Massive Amtrak Crash....but who cares about our highways and trains?

[Derideo_Te]

and i did address what came after....

No, you did not because no one knows what caused the speed.

You really are out of league!

 

[Spare_change]

1. i read both links and neither prove that funding was the cause of the accident.

2. you still didn't answer my question about the engineer.

3. using your logic, you caused this accident because you support engineers doing 106 MPH through a 50 MPH curve. you are responsible for this, not me.

1. Your reading comprehension shortcoming is your problem.

2. For the umpteenth time everything to do with the engineer is purely SPECULATION!

3. Your inability to use utterly logic is irrelevant.

Do try and keep up with the rest of the class.

1. the train was going twice the speed limit, but you won't say shit about the engineer, instead you blame me

2. you have nothing but pure SPECULATION that any funding cuts caused this accident....but that hasn't stopped you from passing off your speculation as fact.

1. The engineer is cooperating fully with the investigation. Speculation is pointless until we know more.

2. You were provided with links documenting the funding cuts to Amtrak that you support.

Actually, that's false. The engineer has refused to be interviewed by police. His attorney says that he will meet with the NTSB, but can be expected to assert his 5th Amendment rights.

Your ignorant canards are treated with the contempt they deserve!

Amtrak Engineer Very Distraught Doesn t Remember Crash Attorney Says - ABC News

The engineer, Brandon Bostian, 32, of Queens, New York, was “very distraught” to learn that the crash killed at least seven people, the attorney, Robert Goggin, told ABC News. He added that Bostian voluntarily turned over a blood sample and his cell phone and is cooperating with authorities.

Though Bostian retained an attorney, Goggin said, he has not stopped cooperating with police, and was willing to speak to National Transportation Safety Board investigators, as well.​

Old story --- you need to keep up.

 

[Derideo_Te]

You were given the opportunity to state which tax cuts and spending you opposed. Since you did not state that you opposed prior spending cuts to Amtrak that prevented it from installing PTC that means that you supported them ergo you bear partial responsibility for the accident.

And yes, you lack the honesty and integrity to admit to your own role. But that is your problem, not mine.

Allow me to be as succinctly clear as I can be ... I'll use small words so you can keep up. Feel free to send me $12.95 for the children's version, if you need it.

I adamantly support tax cuts that prevented the injection of funding to AMTRAK - for any reason!!

Amtrak is a failed government subsidy program that has wasted billions of dollars that could have been used for education, infrastructure, and greens fees for our illustrious leader. Supporting a failed program is criminal, or stupid, depending on your point of view.

I've listened to all this malarkey about how the eastern corridor NEEDS Amtrak. If so, then let them pay for it --- raise the price of tickets to match the cost of the service, and see how that works out. It is unconscionable to ask the farmers in Nebraska to pay for a rail line so that New Englanders don't have to spend their own money.

Yes, it killed 8 people - today. And, it will kill 8 people the next time, and the time after that. That's what happens when you have financial and management abuses the order of magnitude present at Amtrak. There should be criminal investigations about why they let it happened, and criminal investigations into why the people we hired to oversee the management, operation, and safety of Amtrak failed to do their jobs.

Anything else I can do for you???

Congratulations.

You just managed to send your credibility into negative territory.

Great job!

You must be so proud of yourself.

Wow! What a cogent response!! I am ever so impressed ...

Quit acting like a little baby, lashing out at anybody who might have the temerity to disagree with you, and try to have an intelligent conversation. Frankly, your immature act is getting old - very old.

Ironic!

UNIMPRESSIVE!!!

Can't you get a new shtick??

When you learn to behave like an adult you might be treated like one.

But no one is holding their breath waiting for that to happen in the next couple of decades.

 

[Derideo_Te]

1. Your reading comprehension shortcoming is your problem.

2. For the umpteenth time everything to do with the engineer is purely SPECULATION!

3. Your inability to use utterly logic is irrelevant.

Do try and keep up with the rest of the class.

