Various media outlets reported today that two different times this month, switching mistakes put Danger Trains on collision courses with each other.
Here’s Rad Sallee for the Chronicle:
Two MetroRail trains carrying passengers in the Texas Medical Center area came within half a mile of a possible head-on collision earlier this month, Metro officials said today.
The two trains were going in opposite directions on the same track because of a switching error, and employees involved have been disciplined, Metro officials said today.
Both trains were stopped — one at the Dryden Station and one at the TMC Transit Center — on May 9 when Metro controllers at the Houston TranStar traffic center learned of the error and ordered them to hold their positions, said David Feeley, Metro senior vice president of operations.
[snip]
John Sedlak, executive vice president, said this was the first time since the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s light rail line opened Jan. 1, 2004, that trains were running in opposite directions on the same track without supervisors’ knowledge.
Less than a week later, on May 15, a second such incident occurred at the south end of the 7.5-mile line as rail cars were being linked into 2-car trains for the evening rush hour.
Scary.
Some of the comments on Chron.com are entertaining, however.
From KTRK-13’s reporting:
There was almost trouble on the METRO Light Rail tracks as trains loaded with passengers accidently switched to the wrong track. And it happened more than one time.
It’s a mistake METRO wants to correct because trains on the wrong tracks put people’s lives in danger.
What happened on the track May 9 is described by METRO in one sentence.
“Mistakes were made in this situation,” says John Sedlak of METRO.
Does anyone else get the sense that the person who wrote the KTRK copy recently watched A Few Good Men?
From KHOU-11’s reporting:
Light rail riders never knew the danger they faced. 11 News has learned METRO has put trains on the wrong tracks twice in the last two weeks, which could have caused head‑on collisions.
[snip]
“Mistakes were made in this situation,” said John Sedlak, METRO Vice President. But the riding public was never in danger, he added.
It seems undeniable that the riding public was in some danger — unless, of course, you’re a professional METRO spinner.
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