in this accident that apparently did not have that feature. so it is possible through technology to monitor speed. we will know more once we get the read out of the black box. but from my perspective, that technology ought to be on every train in the northeast corridor. so this was a regional train. that technology to monitor speed was not on the regional train. in terms of when you hear that the train was traveling at over 100 miles per hour possibly as high as 107, what was your initial thought? well clearly speed is a major factor in this accident. but we need to know why the speed was exceeded. was it operator error? did he try to apply the brakes and the bricks didn t work?