By PATRICK ADRIAN
[email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A week after indicating that the company might cease the Vermonter train route, Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said the company is looking at low-cost alternatives to improve safety on sections of the route.
Anderson clarified Amtrak’s plan during Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on Thursday. He was responding to concerns expressed by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., about the potential impact if the Vermonter was eliminated.
“The Vermonter is a really good route for us,”Anderson told Hassan. “It’s not one that economically or otherwise we would ever be motivated to do anything to.”
The Vermonter connects St. Albans, Vt., to Washington D.C. Stations along the route include Windsor, Vt., Claremont, N.H. and Bellows Falls, Vt. Legislation is in the works to extend the northern end of the line into Montreal.
However, Amtrak does want to address ways to improve safety in “dark territories” on the Vermonter rail line, according to Anderson.
Retired railroad operator Fred Bailey of Enfield, N.H., explained that Vermont’s two Amtrak passenger lines, the Vermonter and the Ethan Allen, each have sections of track that have no electronic signal system or dispatch communication, called Centralized Traffic Control, to warn the conductor of hazards. In dark territories, the conductor is the manual operator of the train.
There is nothing to guide a conductor on manual track, Bailey said. There is nothing to warn the conductor to control the speed during a snowstorm or fallen rocks on the track, for example.
The Vermonter has one dark territory, an 11-mile stretch of track between Brattleboro, Vt. And Vernon, Vt.
On Feb. 16, Anderson told the committee that Amtrak was questioning whether to stop any lines not running computer-based Positive Train Control technology by the end of 2018. While Positive Train Control is required for many track lines under the federal Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, less-trafficked rail lines like the Vermonter are exempt.
Regarding why Anderson would suggest shutting down lines not required to have the technology, Bailey said Anderson might possibly be concerned about the public perception of train safety following recent passenger derailments in Pennsylvania and Washington.
Anderson told Hassan on Thursday that “after going to Washington or one of these accident sites it really sharpens one focus.”
Anderson said that Amtrak is undertaking a risk assessment of lines including the Vermonter line to determine what steps the company can take in the short-run to mitigate operations in manually-controlled sections. Alternatives to Positive Train Control could include employing lower cost European technologies that restrict train speed, or imposing safety regulations like requiring conductors to ride in the front of the train through dark territories.
Hassan worried about a potential shutdown of the Vermonter. In addition to its use by New Hampshire residents in the Connecticut River Valley region, one of the Vermonter’s stations is Claremont, the only stop in New Hampshire.
Ridersship at the Claremont Station has increased significantly in recent years, from just over 2,100 riders in 2014 to over 3,000 last year. Volunteers through The Claremont Amtrak Ad Hoc Committee have effectively improved the station’s lighting, built a new waiting shelter and marketing.
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