Yep, it was our infrastructure alright

[TemplarKormac]

Right - because opinions don't require facts.

Of course not, if you were you.

 

[oldernwiser]

Evidently, the FUNDING was obtained less than 1 month before the crash and was described as "a necessary first step..."

Speed control was NOT working at the time of the crash - even if portions of it were installed.

Funding doesn't cover for the malfeasance of the engineer, or the fact that the PTC (installed in both train and track) wasn't on at the time of the accident. Besides, funding had been coming in since 2008, after then President George W. Bush mandated that the PTC be fully operational by this year. Well lookie here, 7 years later and nothing. So, why has it taken this long for merely "portions" of it to be installed? Surely it wasn't for lack of funding?

That "critical first step" should have been taken long before now. That once again tells you the money was there, but the brains behind the outfit were not.

I agree with that - it should have begun when the law requiring it was enacted in 2008.

Funding does not cover for the engineers malfeasance - provided that was indeed the case.

As for the rest of that drivel, here's FRA's report to Congress 01Aug2012

Whether you accept this as fact or not, Congress decided to chop Amtrak's budget by 20% just after the Philly crash

Amtrak has been running a budget deficit for a while. It's usual requests come in at around $1.4Billion (which got shorted $260M), they take in about $3B and have normal operating expenses of about $4B. The initial cost for PTC is $875M and operating costs of $9.5 to $13.2B over 20 years. They already have 3 fully functioning lines which carry 43k passengers a day (commuter rail service in CA) at $216M - there are 4 more lines that need to be installed there. Any way you look at this, Congress mandated a system that Amtrak can't pay for by itself and also maintain it's existing rail service, and which Congress refuses to provide funding for.

The money was never "there", they are allocating in small chunks and because of that began asking Congress to delay implementation beginning in 2012. You can get a copy of the DOT congressional report on thomas.gov which shows that congress began shorting Amtrak's budget requests as early as 2010. (I closed it before I could paste here - but you can look it up for yourself).

"The real dilemma that you face ... is you have a limited, a finite amount of money each year that you can spend on infrastructure and safety," said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the NTSB. "Do you spend the money on high consequence, low probability events? And I would call the accident two days ago high consequence but low probability. Or do you spend it on high probability, lower consequence items such as working on electrical systems or air conditioning?" -- CNN

Now, I worked for a government contractor and have a decent working knowledge of how funds can be misappropriated as well as how contracts are awarded. But, Amtrak began padding their budget requests as soon as they began researching the PTC system - knowing full well that what was required was going to be expensive. So, either we have a law which says that our rail service should be safe or we don't. But if we do, and it can't be paid for, whose fault is it really?

 

[TemplarKormac]

You can get a copy of the DOT congressional report on thomas.gov which shows that congress began shorting Amtrak's budget requests as early as 2010

Heh, perhaps you forgot about this:

House votes to boost Amtrak Northeast Corridor service NJ.com

The initial funding was going to be $1.7 billion over 4 years, and even after the cut it would still still have received its annual $1.440 billion via government subsidies. A Republican House passed this in March, with $439 million going directly to the NE corridor as early as next year. For some reason the bill did not pass the previous congress last year, though and the bill stalled.

Nothing at all would have changed, but the Senate hasn't taken up the matter. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate failed to get together on voting for this bill, what happened later would demonstrate the consequence of such an inaction. If it had been passed (on time, without partisan gridlock), who's to say that it may have been able to prevent this crash before it happened?

You can't pin the blame on a single entity or party. The Republicans got the ball rolling in the house, but both parties have done nothing in the Senate thus far.

 

[TemplarKormac]

So, either we have a law which says that our rail service should be safe or we don't. But if we do, and it can't be paid for, whose fault is it really?

We do. But such a law does no good when people choose not to abide by it. Whose fault would that be? The person who chose to by accident or on purpose, break the law.

 

[Dragonlady]

TK why do you refuse to acknowledge that conservative fiscal policies as relates to infrastructure spending may have been a factor in this derailment?

 

[Rexx Taylor]

there is something wrong with the moon. I think we should lasso it and pull it closer. then all the tides will be in sync all over the world. can't cost that much to make a 9 million mile rope.

 

[TemplarKormac]

TK why do you refuse to acknowledge that conservative fiscal policies as relates to infrastructure spending may have been a factor in this derailment?

Because they weren't. I've already demonstrated that. You're so eager to
place the blame, so you blame the Republicans. Perhaps you should realize that Democrats held control of both houses until 2010, and they played a part in hindering progress on the PTC, too concerned with passing Obamacare. If it weren't for Republican president George W. Bush, we wouldn't be discussing the PTC period.

Get it through that thick head of yours.

 

[initforme]

Why fix infrastructure when you can give some company those funds to bring in some company who will create $10 an hour jobs for about 20 people and the rest of the money will be spent b y the big Whigs of the company while they laugh all the way to the bank? Heck our infrastructure is fine. Might have to employ people for $25 an hour to fix a bridge. Can't have that now can we?