1. the train was going twice the speed limit, but you won't say shit about the engineer, instead you blame me

2. you have nothing but pure SPECULATION that any funding cuts caused this accident....but that hasn't stopped you from passing off your speculation as fact.

1. The engineer is cooperating fully with the investigation. Speculation is pointless until we know more.

2. You were provided with links documenting the funding cuts to Amtrak that you support.

Actually, that's false. The engineer has refused to be interviewed by police. His attorney says that he will meet with the NTSB, but can be expected to assert his 5th Amendment rights.

Your ignorant canards are treated with the contempt they deserve!

Amtrak Engineer Very Distraught Doesn t Remember Crash Attorney Says - ABC News

The engineer, Brandon Bostian, 32, of Queens, New York, was “very distraught” to learn that the crash killed at least seven people, the attorney, Robert Goggin, told ABC News. He added that Bostian voluntarily turned over a blood sample and his cell phone and is cooperating with authorities.

Though Bostian retained an attorney, Goggin said, he has not stopped cooperating with police, and was willing to speak to National Transportation Safety Board investigators, as well.​

Old story --- you need to keep up.

Failure to provide a link proving that it is "old" goes to your lack of credibility.

 

[Vandalshandle]

Ok, in my younger days, I traveled by train, bus, airplane, and car. let's see how that is working, now.

Trains. If you live in AZ, forget about it. There is one track between here and Louisiana, and passenger service is secondary to freight trains, so you find yourself sitting on sidings for hours at a time.

Bus. I took a Greyhound from Tucson to S. California 2 months ago. It was hell on earth. I just got my luggage back last week. The A/C broke. The bus did not even run within a 1 and 1/2 hour departure and arrival time from schedule. $6 cold sandwiches in the terminal, if you are lucky enough to be in a terminal. They are closing everywhere, and being replaced by a bench on the sidewalk. Don't even ask about the lavatory. i am told that it has been like this since they bought out Trailways decades ago.

Airplane. Still tolerable, if you are a professional contortionist who does not mind being seated for 2 hours in a seat designed for a pygmy.

Autos. The last acceptable form of transportation, but expressways are deteriorating so fast that the trip I took one month ago had long stretches of interstate on which it was unsafe to drive over 40 MPH due to potholes.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Ok, in my younger days, I traveled by train, bus, airplane, and car. let's see how that is working, now.

Trains. If you live in AZ, forget about it. There is one track between here and Louisiana, and passenger service is secondary to freight trains, so you find yourself sitting on sidings for hours at a time.

Bus. I took a Greyhound from Tucson to S. California 2 months ago. It was hell on earth. I just got my luggage back last week. The A/C broke. The bus did not even run within a 1 and 1/2 hour departure and arrival time from schedule. $6 cold sandwiches in the terminal, if you are lucky enough to be in a terminal. They are closing everywhere, and being replaced by a bench on the sidewalk. Don't even ask about the lavatory. i am told that it has been like this since they bought out Trailways decades ago.

Airplane. Still tolerable, if you are a professional contortionist who does not mind being seated for 2 hours in a seat designed for a pygmy.

Autos. The last acceptable form of transportation, but expressways are deteriorating so fast that the trip I took one month ago had long stretches of interstate on which it was unsafe to drive over 40 MPH due to potholes.

Remote areas are not well served by public transportation like trains and buses.

You are absolutely right that airlines treat paying passengers like cattle to be herded on and off. At least the cattle are fed in transit.

Buses and trains around here are actually comfortable and efficient. You can get an app on your phone that identifies the location of every bus on your route so you can estimate when they will arrive so you don't need to stand around outside wondering when they will arrive. I don't use buses for long distances but on the few occasions that I have they were all charters with toilets.

The new double decker trains are really smooth riding too. Amtrak business class is barely more expensive than coach and the service is better. Seats are roomy and there is plenty of luggage space. Having an outlet and free WiFi means that you can work or just surf the internet in comfort as they bring you coffee, chocolate, whatever for free.

