Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188, with 238 passengers and five crew members on board, derailed at Frankford Junction in Philadelphia on the Northeast Corridor, shortly after 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2015. Seven people are confirmed dead. More than 200 people were injured, 8 critically.
Train 188 was heading to Penn Station New York from Washington, D.C. Union Station. The entire train, consisting of an ACS-64 electric locomotive and seven Amfleet cars, derailed on Frankford Curve. The passenger cars separated from the locomotive. Several cars uncoupled, coming to rest perpendicular to other cars. One car (pictured) was severely damaged, its stainless steel carbody twisted and crushed, the result of hitting a catenary/signal truss structure at high speed.
First responders were on the scene within minutes.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sent a go-team to Philadelphia to investigate the cause of the derailment, which is still unknown. NTSB investigator Mike Flanigon is heading up the investigation. In acknowledging the many questions about the crash, NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt, who is serving as the official spokesman, said "We intend to answer many of those questions in the next 24 to 48 hours."
The derailment occured on a curve, prompting questions from media commentators covering the wreck live as to whether the train may have been operating above authorized speed, much like the December 2013 Metro-North Spuyten Duyvil accident. However, Amtrak's entire Washington-New York-Boston Northeast Corridor is equipped with a cab signal system that in most locations automatically enforces cab speeds, forcing a penalty brake application if a train is in an overspeed condition. The curve at Frankford Junction is not equipped with ACSES, an overlay PTC system that enforces civil speed restrictions, thereby providing an extra level of safety, but that should not necessarily have been a factor, sources told Railway Age.
Train 188 was operating at 106 mph when it entered the curve, the civil (posted) speed of which is 50, prompting questions as to how the train could have been exceeding that speed. On this particular curve, safe speed is enforced with a purposely designed manipulation of the cab signal system. It is possible that there was an onboard equipment failure; investigators should be able to determine if there was a wayside equipment failure. The locomotive’s event recorder has been recovered And is being analyzed.
“We were rolling along nice and smooth and then all of a sudden we were on our side,” passenger Don Kelleher told NBC News.
Patrick Murphy, a former congressman from Pennsylvania’s 8th District, was onboard, in the cafe car, when the train derailed. “It wobbled at first and then went off the tracks,” Murphy told NBC News. “There were some pretty banged-up people. One guy next to me was passed out. We kicked out the window in the top of the train car and helped get everyone out.”
The FBI said that there is nothing to indicate that the derailment was terrorism-related.
Amtrak Northeast Corridor service between Philadelphia and New York is suspended until further notice, as is SEPTA service on the Chestnut Hill West and Trenton Regional Rail lines.
Frankford Junction was the site of a similar accident in 1943. On Sept. 6 (Labor Day) of that year, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Congressional Limited, with 16 cars and 541 passengers, derailed when an overheated journal box on an older dining car that had been added to the consist burned off, causing a wheelset failure. The wreck resulted in 79 deaths and 117 injuries.
Frankford Junction is an interlocking where the four-track NEC connects with the New Jersey Transit’s two-track Atlantic City Line.