BIDDEFORD, Maine — An Amtrak Downeaster train struck and killed a pedestrian in Biddeford, railroad and law enforcement officials confirmed Monday afternoon.
The train hit an individual trespassing on the tracks about 400 feet west of Main Street in Biddeford just after 3 p.m. Monday, Cynthia Scarano, executive vice president of Pan Am Railways, the company that owns the railroad the Downeaster travels on, told the Bangor Daily News.
Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, the public transportation agency that oversees the Downeaster, said train 686 was involved in the accident and 61 passengers were aboard at the time.
At approximately 5:30 p.m., Quinn said, the train was due to be cleared imminently to continue on to Boston after a more than two-hour delay. She added that the 687 train, which was scheduled to leave Boston for Portland at 5:40 p.m., will be delayed by two hours while it awaits the arrival of the southbound train.
Quinn said nobody aboard the train was hurt in the incident. The crew of the train was replaced after the accident, according to Downeaster policy.
“It’s traumatic,” Quinn said Monday evening. “It’s very upsetting for everybody when something like that happens. The crew was sent home and another crew was brought in to take the train the rest of the way to Boston.”
amtrack, 100% corporate wefare and dangerous to boot.
Dear God please bless this soul and their family and friends. Amen.
Dangerous if you’re trespassing and walking on the tracks.
Even with earbuds blasting, I dont think you can miss an approaching train.
Having grown up near a MBTA (Massachusetts) commuter rail station, I can tell you, you’d be surprised at how sometimes the train can sneak up pretty close to the platform, coming into the station if you have your back to it and aren’t watching for it. As the train gets closer, the engineer turns on the bell, but sometimes, until then, it’s pretty quiet.
Trains throw a lot of noise off to the sides, but not so much out in front of the train, especially when the train is being pushed by the locomotive (which would be exactly half the time.)
Be careful!
It’s only dangerous if you walk on train tracks and expect to not get hit by a train. No different than walking on I-95 or an airport runway.
Actually trespassing on the RR tracks is more dangerous because that is always where the train runs. On I95 or a runway you have a chance of picking a spot that no vehicle uses.
But there are way more vehicles on 95? How often does train go through biddeford? You could get hit 4 times a day? You could get hit four times in one second on I 95 in the southern maine.
10 Amtrak trains and two to six freight trains.
Regardless, walking on the railroad tracks is illegal (unless you work for the railroad) and nobody should be shocked at the consequences of putting a human body in the path of millions of pounds of steel that can’t steer out of the way.
Cheap shot at important infrastructure you’ve taken yet again… and pretty sure planes, trains, and automobiles are inherently dangerous in their own respects. So is leaving the house and tax breaks for the rich. Amen.
Not a very nice thing to say, if the Govt didnt chip in people couldnt even afford the train….
I’m thinking we have the government chip in at the local coffee shop so they can lower their prices
Would you say that fright train are dangerous to an cars are dangerous to
Conservatives like giving away government money too, they just do it differently. Whether they are billion dollar sole-source contracts to Halliburton, farm subsidies that benefit California millionaires with a hobby ranch in Wyoming, or the twelve billion dollars squandered monthly in Iraq, conservatives are quite liberal with American tax dollars.
http://www.ourfuture.org/corporate-welfare
If it is ruled suicide by train, I think your God already ruled that particular soul cannot be blessed. That’s what i love about religion, it is so forgiving. I hope the family finds the real support they need, and finds answers. Whether inattention, accident, suicide, foot got caught in a switch, whatever the case maybe, answers will help the grieving.
The US DOT holds 100% of the voting stock for Amtrak, no C, in trust for Congress & We The People. It’s a corporation in name only, but government controls everything. True corporate welfare would be the interest free loans and grants given to the airlines, or the $4.5 Billion in subsidies to the FAA so that the airlines don’t have to pay that bill, or the EAS program that gives millions of dollars given to airlines to fly empty planes into small airports, or the tax breaks given to oil companies so that they can drill for oil and make still more money.
Besides, I suspect that you’re complaining because of your taxes. According to the taxpayers receipt for 2009, if you represent part of a married couple with 2 kids & $80K in income, then you paid a whopping $3.83 towards Amtrak via your Federal income taxes. You also paid $110.06 towards the Interstate highways via your income tax. That’s on top of fuel taxes, state fuel taxes, etc.
A retired couple with $100K in income paid $3.11 towards Amtrak and $89.38 towards the highways, even if they can no longer drive, much less own a car.
Want lower taxes? Get on a train!
A terrible tragedy. My heart and prayers go out to the family.
Amtrak is run by the government, is it not?
And your point is?
Very sad, no matter the circumstances.
Heart is with those affected today, most especially crew.
Nobody on the train got hurt??? I never would’ve guessed that.