So Amtrak is my preference over planes or cars. Roads here are congested and it is easy to get stuck for hours in jams. At least if the train is delayed you can still keep yourself occupied and you don't have the stress of either driving or flying.

 

[Political Junky]

Amtrak loses tens of millions a year, and when it is responsible for five deaths, the response is to give them more money? This is the problem with what are essentially state funded monopolies, they have no incentive to become efficient and innovate and lower costs because they have no competition. They have perverted profit incentives where the continuation of their business is not contingent on running a profit, but on receiving and maximizing government subsidies. Whereas a fully private company that ran losses like this and had a major accident like this would go out of business, this incident could very well increase their funding. How insane is that? What needs to happen is for Amtrak to go out of business and for there to be free market competition in railway transportation

actually, guy, most European railroads are subsidized by the government and have been for years.

The problem with AmTrak is that Congress insists it run like a business and ALSO insists that it serve regions that are underserved.

For instance, AmTrak runs the Zephyr that runs from Chicago to San Francisco, at a cost of $112 Million, but only had 376,000 riders last year.

Congress is set on destroying AMTRAK just as they've tried to destroy the Post Office. They want them privately owned.

 

[Yarddog]

This line, the Northeast Corridor, is a nightmare to ride. The rail system between D.C. and Boston hasn't been updated in over 60 years.

But bomb, bomb, bomb ....bomb, bomb Iran. Yeah baby! Defense spending trumps our own citizens' ability to get to work every day.

Death Toll Rises to 6 in Philadelphia Amtrak Train Wreck
(140 injured)
Death Toll Rises to 6 in Philadelphia Amtrak Train Wreck - WSJ

The Chinese, French, Italians, Japanese, et al. are laughing at us.

Its not always about money, its about using it wisely, you mistake people Telling our Government to stop wasting the money they collect from us, for someone
who doesnt want Infrastructure. For gods sake, Obama had the stimulus bill pass, thats what it was for, not Scam , front, kickback businesses like solindra .

Here in the SF bay area where i live, it just took our local Brain trust, 20 years to build the Oakland/ SF bay bridge 5 BILLION dollars overbudget. It was supposed to cost ONE billion. It went for 6 Billion . They put the thing up and its Already a piece of crap, all the foundation support rods that are suppossed to reinforce in the event of a major earthquake are not sealed against saltwater and are already failing under testing. They are also inaccessible and on the bay floor. Thats not all thats wrong with this bridge. Its not that we dont like bridges, some people just want accountability for some of our money they throw away, before we give them more to throw away, because it makes them feel good

 

[EverCurious]

Train viability... really any mode of transportation's viability, relies on the location. In Alaska our railways support a lot of tourist passenger lines and are quite successful, they're thinking about trying to open up commuter service but the financial viability is still in debate. Big airplanes and cars are not an option for much of the state, so we have a thriving small commuter airplane market, our "Bush" pilots. Boats, snow machines, and even dog sleds normally thought of as some kind of "luxury" in the lower 48 are actually vital, sometimes the only, mode of transportation in and out. I think one of the problems of Federal oversight/subsidies/taxes/etc. as a whole is that they attempt to apply a 'blanket' of stats and expectations across the entire nation, when a more targeted approach is actually needed. Overreach, into areas they have zero concept of, is an issue there is really no other way to address but to /cut/ those things out.

In any event, even if we argue that this is indeed "infrastructure" then there still needs to be a point at which the financial viability comes into question. As a more business minded individual I don't understand why the non-profitable long commuter lines are being required to stay open by the governments when it's clear they are not-profitable and 'lightly' used.

I would obviously need to do some research into it to form a more solid analysis, but, as I often find the particulars of any non logical situations to be... less than noble in their intentions, I cannot help but question if the retention of non-profitable lines is a) some attempt to meet a political quota of money spent on x project, or b) the private company itself retaining non-profitable lines in order to retain the subsidy, or c) if there is some other more 'reasonable' factor, like local populace along the lines lobbying to retain them, etc.

