Was the engineer alone in this case?

remain the same. Why put a new train on an old line w/o automatic speed control? We had a major CSX derailment here on the Hudson River last March its still not entirely up to snuff. They continue to rework the rails. This country is so far behind in rail tech and stock.

Freight service is pretty amazing considering the distance of track and the quantity of goods travelling across it. The passenger track speed for the derailment was 79 mph which probably means 69 mph for freight. That's not shabby.

See post #14 here.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029999762#post14

have delayed a federal rule that would require a type of governor be installed that would over-ride human error and slow the train. They can do it now but do not want to pay for it so they beg politicians to let them slide. I bet not even this will change anything.

Not getting paid for train time? What line?

no 30 mph curves, no crossing gates that I could see, the train bed was built up with a bridge over automobile roads. Very smooth-smoother ride than our 50 - 60 mph trains.

every time he cancels a new regulation we need to talk about this. RR co's have delayed installing safety device in the tracks that would over-ride human error and slow the train. Europe has been using this technology for years but US RR has successfully delayed using it.

I mean, I like high-tech as much as the next guy, but 19th century practices should have prevented this accident.

...speculation is that the Engineer didn't see or respond to it, and was possibly unfamiliar with operations on the new route (this was the first day of opersation).

My current theory is that the engineer was either killed or critically injured (I read that in addition to the fatalities, there were three "red tag" injured) and thus can't be questioned about what happened.