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No way to run a railroad: Three fatal AMTRAK crashes in 49 days
American Thinker ^ | 4 FEB 2018 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 02/04/2018 8:14:01 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT

It would appear that something is seriously wrong with the way passenger rail is operating in the United States under the federal corporation AMTRAK. This crash is the third fatal AMTRAK crash since the AMTRAK Cascades train derailed in Washington State at the cost of 3 lives and 62 passenger injuries only 49 days ago.

...I did a quick and dirty calculation of the ratio of crashes to total passengers carried. AMTRAK carried 31.3 million passengers in 2016, while Japan’s railways carried 7.589 billion in 2014, the closest date I could find quickly, or 242 times more passengers. If Japan’s railroads had the same rate of fatal crashes as Amtrak over the past 49 days, they would have experienced almost 15 fatal crashes per day.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Travel
KEYWORDS: amtrak; railroad; train
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To: Sam_Damon

The GOP is not Amtrak’s fault at all. Clearly one should never get on a track and sit there. Truck’s fault. Also human fault for not getting off the truck right away.


21 posted on 02/04/2018 10:50:45 AM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

AMTRAK needs to stand down, and not just for a couple of days.

5.56mm


22 posted on 02/04/2018 10:54:35 AM PST by M Kehoe
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To: the OlLine Rebel

Correct, GOP special train ax not train crew’s fault.

Just a guess, but if CSX had the Silver Star not on the normal track, conductor probably in cab to help with signals and track landmarks.

Circumstantial evidence has this one making CSX looking really bad.


23 posted on 02/04/2018 12:09:20 PM PST by Sam_Damon
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To: Vaduz

“Hasn’t made a profit from day one runs on government money.”

No, runs on YOUR money.


24 posted on 02/04/2018 1:48:17 PM PST by beelzepug (The permanent political class that runs this country is...the great(est) danger we face)
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To: beelzepug

Indeed pockets are full fat and happy.


25 posted on 02/04/2018 4:02:10 PM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: Sam_Damon
Circumstantial evidence has this one making CSX looking really bad.

NTSB: The switch was lined and locked for the freight siding.

The question is who and why?

26 posted on 02/04/2018 4:37:20 PM PST by CedarDave (If Lea County, New Mexico was a state, we would be #7 in US crude oil production [NM is #3].)
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To: CedarDave

First, TY for the NTSB update.

Just a guess (emphasis: GUESS) the CSX dispatcher was trying to thread the Silver Star through a series of long trains.

Reports from social media suggest (disclaimers apply) CSX in SC & FL has taken to running “Land Barges”, numbering up to 200 freight cars. These monster freight trains make it difficult for intercity passenger trains on defined schedules to make it through in a timely fashion, even with the massive padding added to Amtrak timetables.

“Precision Railroading” looking more like “Deathtrap Railroading” every day.

Keep in mind USG transportation policies, guided by political pork, have given us the transportation system the US has today. Fixing the mess will take time.


27 posted on 02/04/2018 6:34:29 PM PST by Sam_Damon
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