 

[Steinlight]

Amtrak loses tens of millions a year, and when it is responsible for five deaths, the response is to give them more money? This is the problem with what are essentially state funded monopolies, they have no incentive to become efficient and innovate and lower costs because they have no competition. They have perverted profit incentives where the continuation of their business is not contingent on running a profit, but on receiving and maximizing government subsidies. Whereas a fully private company that ran losses like this and had a major accident like this would go out of business, this incident could very well increase their funding. How insane is that? What needs to happen is for Amtrak to go out of business and for there to be free market competition in railway transportation

actually, guy, most European railroads are subsidized by the government and have been for years.

The problem with AmTrak is that Congress insists it run like a business and ALSO insists that it serve regions that are underserved.

For instance, AmTrak runs the Zephyr that runs from Chicago to San Francisco, at a cost of $112 Million, but only had 376,000 riders last year.

Congress is set on destroying AMTRAK just as they've tried to destroy the Post Office. They want them privately owned.

Talk about two entities that should go. They are inefficient, they run at a net loss and are a deadweight on the economy. Both wouldn't exist if they were propped up by the taxpayer.

 

[depotoo]

A new twist, the fbi has been called in. Seems it may have been hit with something. The conductor also overheard the engineer and the SEPTA engineer saying something about both trains being hit or shot at just before it derailed. The SEPTA train was hit less than 4 minutes before the amtrak derailed. And there is a suspicious area on the front right panel of the amtrak, according to the reporting.

 

[MaryL]

We lost the war in Vietnam because of politicians. They got us into that mess, then they dictate the rules of engagement. Then we get quotas dictating who can drive Amtrak trains, Incompetent boobs that are left handed bi-racial ginger freckled illegal immigrant eskimo dwarves. That trumps experience or competence.

 

[Political Junky]

A new twist, the fbi has been called in. Seems it may have been hit with something. The conductor also overheard the engineer and the SEPTA engineer saying something about both trains being hit or shot at just before it derailed. The SEPTA train was hit less than 4 minutes before the amtrak derailed. And there is a suspicious area on the front right panel of the amtrak, according to the reporting.

I heard something briefly about this. Hopefully more to follow.

 

[Papageorgio]

NoTeaPee looks dumber every post.

First NoTeaPee claimed it was Republican underfunding the infrastructure, turns out it is the FCC bureaucracy that failed to activate the wireless that would have slowed the train. Now we are learning about a possible shots at the train.

NoTeaPee is a massive train wreck.

 

[MaryL]

A new twist, the fbi has been called in. Seems it may have been hit with something. The conductor also overheard the engineer and the SEPTA engineer saying something about both trains being hit or shot at just before it derailed. The SEPTA train was hit less than 4 minutes before the amtrak derailed. And there is a suspicious area on the front right panel of the amtrak, according to the reporting.

I heard something briefly about this. Hopefully more to follow.

Wouldn't be the fist time I have heard of a train being shot at. No. Trains are not like cars, takes them minutes to accelerate or decelerate. Going 50 MPH over the limit made the train derail. Human error. No doubt about it.

 

[depotoo]

There was also some strange acceleration and deceleration that also occurred, once they did a more thorough read of the black box.

A new twist, the fbi has been called in. Seems it may have been hit with something. The conductor also overheard the engineer and the SEPTA engineer saying something about both trains being hit or shot at just before it derailed. The SEPTA train was hit less than 4 minutes before the amtrak derailed. And there is a suspicious area on the front right panel of the amtrak, according to the reporting.

I heard something briefly about this. Hopefully more to follow.

Wouldn't be the fist time I have heard of a train being shot at. No. Trains are not like cars, takes them minutes to accelerate or decelerate. Going 50 MPH over the limit made the train derail. Human error. No doubt about it.

 

[MaryL]

Funny about this. A gay man that hates his employer crashes his train. I think of Germanwings pilot crashing into the alps. It happens.

