[asinclair]

I"m not averse to adding automation to track inspection. Indeed, I would welcome it. But not at the expense of men and women performing track inspection as well.

Our rail system already has automation inspecting rail cars "on the fly" -- and those systems catch problems before they cause catastrophes. For rail, electronic sensors can only do so much; you need eyeballs to catch all the problems. Can sensors detect rail spikes that are no longer holding the rail to the ties? Can sensors detect "leaning" rails?

Can electronic track inspection be made cheap enough to be installed in every power unit?

[kaktuskid]

There used to be the Sperry Rail track detector cars...used to check for fissures or cracks in the railhead.