Amtrak Resumes Operations After Deadly Derailment
PHILADELPHIA, May 18 (UPI) — Amtrak resumed operations between Philadelphia and New York City on its Northeast corridor service on Monday, less than a week after a derailment that killed eight people.
The first train left New York City bound for Washington, D.C., at 5:30 a.m. and the first train out of Philadelphia left for New York City at 5:53 a.m.
Amtrak announced resumption of the line on Sunday.
“The safety of our passengers and crew remains our No. 1 priority,” Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman said in a statement. “Our infrastructure repairs have been made with the utmost care and emphasis on infrastructure integrity, including complete compliance with Federal Railroad Administration directives.”
More than 200 people were injured when Amtrak Regional 188, traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York City, derailed in Philadelphia on May 12 after rounding a curve traveling more than 100 mph — more than twice the speed limit, investigators have said.
A lead investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday downplayed the theory that the train may have been struck by a bullet.
The NTSB and the FBI are looking into the possibility that the train was struck by something before it derailed, after interviewing multiple witnesses. Lead investigator Robert Sumwalt said Sunday that the FBI will be on the scene Monday to examine a mark in a train windshield.
“Well, at this point, we really want to chase this lead down,” Sumwalt said of the mark on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “We heard from the assistant conductor that that is what she believed she heard, was some conversation about that. And we see now a mark on the windshield that we want to look at. So, we are going to look at everything at this point.”
Sumwalt said it was highly unlikely that it was a bullet that struck the train.
“I’d like to downplay that part,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation, noting that an engineer did not initially report that something had struck the train.
Doug G. Ware contributed to this report.