 

[depotoo]

Who said he hated his employer?

Funny about this. A gay man that hates his employer crashes his train. I think of Germanwings pilot crashing into the alps. It happens.

 

[AvgGuyIA]

He proposed putting a second Asst Engineer in the cab to help with the workload and to double check each other.

Sounds like a good idea, but installing the PTC will probably take care of the problem. The question is, will Amtrak have enough money to do it by Dec 2015 now that Republicans have voted to cut their funding even more.

Rail News - Sound Transit to install PTC equipment on trains. For Railroad Career Professionals

There you go again. They didn't cut the funding.

Are you arguing semantics?

Republicans passed a bill to cut Amtrak funding.....there, is that better?



Washington (CNN)A House panel approved a measure Wednesday that cuts funding for Amtrak, less than a day after a train derailment left at least seven people dead and many more injured.

The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted 30-21 to reduce grants to Amtrak by $252 million -- a drop of about 15% from last year's level.
House committee passes bill that cuts Amtrak funding - CNNPolitics.com


As investigators were piecing together what happened, the House of Representatives moved to reduce Amtrak's federal funding. The Republican-led Appropriations Committee voted on Wednesday to slash grants to Amtrak by over $250 million—a 15 percent cut from last year. (Amtrak's new budget would be about $1.1 billion.) The vote had been previously scheduled, but in the wake of Tuesday's accident, Democrats and transportation experts criticized the move, asserting that increased rail funding was more important than ever.
The Amtrak Crash Hasn t Stopped Republicans From Trying to Cut Its Funding Mother Jones

He proposed putting a second Asst Engineer in the cab to help with the workload and to double check each other.

Sounds like a good idea, but installing the PTC will probably take care of the problem. The question is, will Amtrak have enough money to do it by Dec 2015 now that Republicans have voted to cut their funding even more.

Rail News - Sound Transit to install PTC equipment on trains. For Railroad Career Professionals

There you go again. They didn't cut the funding.

Are you arguing semantics?

Republicans passed a bill to cut Amtrak funding.....there, is that better?



Washington (CNN)A House panel approved a measure Wednesday that cuts funding for Amtrak, less than a day after a train derailment left at least seven people dead and many more injured.

The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted 30-21 to reduce grants to Amtrak by $252 million -- a drop of about 15% from last year's level.
House committee passes bill that cuts Amtrak funding - CNNPolitics.com


As investigators were piecing together what happened, the House of Representatives moved to reduce Amtrak's federal funding. The Republican-led Appropriations Committee voted on Wednesday to slash grants to Amtrak by over $250 million—a 15 percent cut from last year. (Amtrak's new budget would be about $1.1 billion.) The vote had been previously scheduled, but in the wake of Tuesday's accident, Democrats and transportation experts criticized the move, asserting that increased rail funding was more important than ever.
The Amtrak Crash Hasn t Stopped Republicans From Trying to Cut Its Funding Mother Jones

there they go again. Only DEMOCRATS would call and increase in spending a cut because they disnt get the amount they want.

Shame on Democrats politicizing the deaths of those people on Amtral 188. Obama's Amtrak could have installed that slowing technology that the Republican Congress authorized, but they didn't.

 

[M14 Shooter]

Interestingly enough, the safety equipment has been installed. Just not turned on. The reason? FCC hasn't released enough bandwidth to support it. Uh, oh spaghetti oh...... They claim it's all about the budget, but in reality it's one incompetent bureaucracy interfering with another. Who knew!
Yet another meme falls by the wayside in the cold light of fact.
"But the system, which was tantalizingly close to being operational, was delayed by budgetary shortfalls, technical hurdles and bureaucratic rules, officials said Thursday."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/u...-away-from-installing-safety-system.html?_r=0

2001-2009, these boobs would blame Bush, as the FCC falls under the executive branch.
Since The Obama is at apparently fault, you won't hear a thing.
Mindless partisan bigots are funny like that.