It’s 2024. Why are trains still derailing? Surely there’s a better engineering design than this.
Rail workers do not have the proper time to fully inspect cars and arrange them in the proper order due to understaffing and the high volume created by maximized rail schedules that prioritize profits over safety.
That’s a huge reason why rail workers wanted to go on strike before there was bipartisan cooperation led by Biden to take away their labor rights.
It’s cheaper to pay the fines when accidents happen than it is to run the trains safely. Just the cost of doing business.
led by Biden to take away their labor rights.
Yet if I criticize him, I’m accused of refusing to vote against Trump and told that I’m the problem.
They only tell you your the problem? I got called a Chinese psy-op the other day.
That’s only because you individually have been made responsible for the election. Every one else was at the meeting and didn’t want the job. Good luck, and don’t choose wrong!
This is a pretty funny response. It made me smile. Genuine thanks.
Thats line saying why are bridges still collapsing
Because zero effort has been put into maintenance!
The engineering is fine, great even. Executives have demanded that the trains run at the red line, for maximum profit. With no safety margin, when something goes wrong it goes really really wrong. That’s why it was so important to hold them accountable and so fucked that we didn’t. It’s just a matter of time until the next accident.
It’s effectively impossible to engineer around knowingly unsafe operation. The trains are fine, it’s the railroads operating them unsafely and the state and federal governments refusing to maintain infrastructure that is the problem.
i wish the govt was in charge of maintaining the infrastructure, and i wish the govt owned the infrastructure then prioritized passenger traffic over freight so we could get some semblance of a working regional rail system.
prioritized passenger traffic over freight
Technically that’s already the law. But freight lines don’t care because the law isn’t enforced
They often do prioritize passenger trains, but if it’s single track already occupied by a long, slow freight train, the passenger train is going to have to wait anyway.
I dunno. You never hear about high speed rail in Japan derailing, or the monorail at DisneyWorld going off the track. There was some crazy invention ages ago where a train with a gyroscope actually traveled on a single rail. We’ve got to do better than this.
Yeah, because they actually care about safety and put money into maintenance.
Most derailments happen due to operational error such as too much speed for the track (preventable with ATC), equipment failure (preventable with better inspection and maintenance) or external factors like a car on the tracks (not really preventable without major gate upgrades).
The only real technological innovations are automated train systems, but that technology already exists, we just don’t use it in the US because the private rail operators make more money by cutting corners, not spending on upgrades.
In 2005, 106 passengers were killed and more than 500 injured.
That’s almost 20 years ago…
Boats still sink, planes and cars still crash. Fundamentally, transportation will fail. The question is are these failures within an acceptable rate due to unforseen issues, or is this a problem with the system that operates and profits off of these devices, letting safety slip to maximize profit?
Damn I guess wall street Pete covering it up for railroads didn’t even bother doing a clean up
Maybe have a transportation secretary who has experience in transportation, as opposed to being a consultant and focusing on ticket refunds instrad of aircraft doors coming off and trains exploding…or would that hurt profitability?
They don’t call him Wall Street Pete for no reason… he is plant and he is there to ensure no accountability for business.
Fucking lapdog made a career from being their bitch.
So nice that before this happened, the railworkers wanted to strike duets safety concerns and understaffed Railroads. All to keep them from taking days off and lowering profits.
Good old Joe Biden (friend to the working man) denied the strike request because interfering with Christmas shipping would be a problem.
I think the railworkers should have called his bluff and all off the job. Unlike Reagan and the Air Traffic Strike, the military can’t just take over those jobs. He couldn’t replace the entire unionized jobs like the AIR Force could take over flight operators.
And then they negotiated behind the scenes and got most of what they wanted without a strike. The part that anti Biden posters conveniently leave out every time they bring this up
Is it in the contract?
If it ain’t in the contract it ain’t for shit,
For roughly half the unions. The Rail companies gave a ton of stuff to their IT department and everyone called it a win to save face. Meanwhile the guys on the trains themselves are only sporadically getting wins. The points system that automatically fires people for being sick notably still exists which means one of the core complaints, (people literally falling over dead on the job because they worked through being sick) is unaddressed. As is the low staffing numbers on the actual trains and maintenance crews. To be clear a bunch of those guys officially have sick days now, but the points system will still deduct points if they miss a duty call that day.
It took me a minute to remember that this happened in Ohio and not the Middle East.
East Palestine, Ohio.
Funny how we so easily mistake one cataclysm for another
Its like school shootings, they all blur together and its hard to keep them all straightened out.
That should be clear. Palestine is a nation, but not a location.
And as a nation it has been in the news a lot lately. And may be divided into an Eastern portion, and a Western portion, no?
People outside of the US probably don’t know about the train wreck in Ohio. It never hurts to add a little clarification.
It’s both. Just like any other nation. If you go to France, your location is France and you’re also in the nation of France.
Same with Palestine.
But it’s not. If Palestinians leave territory, that land is no longer considered Palestine. Palestine is where the Palestinians live. Their nation has no borders. I wasn’t slighting Palestine. It’s just the unfortunate state of their international recognition.
