Commentary

Send iron horses to glue factory: NITL

Frustrated that rail rates are higher than desired by its members, and failing to convince Congress to repeal Staggers Rail Act provisions providing carriers greater rate-making freedoms, the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) is attempting a Hail Mary, asking the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to confiscate railroad private property to achieve its aims.
Commentary

Flawed State Dept. report twists rail safety stats

Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline exulted while statisticians expressed dismay at the U.S. State Department’s dramatic assertion the week of Jan. 26 that failure to approve the proposed pipeline could cause an additional six persons per year to be killed by crude oil trains.
Commentary

If crude by rail, why not water?

I can’t help but watch the wildfires and water shortages taking place in California and wonder if BNSF and Union Pacific, and perhaps a few of their shippers, are able to respond to this drought with the same urgency with which they’ve answered the call for hauling crude. How many weeks, or months, would it take for BNSF and UP to corral enough tank cars together and set up locations in states with a greater abundance of water where those cars can be filled and then rushed toward California?
Commentary

Where does the buck stop on HSR and Amtrak?

That President Obama mentioned not a word on high speed rail or Amtrak in his State of the Union speech reflects on the rather dreadful manner in which his administration has pursued the presidential vision in support of expanded rail passenger service.

Commentary

Blame aplenty for high speed rail woes

Don’t assume, based on headlines, an obituary for high speed rail just yet. A more accurate analogy is an induced coma brought on by poor planning and implementation amidst an increased necessity to pare federal deficits.

Commentary

Amtrak CEO holds to focus on the future

To economists and financial analysts whose obsession is return on investment, opinion leaders advocating smaller government, and corporate executives captivated by stock prices, Amtrak President Joe Boardman is surely a curiosity.
Commentary

2014: Railroads face problematic Washington landscape

Take it from an iron horse’s mouth that if it ain’t one damn thing, it’s another, and 2014 will present for railroads a repast of challenges on Capitol Hill, before the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and federal courts, and at the labor bargaining table.
Commentary

Cincinnati and Austin: Community urban rail proponents challenge City Hall

It should come as no surprise that campaigns for new urban rail startup projects have been meeting stiff opposition in a couple of American cities. That’s usually the case, isn’t it? However, the efforts in both Cincinnati, Ohio, and Austin, Tex., are particularly newsworthy because they involve a rather surprising juxtaposition of project supporters and opponents.

Commentary

Are two-person crews less safe than a single engineer?

News item: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ordered MTA Metro-North Railroad to have two qualified crewmembers in the lead cab until Metro-North’s signal system is updated to ensure automatic train control (ATC) slows trains automatically if the engineer fails to adhere to a speed reduction requirement greater than 20 mph below maximum allowable speed.
Commentary

Emergency Order 29: Where’s the consistency?

When we investigate accidents and injuries, when we analyze failures of any sort on any railroad, we are searching for a root cause—that determining factor, or factors, that drive the accident from a potential condition to a manifest event.
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