Feds order railway changes

NEW YORK – U.S. transportation officials ordered the Metro-North Railroad on Friday to quickly overhaul its signal system and temporarily put an extra worker in the driver’s cab on some routes that have major speed changes, including the one where a speeding commuter train derailed in New York City this week, killing four people.

The emergency order by the Federal Railroad Administration was a reaction to Sunday’s wreck, where a train flew off the tracks after hitting a curve at 82 mph, nearly three times the 30-mph speed limit. The lone train operator told investigators he nodded at the controls and didn’t apply the brakes until it was too late.

The order gives the railroad until Dec. 31 to provide the Federal Railroad Administration with a plan and target dates for modifying the existing signal system so that trains will automatically slow down in places where the speed limit drops by more than 20 mph.