Commentary

If only . . . but wait . . .

I’ve been in France. I love being in France, a country that in the past 20 years has spent twice on its railways what it has spent on its roads. What am I missing? Another fatal overspeed derailment? At Frankford Junction?

NTSB wants all tanks in a blanket

Proponents of current plans to renew the continent’s crude oil tank car fleet arrived at work April 7 to find another embarrassing egg laid at their doorstep, and not by the Easter Bunny.

Tank car safety, PTC on NTSB’s 2015 Most Wanted List

The National Transportation Safety Board has released it 2015 list of ten “Most Wanted” areas that require safety improvements. Six of the ten are either rail specific or multi-modal; four, among them tank car safety, are new.
Commentary

NTSB, Metro-North, and politicians, Part 3

Let’s continue with my comments from Part 1 and Part 2 on the Oct. 28, 2014 National Transportation Safety Board press conference regarding NTSB’s determination of the causes of five accidents on Metro-North Railway (MNR). To reiterate, I’m going through the video second by second just so I can set the record straight, or at least correct some of the more egregious errors presented as facts by NSTB Acting Chairman Christopher A. Hart, and Senators Schumer, Blumenthal, and Murphy.
Commentary

Why NTSB got it wrong

I forced myself to review every miserable second of the Oct. 28, 2014 NTSB press conference regarding NTSB’s determination of the causes of five accidents on Metro-North Railway (MNR), for a couple of reasons: 1) I couldn’t believe what was being said; and  2) I couldn’t believe what was being said. I mean, come on: FRA as a “lawless, rogue agency”?
Commentary

“Schumenthal” at their self-serving best and worst

I never thought I would find myself in the position of defending the Federal Railroad Administration, at least from anyone other than the Ayn Rand-Alan Greenspan-Phil Gramm-Rush Limbaugh types out there, but life is a funny thing.

MTA taps NTSB for new safety czar

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has named National Transportation Safety Board Managing Director David L. Mayer as the agency’s new Chief Safety Officer.

CSX CBR train derails in Virginia; no injuries reported

CSX workers and others on Thursday, May 1, 2014, continued to assess the damage caused by a crude-by-rail (CBR) consist that derailed near downtown Lynchburg, Va., Wednesday afternoon, resulting in at least 12 derailed cars, three-to-four tank cars rupturing, burning oil, and oil slicks in the James River.

Commentary

Dear NTSB . . . . .

The National Transportation Safety Board recently released an open letter to MTA Metro-North Railroad containing its initial safety recommendations derived from the ongoing investigation into the Dec. 1, 2013 derailment of train 8808, which killed four passengers and injured 59.
Commentary

Data drought haunts FRA crew-size mandate

By the Federal Railroad Administration’s own congressional testimony, the years 2012 and 2013 were among the railroads’ safest on record, while the relatively few train crashes were mostly the result of human error and track defects.
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