No, Palestine is a specific geographic area and has been known that way since Ancient Egypt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_name_Palestine
Historically, maybe, but not legally. It’s the reason Netanyahu wants to evict them. He can circumvent the laws on settlements on occupied territory without invading another nation if the people are no longer there. They’re a displaced people without sovereign borders. The nations that show them the respect of recognition as a sovereign nation have not set agreed-upon borders. It’s important to know the law to see how he’s circumventing it.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/the-right-of-the-palestinian-self-determination-19-dec24/
Are you under the bizarre impression that a place just loses its name like that? If every French person left France, its name would change?
France is a country, not just a nation. Their borders are internationally recognized, regardless of inhabitants. The same can be said for the large swaths of unpopulated Newfoundland in Canada and Siberia in Russia. The land isn’t forgone due to being inhabited. The same is not true for Palestinian territory.
Palestine is an internationally recognized nation-state, but is not a country according to the UN. The 1949 armistice line, or “Green Line,” made up the boundaries of Israel, the West Bank (the area west of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. Therefore, Palestine’s border is only determined by an Israeli agreement, and not internationally recognized by the UN. If Palestinians leave an area, it is no longer considered Palestinian territory.
That’s exactly why Netanyahu is trying to coerce evacuation of regions. Once uninhabited, he can legally begin occupation of land that is no longer considered Palestinian territory.
Stop already
I’m stating a fact. It isn’t subjective. You don’t have to like it, but that doesn’t make it false.
not a location
…what?
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia. It encompasses two disconnected territories — the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the Palestinian territories — within the larger region of Palestine.
Yeah, but… Where is that? /s
And does it have an Eastern area? /s
A. it’s both.
B. This is the United States where we regularly question why the FBI isn’t stopping Russian influence in the Georgian Parliament.
It’s not according to the UN. Their occupied land is Palestinian territory. If they vacate, it is no longer theirs.
In contrast, Ukraine has internationally recognized borders. The currently Russian occupied towns and cities are still Ukraine.
Is that not a geographical location then? So they are both a nation and a country?
They are a nation, not a country.
“Nation” refers to a group of people who share a common culture, history, and language. It’s a term that’s often used to describe a community of people who identify with each other and have a sense of shared identity.
On the other hand, “country” refers to a geographical area that is controlled by a government. It’s a more concrete term that describes a physical location rather than a group of people.
I’m aware of the difference. But your own post mentions the geographical area that Palestinians govern. So I’m at a loss as to how you can day there isn’t also a Palestine country?
They only govern it because they reside in it. If they leave, it is no longer Palestine. That’s a problem for Palestinians. If they vacate due to bombings, they forgo the right to their territory. That’s exactly why Netanyahu is trying to force evacuations. International law is against Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories, not Palestine, because it is not a recognized country.
In contrast, the same actions in Ukraine do not change that it’s still Ukraine. When the Ukrainians evacuate and Russia takes control of a city, it becomes a Russian occupation of Ukraine.
I’m just trying to educate on the matter, not discredit Palestine at all, but people seem to be too sensitive to want to know the intricacies of the problem.
You don’t appear to know the difference between a country and a location.
Palestinians do not care much that they do not fit your arbitrary Western definition of a country.
I’m referring to their UN designation of a self-determined nation-state. If the UN would recognize them as a country with established borders, it would assist them against Israel’s occupation.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/the-right-of-the-palestinian-self-determination-19-dec24/
A country is not a location. You cannot even keep the Hasbara straight this is pathetic.
“Nation” refers to a group of people who share a common culture, history, and language. It’s a term that’s often used to describe a community of people who identify with each other and have a sense of shared identity.
On the other hand, “country” refers to a geographical area that is controlled by a government. It’s a more concrete term that describes a physical location rather than a group of people.
Are you incapable of googling the definition of the word “location” so you need to Hasbara two paragraphs out of a blog?
From Columbus to the see
Once, as a teenager, I switched channels on the TV, and there was a movie. A caption appeared on screen: “Rhode Island”.
“Nice!” I thought. “I always like movies set in cultures that are very foreign to mine.”
As the movie went on, I was increasingly confused, as those Greeks, or Turks, seemed very similar to US Americans, and the setting appeared to be the USA. (It was dubbed in French, so I couldn’t tell from the language)
I soon figured that it must be a location in the USA named after an Old World location.
New England has two types of place names. Old English colonial names and Native ones. Live a river called Woonasquatucket from the very same state you mentioned, Rhode Island.
Interesting.
Here in Québec, most towns and villages either have a native name, or saint’s name.
I’m so glad that Norfolk Southern is going to pay for all of the necessary remediation. Really a very considerate, and socially/ enviromentally conscious company. Bravo!
What are you talking about? Some politician grimaced as he took a sip of water and another one put it to his lips without actually taking a sip. Everything is fine!
Just hoping to shame Norfolk Southern into action. It was worth inconveniencing a few electrons/ photons, dammit.
It would be a shame if all those states sued the train company for damages.
They can’t DoT will likely stop them since they are “handling” it now
That sounds like something for a court to decide.
no doubt, let state AG test it!!!
I am just not hopeful considering courts are also captured by big business esp RAILROADS lol
