UPDATE: Philadelphia train crash: Amtrak rail accident kills seven
From BBC
Eyewitness Edwin says he heard a ‘big bang’ when the train derailed

Officials are working to determine the cause of a train derailment which killed at least seven people and injured more than 200 others.

Seven carriages including the engine of the Amtrak train bound for New York went off the track on Tuesday evening.

Over 200 people have been treated in area hospitals, says Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter.

Investigators are searching the wreckage in order to confirm that all on board have been accounted for.

Part of the US’s most travelled stretch of passenger rail between Philadelphia and New York is closed as officials continue to try to determine the cause.

US media report that the train was travelling over 100mph (160km/h) as it entered a sharp curve in the track – twice the local speed limit.

President Obama called the section of rail, “a way of life for many” and that he was “shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the derailment”.

Only two victims have so far been publically identified so far:

Jim Gaines, a 48-year-old father of two and software architect for the Associated Press, was travelling home to New Jersey following a work conference in Washington DC.

Justin Zemser, a-20 year-old Navy Midshipman, was on leave from the Naval Academy in Maryland, and was visiting family in New York.

The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to the crash site on Wednesday, but they stress the priority is to confirm that all passengers are accounted for before the investigation into the cause of the crash begins.

The train recorder has been found and the information, including train speed, video of the accident, and the engineers steering attempts, is being downloaded. More than 240 people were on board Train 188, officials said.

NTSB representative Robert Sumwalt says that recorder will be “key to the investigation”.
The train engineer was also injured in the crash, and is giving a statement to city police, says Mayor Nutter.

For more on this story go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32716462

Amtrak train derails in Philadelphia, killing at least 6 people

By Margaret Hartmann and Jaime Fuller From New York Magazine

An Amtrak train heading from Washington, D.C., to New York derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing at least six people. All seven cars of the Amtrak Northeast Regional 188 came off the tracks while the train was heading into a turn in the city’s Port Richmond neighborhood, leaving most of the train on its side and looking like a “pile of metal,” according to one survivor.

“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” said Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.” “It is a devastating scene down there,” Nutter added. “We walked the entire length of the train area, and the engine completely separated from the rest of the train, and one of the cars is perpendicular to the rest of the cars. It’s unbelievable.”

Daniel Hernandez, who lives near where the train derailed, heard it happen. “It sounded like a bunch of shopping carts crashing into each other,” he told NBC Philadelphia. After that, he heard screaming.

In addition to the six casualties, six people are in critical condition and at least 140 others were transported to the hospital to be evaluated or treated for less serious injuries. There were 238 passengers and five crew members onboard, and Nutter said more than half “self-evacuated.” Passengers helped each other crawl through mangled cars and scramble out of windows to escape the train, and not everyone is accounted for.

Paul Cheung, an Associated Press manager who was on the train, said he felt the train start to decelerate, like someone was stepping on the brake. “Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake,” he said. “You could see people’s stuff flying over me.”

“All of a sudden it felt like the brakes were hit hard and then our car,” Michael Black, another passenger, told NBC Philadelphia. “We were third from the last, just slowly started going over to the side. I tried to just brace my arm against it and then just got off.”

Passengers posted photos and video of their escape on social media.

The derailment is the worst accident in the northeast corridor in years. Former Pennsylvania congressman Patrick Murphy, who hosts MSNBC’s Taking the Hill, was on the train when it crashed, and Senator Tom Carper of Delaware got off shortly before the derailment.

A train heading from Washington to New York crashed in Philadelphia in 1943, and the New York Times called the accident, which left dozens dead, “the nation’s worst railroad disaster in many years, if not in the history of American railroading.”

Rail service between New York and Philadelphia was stopped on Tuesday night, and Mayor Nutter said, “There’s no circumstance under which there would be any service through Philadelphia on this Amtrak line for the rest of this week.” Amtrak said in a statement:

On Wednesday, May 13, modified Amtrak service will be provided between Washington and Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and New York and Boston. There will be no Amtrak service between New York and Philadelphia, but New Jersey Transit will honor Amtrak tickets between New York City and Trenton.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit have also had to suspend service on several lines. In Union Station, the usually full waiting area was basically empty owing to the cancellations.

Federal investigators were on the scene Tuesday night, and National Transportation Safety Board investigators are set to arrive on Wednesday. For now, officials say they have no idea what caused the crash.

The tragedy is sure to set off another round of debate about rail safety and infrastructure funding — starting in Congress. Politico reports that the House is set to mark up a fiscal bill on Wednesday that includes funding for Amtrak. A previously approved version of the legislation would “slash Amtrak’s funding to $1.13 billion, less than the roughly $1.4 billion it typically receives annually.”

The last time Congress passed an Amtrak bill, as the Washington Post noted, was after a crash in 2008. National Journal published a long report on the woes of Amtrak last month. “Meanwhile,” the story notes, after describing the status of our old, slow, and unloved rail system, “the Chinese government — fair comparison or not — will be spending $128 billion this year on rail.” 

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest went on CNN this morning and discussed Amtrak funding. “There is clearly more that can be done when we’re talking about a railway infrastructure that is decades-old,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity for us to make further investments in our infrastructure that would better safeguard the traveling public, then those are investments that we should make.”

For more on this story go to: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/amtrak-train-derails-philadelphia.html?om_rid=AACMTw&om_mid=_BVUzlAB9BnRRKR