Is this another case of Republicans defunding resources for the common man or just a reduction in entitlements since Amtrak requires subsidizing to operate?
Opinions?
[Edited on 5/14/2015 by Bill_Graham]
[Edited on 5/14/2015 by Bill_Graham]
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Everyone talks about the automated system. Have I gone made/others gone made but shouldn't the f**ng engineer not drive a train at 100MPH in a 50MPH zone? Is no one responsible for what they do? And of course he knows nothing/remembers nothing like Schultz on Hogan's Hero's.
Someone f**d up royally; this is not a political agenda.
Everyone talks about the automated system. Have I gone made/others gone made but shouldn't the f**ng engineer not drive a train at 100MPH in a 50MPH zone? Is no one responsible for what they do? And of course he knows nothing/remembers nothing like Schultz on Hogan's Hero's.
Someone f**d up royally; this is not a political agenda.
The accident itself may not have been a result of the lack of funding but it did bring the fight to national attention and helps to highlight the crumbling Amtrak infrastructure.
According to this article Amtrak has a $21 Billion backlog in repairs. I have never traveled by Amtrak but that would not give me a warm and fuzzy if I did.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/14/amtrak-crash-federal-funding/27296479/
[Edited on 5/14/2015 by Bill_Graham]
Doesn't seem like this had anything to do with the infrastructure; but I agree that trains/planes/automobiles are suffering from poor infrastructure.
Doesn't seem like this had anything to do with the infrastructure; but I agree that trains/planes/automobiles are suffering from poor infrastructure.
It probably doesn't but the Dem's are using it as a political lever to try to restore funding the GOP cut. Sadly it is business as usual in Washington.
I'm with Rachel Maddow. Those who tragically died in this incident are on the head of the Republicans. The Amtrak subsidy should be tripled tomorrow morning. This will insure that no train will run 57 MPH over the speed limit and that nobody will ever die in a rail accident ever again.
The mean-spirited Republicans show once again they don't care about safety. All they care about is their rich buddies.
I'm with Rachel Maddow. Those who tragically died in this incident are on the head of the Republicans. The Amtrak subsidy should be tripled tomorrow morning. This will insure that no train will run 57 MPH over the speed limit and that nobody will ever die in a rail accident ever again.
The mean-spirited Republicans show once again they don't care about safety. All they care about is their rich buddies.
There was a time when you posted some interesting things. I didn't agree with much of it, but it made me think about the view from the other side. Now, you are just a troll posting pointless idiotic garbage.
I'm with Rachel Maddow. Those who tragically died in this incident are on the head of the Republicans. The Amtrak subsidy should be tripled tomorrow morning. This will insure that no train will run 57 MPH over the speed limit and that nobody will ever die in a rail accident ever again.
The mean-spirited Republicans show once again they don't care about safety. All they care about is their rich buddies.
There was a time when you posted some interesting things. I didn't agree with much of it, but it made me think about the view from the other side. Now, you are just a troll posting pointless idiotic garbage.
X2.
People f'ing died in this tragic event, & he's posting cutesy crap. How pathetic.
Wonder if he'd have posted the same way if he had a relative or friend on that train?
Turns out Maddow is not alone. The blame the GOP game is on!
quote:
quote:
I'm with Rachel Maddow. Those who tragically died in this incident are on the head of the Republicans. The Amtrak subsidy should be tripled tomorrow morning. This will insure that no train will run 57 MPH over the speed limit and that nobody will ever die in a rail accident ever again.The mean-spirited Republicans show once again they don't care about safety. All they care about is their rich buddies.
There was a time when you posted some interesting things. I didn't agree with much of it, but it made me think about the view from the other side. Now, you are just a troll posting pointless idiotic garbage.
X2.
People f'ing died in this tragic event, & he's posting cutesy crap. How pathetic.
Wonder if he'd have posted the same way if he had a relative or friend on that train?
I've taken that same train to see the Allman Brothers at the Beacon in both March and October. I love the trip. I'm really sorry this happened.
I'm sure the engineer knows about the crumbling train infrastructure. All the more reason he shouldn't have been hauling ass. I wonder how much of the money that Congress is cutting is meant for training and education?
Turns out Maddow is not alone. The blame the GOP game is on!
Alloak, if there were no political party involved would you support more funding for Amtrak? Do you support more money for infrastructure?
By the way, the US spend 60 BILLION to rebuild Iraq.
I'm sure the engineer knows about the crumbling train infrastructure. All the more reason he shouldn't have been hauling ass. I wonder how much of the money that Congress is cutting is meant for training and education?
Turns out Maddow is not alone. The blame the GOP game is on!
Alloak, if there were no political party involved would you support more funding for Amtrak? Do you support more money for infrastructure?
I think we should go to blank check funding of everything. Sky's the limit. When anything bad happens, regardless of the factual cause just throw more money at it. Sooner or later nothing bad will ever happen.
The same cycle continues to repeat itself upon any type of crisis or unfortunate incident...
1) Get out in front of the story.
2) Ignore facts and evidence.
3) Politicize the incident with some political gain in mind.
4) Blame the GOP.
5) Paint anyone who disagrees as racist, mean-spirited, or what have you.
So? No?
Why couldn't you just answer the question? Instead of the sky being the limit... Could we just spend 60 billion like we did in Iraq?
Why are the Republicans ok with spending over there and not ok with spending in the United States?
The same cycle continues to repeat itself upon any type of crisis or unfortunate incident...
1) Get out in front of the story.
2) Ignore facts and evidence.
3) Politicize the incident with some political gain in mind.
4) Blame the GOP.
5) Paint anyone who disagrees as racist, mean-spirited, or what have you.
