A lot of this comes down to two things: 1) The range of acceleration and deceleration rates available to a train engineer is much, much smaller than you would

A lot of this comes down to two things: 1) The range of acceleration and deceleration rates available to a train engineer is much, much smaller than you would think. There is simply limited traction and power available and the weight of the full consist is really enormous. This requires planning everything well ahead, which can be difficult in busy areas where you must both anticipate signals and mind an often large number of temporary orders. Train operations tend to sort of happen in slow motion, it's not about fast responses simply because by the time you try to make a fast response the situation is already unrecoverable. 2) Depending on the exact systems in use, speeding up and especially slowing down a train is more complicated than doing so in a vehicle. You have multiple brake systems available (primarily the dynamic and train air brakes), and the most powerful brake system, the air brakes, comes with a lot of tricky caveats as to how strongly you can apply it (mostly related to applying and releasing it too frequently, which can drain the air reserves). There's a lot of great info on this from a former engineer here: http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/brakes.htm http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/brakes.htm Certainly the author has decided to dramatize the situation. For these reasons, train speeds are established with a wide margin for error (of course not one of an additional 100%+ as in this incident).