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On 05/15/2015 09:44 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
The Federal Railroad Administration twice sought extra funding from Congress to finance the technology for Amtrak and other commuter rails. A first request for $825 million was ignored. A second request for extra funding was made this year for the 2016 budget as part of the Department of Transportation’s Grow America budget.
The chronic underfunding of Amtrak is well known by those who follow the rail industry. Those who would like to privatize it and get their hands on the Northeast Corridor are behind attempts in Congress to starve Amtrak of funds enough to create a crisis.
As for this particular wreck, however, there is another issue that stands out. Amtrak trains are run with one person in the cab, unlike almost all freight trains. Thus this engineer had no second pair of eyes to warn him that he might be missing something, if that is what happened.
The freight railroads, pulling all kinds of hazardous materials, are hell bent on eliminating the freight conductor position. They will cite technology that can run the train, PTC etc. All I can say is the public beware. Anyone wanting more information on the Single Person Crew issue should check out the website of Railroad Workers United(RWU), www.railroadworkersunited.org.
Ever since it helped to lead a campaign to defeat a Single Person Crew contract proposal on Warren Buffett's railroad, the BNSF, RWU's influence in rail labor has skyrocketed. Now more than 5000 railroaders are subbed to RWU's Facebook page, where believe me, this incident, the oil trains and all kinds of labor issues are being debated and discussed. I expect a RWU press release on the Amtrak wreck shortly, I'll post it here.
Jon Flanders _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
