Comments on: New Metro-North cars fail stress test

By: babbaganush

babbaganush — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:34:44 +0000

For the clowns on here complaining about stringent safety testing – share your gripes with the six dead and scores of seriously injured folks from the DC commuter crash. I’m sure your arguments will carry a lot of weight with them.

By: Donald

Donald — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:09:54 +0000

I like the old M3s…

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:20:31 +0000

It’s what I call the “cat in the safe” model of safety. Imagine, if you will, putting a cat in a safe and dropping it out of a building. The criterion for safety is whether the safe was dented or not. Incidentally, automotive safety was also kind of like that in the bad old days, but now cars (and European trains) make use of crumple zones, which are designed to deform in a collision in such a way that the structure absorbs the impact energy and provides a slightly more gradual deceleration. I think this whole “buffing strength” regulation has its roots in rules for freight railroads designed to ensure that cars will survive a “hard coupling” in a hump yard.

By: pete

pete — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:36:19 +0000

Must be the american way. Americans are too irresponsible and narcissistic to drive a auto or train correctly. So you must fortify each vehicle to survive insane accidents, so the idiot can walk out, then drive another vehicle irresponsibly. Its pretty much impossible for there to be a crash, occupied block is 15 mph, and the blocks before it are tiered slow downs, at most driver would be killed, passengers just shaken up. Freight trains move so slow (30 mph), I can’t see how there can be an accident. MN/LIRR isn’t the american west where the passenger train must stop and the conductor moves the switch by hand.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:08:39 +0000

The emphasis on stress tests is what is wrong with American railroads today. In other developed countries, the safety standards are for signaling and accident elimination, rather than crash safety. The American crash safety standards are so stringent that they require trains to be much heavier than they have to be, increasing their cost and energy consumption and reducing their speed and acceleration.

By: Jaystreet

Jaystreet — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:57:54 +0000

Buckled? Aren’t these a modified M7 design? The poor New Haven riders – will they ever get new cars?