SAN JOSE (KCBS/AP) -- Advocates of a high-speed rail between the Bay Area and Los Angeles say a crash like the one Friday that killed 25 when a Metrolink train rolled past a signal light at 42 miles per hour and crashed into a Union Pacific freight train would be almost impossible on the proposed system.
Freight trains would not share the 800 miles of track, and the bullet trains shuttling between the two metropolitan areas would have triple-redundancy built into their signaling systems.
Rod Diridon, executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute, said similar precautions are why the safety record is so good on Japan’s 50-year-old system of bullet trains and in France, which has had high-speed rail for three decades. “Neither have had one fatality.”
KCBS' Matt Bigler reports
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board have determined a signal light at the site of the crash was working properly, and there was nothing blocking the engineer from seeing the red light.
The NTSB says the commuter train rolled past stop signals at 42 miles per hour and forced its way onto a track where a Union Pacific freight was barreling toward it.
The accident is sure to lend fuel to those arguing against a $10 billion bond on the November ballot that Diridon and others view as a make it or break it moment for plans to build 800 miles of track that have been in the works since 1993.
Opponents of the bond say the state cannot afford to repay what will become nearly $20 billion over 30 years.
Supporters contend the amount of traffic that will be removed from Interstate 5 justify the cost. A Field Poll in July found just over one of every five voters even familiar with the bond. Most of those surveyed, when they heard the language of the proposition, said they would vote for it.
(jro)
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