It’s possible for passengers to be injured during emergency braking, especially if someone wasn’t seated at the time. It’s also possible for a train to derail during emergency braking.
A truly horrible happening……
You never even called me by my name.
The train was running two hours behind? how can that compete with the bus
Too bad for the person hit
I was wondering the same thing, but then figured out that what the article meant was that the train was delayed 2 hours by the accident, having to wait for a replacement crew. It isn’t quite clear as written.
Compared to a plane or a bus….usually, when *those* things hit something, the trip isn’t just delayed, it’s OVER.
That’s exactly right. The train was running on time until the accident happened; then it was delayed for two hours because of the accident.
The train doesn’t compete with the bus. People who take the train spend more to get less. The train is fun (for one ride) but it sure is not a dependable and cheap mode of transportation, as the bus is.
Actually Harry the Downeaster works just like any other amusement. Train tickets cost more because the ride lasts longer!
It suprises me that they actually switch over the crew when they could just charter a bus
Were they supposed to just leave the train sitting there in Biddeford?
I meant for the passengers because they were already delayed long enough. Just have the crew bring the train where ever it was going
My point exactly. Train amusement for tourists
Bus tool for workers.
Actually Harry, there are areas where the train is their major transportation for commuting to and from work. Especially in the NY metro area. I’m sure that is what they would like to see occure with the downeaster line to Boston.
Correct,
patom1.
NYC, DC, Philly, Boston, San Francisco all move more people by train than by bus, and at far less cost too! Chicago; Portland, OR; and Salt Lake City are almost to the point where they too move more people by train.
For one thing, the train takes a different route and has different stops than the bus does. Among other places, the train stops in Saco, OOB (in the summer), Dover and Durham NH, and others where the buses from Portland don’t. It also has more room, it’s easier to walk around and you can buy something to eat or drink if you choose to do that. They are both good options in different ways.
I agree I didn’t realize that the article was stating that it was delayed because of the accident I thought they were saying as if the train itself was running 2 hours behind schedule. It’s surprising although that they wouldn’t just charter a bus to take the people the rest of the way to Boston instead of having to bring in a new crew
Well, it makes me wonder….If they were to call up a bus company, could they get a big enough bus or buses on site, with a legal driver in less than 2 hours? Before you answer, honestly think about that for a moment.
I feel so badly for the crew & for whoever’s family is involved. I can’t picture anyone in their right mind doing what that pedestrian did.
Doing what the pedestrian did? Do you know something that they dont know. Maybe it was an accident and wasn’t paying attention. Your comment makes it sound like he did it on purpose
He was walking on the tracks by accident???
ahh could have had headphones on walking in the same direction as the train, deaf, crossing the tracks and slipped? Just to name a few possibilities
I’m not saying this wasn’t an accident, but around Boston, quite a few of the people hit by trains are eventually declared suicides.
Then too, the MBTA even has an ongoing therapy and support group for train drivers that have hit somebody. I recall reading a story once on it that said at the time that over half of all the MBTA’s engineers have had to watch as their train hit somebody.
Whatever that job pays, it wouldn’t be enough for me if I knew I had to eventually watch such a thing from the cab.
Well, he had to know he was walking on railroad tracks ….that was his choice, but he chose to take that risk. So yes, in that respect, he was there “on purpose”. Perhaps he was under the influence …perhaps he was suicidal…perhaps he simply chose to ignore the fact that he was walking in a high risk area.
Biddeford is having a bad couple of days huh?
I live in Biddeford and did not find out about what happened until 8:30PM. For the record the few times I have driven in the area near what took place I have seen some no trespassing signs.
One thing I have noticed and observed is in driving over the tracks near the Saco Train Station – cars stopping on the tracks. Even if the gates going across the track are up, why would anyone in traffic end up stopping on said tracks. It really is a surprise that no car or truck has been hit by a train at this and other crossings.
You cannot put up no trespassing signs every few yards. People will ignore these signs.
Of course the train was delayed after what took place. Yes, a new or another train crew had to finish the run to Boston. An on the spot investigation had to take place. Both the train and the tracks had to be checked for damage. You also have a body or was a human being to be removed from the tracks. The very thought of a dead body on the tracks is not good. Many things had to happen before the train would be cleared to finish it’s run to Boston.
Another thing I read was that the person who was hit by the train yesterday did not have any form of identification on them???
I grew up hanging out on tracks where there are four lanes, two south bound to New York and two north bound to Boston. Back in the 70’s when the turbo would come though there was not much warning , Metro-North could be pretty quit too. Very easy to get hit when crossing the RR Tracks.
You must have grown up in the Bronx or Pelham (maybe Fleetwood or Mount Vernon.
Back before “Metro North” my friends and I would wait for the Big New Haven Diesels and put pennies on the tracks. The train would flatten them till they were the size of a quater. We would cut them down with tin snips, and use them for subway token slugs.
Those were the days.