Head-on train collisions can be avoided by simply keeping one train per track. There's a plan to make that happen, but it's years from implementation.
"Now, one year after the Metrolink catastrophe - and 152 years after the New York tragedy - laws have been passed, money has been allocated, and a few small changes have been made in operating procedures. But the one system that would have prevented this catastrophe, "positive train control," known as PTC, will not be fully implemented before 2012. That is three years earlier than the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which mandates PTC on all passenger rails in the United States.
Is it really that simple? Policymakers say so."
The National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for the PTC system since 1990.
FULL STORY: Rail's 150-Year Wait for Safety
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research