Why does it seem that Amtrak trains are the only ones that crash and/or de-rail?

Question

They're like the deadly travel equivalent of non-American airliners

Answer 1

Rail travel is extremely safe. Accidents are very rare and when they do happen, there is a government enquiry to establish the cause, and ensure that such an accident does not happen again.

Because rail accidents are so rare they make the national news, while all the time road vehicles are crashing and far more people are getting killed and injured that way, yet the media rarely reports these, unless it is a major pile-up.

Answer 2

Because it is a government owned corporation. You know, the government that controls social security, welfare, immigration, education, that everyone wants to run health care for us.

Answer 3

if you are talking about railroad crossing accidents

(a train crashing into a car  for example

its never the trains fault

also media only reports the bad stuff how boing would it

be that that 1000 made  a safe trip?

Answer 4

It SEEMS like you have an incomplete source of news...

Amtrak certainly GETS the publicity when they have ANY incident or accident.  But the freight carriers only get national publicity when it is a MAJOR accident that causes death or evacuations.

Example... Amtrak has had 36 accidents so far in 2008, while Union Pacific has had 213, CSX has had 91, and Norfolk Southern has had 77.

Also, so far in 2008 of the 43 total deaths (data to April), ALL were either Trespassers (33) or Highway (10). NONE were passengers or employees.

Check out THIS site for accurate information: http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsa...

Answer 5

In the US, passenger railroads do not derail or have major accidents often. So when things go wrong they are magnified. Also, Amtrak is the nations only long-distance passenger rail network.....more miles equal more opportunities for something to go wrong.

I'd personally would feel safer with Amtrak, atleast then something goes wrong you have a good chance of surviving or better yet walking away, unlike a jet 30,000 feet in the air.

Answer 6

amtrak trains rarely crash/derail.  freight trains crash/derail more often, yet even in america, they are generally small crashes or isolated incidents.  other PASSENGER rails like in france or germany have even less derailments, due to a large network of passenger-only rail.  but other passenger rail like india has more frequent crashes, and high fatality rates to boot.

fatalities rarely happen on amtrak trains when there is a crash/derailment - you can NOT even begin to compare them to any airlines, or worse, the highway annual fatality rates.   less than 100 people have died in all of amtrak's 30 years of existence, in amtrak crashes - and 44 of those occured in 1 incident (when a barge hit the railroad bridge minutes before the train came thru), which was the highest fatality count ever....most accidents have no fatalities, or 1-4 at most.  a few rare ones, usually 1-2 per decade, have fatality counts in the teens.  

the 44 deaths in the bay minette alabama incident wasnt even amtrak's fault, it was a stupid barge pilot who crashed into the bridge and didnt call it in - and yes, he was arrested and lost his pilot's license, thankfully.  an incident i worked at, the bourbonnais illinois crash had 11 fatalities, and that accident was caused by a truck driver going around the gates with his semi truck when the train hit his loaded trailer.  the 16 deaths in the Amtrak Colonial accident in maryland in the 1980s was caused by a conrail freight train locomotive sliding out from a siding onto the main line - the conrail engineers tested pos for marijuana and were high at the time of the accident.

so, 100 fatalities in 30 years is an extremely safe record.  and i would argue that the 3 of the highest fatality rates were not amtrak's fault, they were due to transport conflicts with other modes (barge, truck) or other rail carriers (conrail).

there is no comparison to any airline (american or foreign), and is only beat by a few rail companies such as SNCF (france) and DB (germany).  and i would argue, that when compared to an airline, which rarely have crashes, but when they do, it is usuually everyone on board who is killed - thus fatality counts can range from 100-400 per incident.  thankfully, incidents are rare.

now, lets talk about highways.  in usa, annually, there are still 43,000 fatalities.  yes, that is 43 THOUSAND EACH YEAR!.  if you want to talk about 3rd world fatality rates comparisons, its our highway system that ranks horribly high, not the rail or air segments.

Answer 7

It may have to do with your new services rather than with the trains.

I hear about train crashes and derailments in the whole world on our news, hardly ever, (if ever at all) from the Amtrak trains.

I assume your train accidents are not big enough to make the worldwide news, (many of people killed in one accident) but the ones outside the USA are not big enough to make it into the news in the USA. (Although more people are killed and much more damage is done.)

The USA news services are known worldwide to be focused inside the countries borders, while the rest of the world will always watch the USA too. So if serious accidents do happen in the USA the news would hit the worlds news services.

Added after reading some more in the other answers:

The highspeed railways in Europe are passenger train only systems, but most trains still run on track that is shared with freight trains. Most of those trains run around 150 kmh, (95miles per hour?) and accidents are rare if not unheard of.

The privatation of the rail systems in the UK and the Netherlands has not improved the safety situation.

Now there is one (or several) companies that own the track and are responsible for maintainance and different companies that own the running stock and have to maintain them. In England is has lead to several serious accidents in the bigger London area (or just outside it.)

In the Netherlands it has not yet led to the loss of many lives, but accidents seem to be less rare than they used to be.

Train is still the safest way to travel across the country, near in flights in overal accident per mile per passenger ratings.

Answer 8

Probably because your news media will report incidents which happen in the US, but not those which happen abroad unless they're really major. It's most unlikely that a simple derailment will be reported in the foreign media.

To correct another answer, SNCF does not own the tracks the TGV runs on (or any other tracks). As in nearly all European Union countries, the tracks are owned by a different (usually state-owned) company from the one(s) which actually run the trains - in France's case, RFF - Reseau Ferré de France.

Answer 9

It is kind of the same thing with shipping - the only ones the public hears about are accidents concerning cruise ships and oil tankers, provided they cause a sizeable oil spill.  The reason - vested public interest.  No one wants to hear about a bulk freighter sinking in midocean, and by the same token no one will be interested in a freight train falling off the rails in the middle of nowhere.

Answer 10

One of the biggest differences between Amtrak and passenger rail in countries like the UK, France, Japan, etc. is that Amtrak does not own most of the track its trains travel over.  The freight rail companies like Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, etc. do.

In contrast, in Japan the Shinkansen's rails are owned by their high-speed rail company and only the bullet trains run on them.  Ditto France with their TGV--  Only the bullet trains are allowed on those tracks.

When you got Amtrak running on another company's trackage, things are more complicated--  Different rail companies might have different operating rules, rail maintenance varies from one company's trackage to another, coordination is more complex, etc.

That's the price we pay for not having a dedicated passenger rail network.

Answer 11

They aren't.  Statistically speaking, travelling on Amtrak is FAR safer than driving.  

And freight trains crash and derail all the time as well.

Answer 12

gosam777 suggests it got something to do with the fact its government owned.  

That is saying that private owned business are incident free or lower in incidents?

Strange as not many trucks or cars are government owned yet daily private and business owned vehicles are smashing into each other.

Or is it just that the press are not as likely to bag out someone who may be an advertiser at one of its papers.  Where as the government is not going to stop advertising so its an easy target.