Answers sought after deadly New York train derailment

On Monday, a day after a Metro-North commuter train veered off its rails on a sharply curved section of track in the Bronx, leaving four dead and 11 injured critically, investigators and commentators began seeking answers.

While the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation could take up to 10 days to complete, many have jumped into the fray of speculation and analysis surrounding the derailment. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he believes that the speed of the train and the operator’s actions were most likely the reason for the incident.

"This was a tricky turn on the system, but it’s a turn that’s been here for decades and trains negotiate all day long,” he said on NBC's "Today" show Monday. “It’s not about the turn. I think it’s going to turn out to be about the speed more than anything, and the operator’s operation of the train at that time.”

Preliminary information retrieved from two data recorders seems to point to excessive speed as a contributing factor in the accident.

"The train was traveling at approximately 82 miles an hour at the entrance of a 30 mile an hour curve," NTSB board member Earl Weener told reporters on Monday afternoon.

But Weener warned that it could take some time before data from the boxes is fully analyzed and made available to the public. The NTSB also said it would formally interview the train’s engineer on Monday.

The NTSB has recently urged Metro-North, as well as other railroads, to install technology that can remotely stop trains from speeding. Railways are mandated to install the systems by 2015, but because of the complexity of the technology it’s not clear if that deadline will be reached.

While it's still too early to pinpoint one cause of the accident, transportation experts highlighted maintenance problems that have plagued the financially-struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority. They also raised concerns about the U.S.'s aging rail infrastructure in general.

Much of the Hudson line, where the derailment occurred, has been in operation for over 100 years, and the MTA has spent more and more of its capital budget on fixing the track over the years. But that hasn’t stopped the Hudson line, as well as the rest of the Metro-North railroad, from running into problems.

Just four months ago, a freight train running on the same Metro-North line derailed about half-a-mile away from where the commuter train derailed on Sunday. The crash was the second passenger train to derail in the Metro-North system in six months — in May a train derailed near Bridgeport, Conn., injuring 76 people. A Long Island Rail Road train also derailed this year. The MTA put together a panel to study the derailments after May’s incident.

Derailments aren’t the only issues the MTA has had this year.

Just two weeks after May’s derailment, a track foreman was killed by a train. The NTSB determined the accident was caused when the out-of-service track was placed back into service by a student operating the traffic controls who failed to request approval from a supervisor. And in September, a power cable in Mount Vernon, New York failed, knocking out power to the New Haven line for 12 days. The line is used by about 132,000 commuters daily.

By its own admission, Metro-North is in need of track and safety upgrades. At an NTSB panel convened after the May derailment, the railway’s chief engineer, Robert Puciloski, told board members that the Metro-North was “behind in several areas,” including routine maintenance on some sections of track. In its most recent long-term budget document, the railway said it would need $8.9 billion over the next 20 years, a quarter of which would be used to improve tracks and other structures.

William Henderson, the director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said he didn’t want to speculate on the cause of Sunday’s crash. But he said the number of incidences in the recent past is cause for worry.

“That’s out of the ordinary for most people’s experience,” he told Al Jazeera.  “I think we have to be very careful about treating everything as a one-off incident and not getting to institutional issues. Obviously, you can’t help but be concerned.”

Other experts seemed to agree. Regardless of the cause of Sunday’s derailment, they say it's time to address the issue of aging infrastructure.

"I don't know anymore than anyone else what caused this accident, but the fact remains we're trying to run a 21st century economy with 19th century infrastructure," said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D, called for an investigation into the maintenance practices of the railway on Monday.

One of the most vocal critics of the country’s infrastructure in the day after the crash has been former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  

“We need the leadership of people to stand up and say we've got to make the investments and spend the money correctly, put friends and neighbors to work and make America number one in infrastructure again,” he said on MSNBC on Monday morning. “It’s going to be up to Congress, it's going to be up to the administration, it’s going to be up to the people to decide that they're sick and tired of driving on crumbling roads, driving on bad, dangerous bridges and riding on 50-year-old transit systems that need repair for tracks, for new cars and new infrastructure.”

With wire services