Discussion for article #236371
Soon Koch Bros. trains will deliver Koch Bros. mail…
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The train engineer was speeding at twice the rate of speed for that railroad tract, can the author of this article explain why and how more money to Amtrack budget would have made any difference?
If anything, this Republican led Congress will do just the opposite. They’d rather privatize all mass transit just like they’d have us do for the United States Postal Service. They’d rather drown it in the bathtub like all other public works projects that serve the public good. Have to keep pandering to their paymasters if they want to stay in office. They have nothing else to offer the public by way of policy, so they can’t rely on measly donations from the public because of that. They have to appeal to the donor class…and that means as its often stated here, “why we can’t have nice things in America anymore” with Republicans in charge of anything, especially as it relates to infrastructure improvements.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this Congress forced railroad workers to pay into funding their pensions at an advanced rate for the next 10 years, virtually bankrupting them like they’re doing to the Postal Service. There’s an easy fix for the Postal Service. Always has been. Remove the pre-funding mechanism Republicans put in place on pensions and the Postal Service becomes solvent again. Watch them do the same to the Amtrak…not because its good for mass transit or the viability of rail service…but simply because they can. They’ll destroy anything associated with “the public” before they allow themselves to fund anything for the public good. They are a spiteful bunch.
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Sandy Rios over at the AFA is screeching the engineer might have been gay.
“Let the homos pay for it!”
Right, Sandy?
It was the absence of technology called “positive speed control” which could have prevented the engineer speeding at certain locations on the track. Only the government can fund that. There are eight confirmed victims in this crash. What are their lives worth to their families?
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Can’t say we weren’t warned.
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Maybe Amtrack should finally start to turn up a profit so it can have all the nice things that are absent on millions of vehicles of all shapes and forms, instead of being a black hole for tax payers money.
And if anyone remembers “history”, passenger rail service was private and only became Amtrak in 1971 and is operated as a for-profit company, rather than a public authority. Since day one the REPUGS have been trying to destroy the service. For myself, I’d like to see support grow and if Congress had done so, even 2 or 3 percent per year, we would see today the country with high speed rail. I for one would be using it rather than driving.
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Amtrak will be even further in the red when it pays out claims to victims, those eight dead (or maybe more) and those seriously injured. There will be no “Nice things” for the foreseeable future.
I guess you think failsafe technology comes free? I guess you think adding a second engineer to all engines would come free? I guess you think making passenger cars more crash safe comes free? I guess you think re-routing tracks to straighten out dangerous curves comes free?
You obviously haven’t been paying attention, because the NTSB investigator said very plainly yesterday that if positive train control had been installed on this stretch of track, this accident would not have occurred.
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Which, of course, completely ignores that the whole reason we have Amtrak is that the private sector completely abandoned intercity passenger rail because there was no profit in it. They don’t want to privatize it, they want to complete get rid of it because that’s what Big Oil and Big Airlines want. Oh, and also because railroad workers are unionized, and that, of course, is evil, evil, evil and must be expurgated.
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Yeah, and why not provide everyone with a unicorn while they’re at it.
Name me one intercity passenger rail system anywhere in the world that turns a profit and does not rely on government subsidies. The government subsidizes highways – why not passenger rail?
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Passenger rail will never turn a ‘profit’; it is heavily subsidized in other countries and why not? I lived in Europe during the 80s and found rail travel convenient and affordable. I would much rather travel by rail than air but we don’t have the infrastructure here. The notion that passenger rail needs to make a profit (along with postal services) is one of those absurd hobby horses of the right. It would seem you would rather see ‘tax payers money’ got for an increase in the bloated defense budget, or subsidize unneeded pipelines.
Reality is, if the train engineer would have followed the speed limits the accident would not have not occurred, plain and simple. Many trains go through that very stretch every single day without accident and have done so for so many decades.
Nothing is fail proof:
The government “subsidize” highways with tax money from gasoline sales. Maybe the government should “subsidize” Amtrack with train tickets sales taxes.
Distances in Europe aren’t comparable to those in the US. From Switzerland for instance you can reach the vast majority of the European capitals in 5 to 8 hours. I want to see how many times you would catch a train for a 2 days trip that an airplane does in a few hours. Moreover Fedex, DHL and UPS turn up a profit, not sure why the USPS does not.
Living in Montana, I never would have guessed that the distances were greater in the US. I have been educated in the error of my ways and many thanks for that. Except as a young man I did use passenger rail traveling from Oklahoma to California round trip and Ok to Idaho several times. And yes I found it preferable to air despite the additional time that it took. And I would still take rail cross country were it still available in preference to air.
I see you also threw in specious arguments about fedex etc, they do not deliver mail daily to every address in the United States.
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Well for one there are the pre-paid pension obligations mentioned earlier in the thread that Fedex and the rest don’t have to deal. For two, as you noted, this is a big country and there are lots of remote places where providing mail service isn’t/wouldn’t be profitable. Fedex and the rest either don’t provide coverage in those areas or subcontract coverage to the USPS, the USPS doesn’t have that option.
The Federal Government also subsidizes the Interstates from the General Tax revenues. If you had been paying attention you would know gas taxes do not fully fund the Highway Trust Fund, because Congress has refused to raise the tax since 1994.
Wait for the NTSB accident report before assigning blame. Mechanical failure has not been ruled out and the engineer may also have had a medical issue.