New high-speed Florida train kills 4th person since launching service

People are so inpatient.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-high-speed-florida-train-kills-4th-person-since-launching-service/ar-AAvDKi1?ocid=spartanntp

It's a real shame. I hope Brightline succeeds but will admit I couldn't believe the frequency of grade crossings along the route when I watched some footage. You would never see that on high speed(ish) rail elsewhere in the world.
The Government/FEC should spend some money on proper scare adverts for TV/ Billboards and have survivors come to schools to tell their story. We have dangerous roads in Aus that have signage in areas where fatalities have occurred. Even if you built footbridges people would rather take the shortest route, education is the answer.

Operation Lifesaver needs to do the rounds down there. Yeah people don't like to wait a few minutes for a train to pass.

Why is 112 KPH called "high speed" there, it's the speed of most of our suburban trains here

MF01 said:

Why is 112 KPH called "high speed" there, it's the speed of most of our suburban trains here

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I'm not entirely sure, 70mph isn't exactly "high speed" in the US either, I don't know the exact situation but it might just be its "high speed" for the area.

Sounds like natural selection at work, albeit not very nice for those who have to clean up afterwards.

Do these crossings have full barriers and any form of traffic (offence) camera installed? If putting in a bridge or closing the road is not practical then maybe the equipment needs beefing up.

One of the reasons (so legend would have it) VIA Rail withdrew their Calgary to Edmonton RDC passenger service in the mid 80's was the number of vehicle and pedestrian fatalities at the numerous level crossings.

MF01 said:

Why is 112 KPH called "high speed" there, it's the speed of most of our suburban trains here

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It's called "higher-speed" not "high speed" for trains like that. It's actually kind of funny because Brightline is barely "higher speed". The Amtrak trains in Michigan go faster than Brightline does (110 MPH between Kalamazoo and Porter, goal is between Dearborn and Porter).

Bluewater said:

It's called "higher-speed" not "high speed" for trains like that. It's actually kind of funny because Brightline is barely "higher speed". The Amtrak trains in Michigan go faster than Brightline does (110 MPH between Kalamazoo and Porter, goal is between Dearborn and Porter).

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Yup. What's interesting on this vein is Pan Am Railways wanted to limit Amtrak's top speed on the Downeaster route to 50 mph because they didn't want to do the maintenance to bring the tracks up to standard 79mph standards for Amtrak's long distance run. Amtrak won the case if I remember.

JCitron said:

Yup. What's interesting on this vein is Pan Am Railways wanted to limit Amtrak's top speed on the Downeaster route to 50 mph because they didn't want to do the maintenance to bring the tracks up to standard 79mph standards for Amtrak's long distance run. Amtrak won the case if I remember.

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Don't forget that the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority provides the funding for the Downeaster. Amtrak probably would be doing 50 mph if it wasn't for them.

Brightline is at fault only for the level crossings. It isn't their fault that people cannot simply wait for the damn train to pass and they can live the rest of their lives. Me personally, I have never crossed the tracks when I knew a train was coming. I know no train fan is that stupid to save precious minutes. People think that when the guy driving the train see's you, he will immediately stop the train and it will take a few minutes to stop like a car. But in reality, even a train like the Acela or the Brightline trains can take nearly 1/2 a mile to stop. Considering the train is moving at speed, and how powerful emergency brakes are, it can take a long time for a trains operating under Brightline to stop if they are moving at speed. It would be better for them to not have any level crossings and instead have better crossings or less crossing to lower the death toll.

This is my perspective of the situation. I can tell the families of the deceased must be going through a lot and probably blame the railroad rather than seeing what really happened when they died.

just replace it with a steam engine. Ah, steam engines :udrool:

jordon412 said:

Don't forget that the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority provides the funding for the Downeaster. Amtrak probably would be doing 50 mph if it wasn't for them.

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That's right because Guilford, at the time, did not want to even get the line above that. Their freight mainline speeds are 40 mph and below, and at that time they could barely get up to 20 mph on the West End where they outlawed once they got past the commuter territory in Fitchburg. It wasn't until courts and NNPRA stepped up the pressure that Guilford went along with the better track on the Portland Division, and NS stepping in and literally taking over the West End infrastructure through their partnership with Pan Am, forming Pan Am Southern, has the system seen any real improvements. Outside these areas, PAR is same old, same old 40 mph or less operations on what were once a 65 mph passenger and 45 mph freight lines.