Steve Carter
WASHINGTON – Investigators in a two-day hearing covering two recent fatal Amtrak derailments are questioning the safety of Talgo trains involved in one of the derailments. The equipment operates under a Federal Railroad Administration waiver.
The derailment in December 2017 killed three and injured more than 60. It occurred on the first Amtrak Cascades trip using a new route, the Point Defiance Bypass.
“Now that we have evidence of how the Talgo trainset performs in a crash, does the FRA have any concerns that would cause you to re-examine your decision to grandfather this equipment?” National Transportation Safety Board investigator Michael Hiller asked a witness from FRA, as quoted by Bloomberg.
In response, the FRA’s Gary Fairbanks said, “I didn’t see anything as the way the cars performed that would cause us to go back and reconsider the grandfathering petition because the items that were covered in the grandfathering petition performed adequately.”
Trains News Wire will have more details from the hearing as they are available.
