Of the six major crashes, four involved cab cars in front, three of which derailed after striking motor vehicles. In an Orange County crash three years ago, a cab car was crumpled when it was struck head-on at 23 mph by a freight train. Three passengers died and 141 were injured. The freight train crew walked away.
In contrast, there were two Metrolink accidents involving locomotives in front, none involving passenger fatalities. One of those derailed -- when it struck the back of a freight train in Fullerton. Nineteen passengers were hurt in that accident. In another crash, a locomotive struck a tractor-trailer carrying a huge oil condenser unit at more than 70 mph, injuring six onboard. The train did not derail.
George Gavalla, former safety chief at the Federal Railroad Administration, is part of a large group of experts who say it would be a mistake to impose tougher crash standards or forbid push operations in the passenger rail industry.
"It is common sense that if you have a head-on collision, you would be better off in a train with a locomotive to absorb the collision forces," Gavalla said. "But is it that much safer? Not really. The most effective strategy is to prevent accidents."
Tougher standards would cause passenger fares to rise and result in more people using less safe highways, the industry's defenders say.
Gavalla and others argue that investments in rail safety would be better spent on such things as electronic collision warning devices and new technology that would notify train engineers of debris and motor vehicles on the tracks.
One approach to eliminating cab cars is to turn trains around at terminus points, so that locomotives are always in front. Rail agencies argue that reorienting trains causes delays that passengers would find unacceptable.
In addition, many agencies, including Metrolink, lack the special Y-shaped track needed to turn around trains in many stations and could have problems building such tracks even if they wanted to.
"The larger issue is not the millions of dollars it would take to build them, but the land availability," said David Solow, chief executive of Metrolink.
Some passenger lines, such as the 77-mile Caltrain system in the Bay Area, have agreements that restrict freight trains during peak commute times to reduce the possibility of collisions. By contrast, Metrolink shares its corridors with an average of 60 freight trains a day.
