Amtrak’s Unethical Timetable

What is it that pushes executives to make unethical decisions? Is it the need for power, for money, out of ego or all of those factors?  On December 18, 2017, Amtrak train 501 tumbled off of an overpass. Three people died and more than 100 were injured. It was tragic. It was the first trip for the so-named Point Defiance Bypass route, and ever since the accident the route has been halted pending investigations.

Amtrak: Trouble Ahead

However, the investigation may not be quite as complex as is predicted if the investigators would only listen to the engineers and conductors. The crew members voiced complaints to their supervisors far ahead of the crash. At least a few of the complaints can be summarized as follows:

• Crews felt rushed, that they were inadequately trained on the new route,
• Training runs did not allow crews to familiarize themselves with the signs, terrain and other physical characteristics of the route,
• Trainees claim they often rode in cars backwards and at night
• Engineers felt they did not get enough practice runs at the controls,
• The locomotives for the maiden run were unfamiliar to many of the crew members up until the brief training runs.
• There were several other problems and even those who received training on the new locomotives claimed the training was done on different routes or in the wrong direction.

While it is not surprising that the engineer who was behind the throttle of 501 commented that, “he would not have gotten behind the throttle if he had any reservations about his readiness to operate the train,” what cannot be denied is that he was barreling along at 80 miles an hour when he should have been going 30. He applied the brakes way too late.

Amtrak has publicly stated: “Our highest priority is ensuring the safety of our passengers, our crew and the communities we serve. We are actively taking measures to strengthen the safety of our operations, from adopting a safety management system approach used by commercial aviation to advancing Positive Train Control across the network. We will continue to work with the NTSB to learn from this accident and improve.”

Positive Train Control

The Positive Train Control (PTC) Amtrak has mentioned puzzles me. In addition to the inadequate training the crew members state, the PTC system if put into place, would have automatically slowed the train. Why wasn’t the system designed with that feature when other new systems are actively using it?

Investigators have stated that due to a lack of training, and the perceived intimidation workers felt at making complaints, they simply went along with the program rather than pointing out the problems. It is clear to investigators that the engineer of 501 lost track of his location. He lacked the essential training. Since there was no PTC backup, he was doomed to failure.

However, there may have been a whole layer above the lack of training and the failure to institute PTC: a loss of funding.

The Point Defiance Bypass was a part of an $800 million federal economic high-speed rail stimulus package. The money was due to run out by the end of 2017. Time, and in this case, training time would have changed the date of the maiden run of 501.They might have placed a deadline above human safety.

The head of the NTSB stated:

“Amtrak’s safety culture is failing, and is primed to fail again, until and unless Amtrak changes the way it practices safety management. Investigators found a labor-management relationship so adversarial that safety programs became contentious at the bargaining table, with the unions ultimately refusing to participate.”

From my point of view Amtrak suffers more than anything else from a system-wide ethical failure.

It is ironic, for example that the 501 route will not be allowed to run until PTC has been installed and is fully functional. I agree. PTC can – and could have – saved lives on the night of December 18^th, but it is not a new technology and it has been instituted on new routes since 2015. Why then, wasn’t it in place for the maiden trip of 501?

Has Amtrak’s unethical culture created such an adversarial environment that no one cares? In an era when America’s railways are clinging to life, why has ethical behavior been relegated to the back seat? When no one cares, when arrogance rules, people die. In a not so twisted way, “501” reminds me of the Titanic. Some things never change when ethics are forgotten.

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