[Marxism] Fwd: Amtrak Says Shortfalls and Rules Delayed Its Safety System - NYTimes.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES  NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly  permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

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.


“Clearly, one of the hurdles that Amtrak has and the commuter rail 
industry has is that this is very expensive technology,” Mr. Szabo said. 
“It was never funded. The failure to invest in Amtrak’s capital program 
clearly has been a hindrance in more timely deployment. The way to make 
public rail a priority would be with public funding.”


On Capitol Hill, House Speaker John A. Boehner angrily rejected a 
suggestion that Republican funding decisions contributed to the accident.


“That’s a stupid question,” he snapped at a reporter. “Adequate funds 
were there, no money’s been cut from rail safety, and the House passed a 
bill earlier this spring to reauthorize Amtrak and authorize a lot of 
these programs.”


full: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/us/amtrak-says-it-was-just-months-away-from-installing-safety-system.html

_
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

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Amtrak Says Shortfalls and Rules Delayed Its Safety System - NYTimes.com

[Jon Flanders via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES  NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly  permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

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