Evidently this tragedy might have been avoided if funding had been available to install a speed control system which has been delayed due to lack of funding.
Against all evidence, House Speaker John Boehner is clinging to the absurd notion that Tuesday’s fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia had nothing whatsoever to do with money. And he’s doing so with all the maturity of a junior-high class president.
Memo to the GOP: If you can’t take the heat, change your reflexively anti-spending position.
Boehner lost it Thursday, a day after Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee outrageously chopped $250 million from Amtrak’s budget — even as the railroad struggles to finance speed-control technology that almost surely would have saved eight lives on that train and spared 200 people from injury.
A reporter began to press Boehner on the vote, and before she could finish, he shot back:
“Are you really going to ask such a stupid question? . . . They (Democrats) started this yesterday. ‘It’s all about funding, it’s all about funding.’ Obviously, it’s not about funding.
“The train was going twice the speed limit,” his rant continued. “Adequate funds were there — no money was cut from rail safety, and the House passed a bill earlier this spring to reauthorize Amtrak and authorize a lot of these programs.”
The speaker doth protest too much. As surely as an airbag can save lives when a driver loses control , the right technology can protect rail passengers from the inevitable and potentially fatal missteps of human engineers.
Nationwide installation of a system known as Positive Train Control — which would have prevented Amtrak 188 from barreling at 106 mph into a 50 mph curve — will cost billions. Yet Congress, in thrall to ideologues, is failing to pony up anything close to what’s necessary.
Hauntingly, the engineer of ill-fated Amtrak 188, Brandon Bostian, is a train geek who had over many years complained in online forums that railroad companies were cutting corners. One post, in the wake of a 2011 collision, went like this:
“At any point over the previous EIGHTY years the railroad could have voluntarily implemented some form of this technology on the line where that fateful wreck took place. I wish the railroads had been more proactive in adopting active signaling systems from the get-go.”
He added, “The reality is that they have had nearly a hundred years of opportunity to implement SOME sort of system to mitigate human error, but with a few notable exceptions have failed to do so.”
In this case, “they” includes you, Mr. Speaker.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/editorial-rails-article-1.2222743
[Edited on 5/15/2015 by Bill_Graham]
I suggest everyone do a whole lot more research into the facts prior to blaming funding alone. Funding alone does not seem to be smoking gun some of you wish it to be. Sure it is a factor in not having implemented the new safety system, but not the sole factor.
Here is a start:
Still, several federal officials and safety experts defended Amtrak’s record. Many pointed out that the railroads was one of the few in the United States that were on schedule to meet a federal deadline to have positive train control technology operational before the end of the year.
“Amtrak has been in a leadership role on this,” said Mark Rosenker, a former chairman of the safety board. “They were talking about positive train control when I was at the board.”
Railroads other than Amtrak, particularly freight railroads, have been much slower to implement these systems, citing the technological challenges, shortages in equipment and the availability of radio spectrum, among other issues.
“The sad irony in this accident is that Amtrak is further along than almost anybody in reaching their deployment of positive train control,” said Joseph C. Szabo, a former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. “They have been very steady and very committed. So much has been done.”
Edward R. Hamberger, chief executive of the Association of American Railroads, said railroads would not complete the installation of all systems for positive train control until the end of 2018. After that, he estimated, it will take about two years to test that all components of the system work together correctly.
To date, he said, railroads have installed the technology on about 8,200 miles of tracks, out of 60,000 miles where the technology is federally required. At the end of last year, about 15 percent of locomotives were fully equipped, and railroads had installed about 56 percent of the track systems.
Money has also been an issue in implementing positive train control.
The Federal Railroad Administration has calculated the cost of the system at $52,000 per mile of track. The railroads have put a total price tag of more than $9 billion on the system and said they have spent $5.2 billion so far. One of the biggest problems is that the system needs to be interoperable, meaning that communication is necessary between equipment used by different railroads, even if the railroads use different types of equipment.
I suggest everyone do a whole lot more research into the facts prior to blaming funding alone. Funding alone does not seem to be smoking gun some of you wish it to be. Sure it is a factor in not having implemented the new safety system, but not the sole factor.
Here is a start:
Still, several federal officials and safety experts defended Amtrak’s record. Many pointed out that the railroads was one of the few in the United States that were on schedule to meet a federal deadline to have positive train control technology operational before the end of the year.
“Amtrak has been in a leadership role on this,” said Mark Rosenker, a former chairman of the safety board. “They were talking about positive train control when I was at the board.”
Railroads other than Amtrak, particularly freight railroads, have been much slower to implement these systems, citing the technological challenges, shortages in equipment and the availability of radio spectrum, among other issues.
“The sad irony in this accident is that Amtrak is further along than almost anybody in reaching their deployment of positive train control,” said Joseph C. Szabo, a former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. “They have been very steady and very committed. So much has been done.”
Edward R. Hamberger, chief executive of the Association of American Railroads, said railroads would not complete the installation of all systems for positive train control until the end of 2018. After that, he estimated, it will take about two years to test that all components of the system work together correctly.
To date, he said, railroads have installed the technology on about 8,200 miles of tracks, out of 60,000 miles where the technology is federally required. At the end of last year, about 15 percent of locomotives were fully equipped, and railroads had installed about 56 percent of the track systems.
Money has also been an issue in implementing positive train control.
The Federal Railroad Administration has calculated the cost of the system at $52,000 per mile of track. The railroads have put a total price tag of more than $9 billion on the system and said they have spent $5.2 billion so far. One of the biggest problems is that the system needs to be interoperable, meaning that communication is necessary between equipment used by different railroads, even if the railroads use different types of equipment.
Don't think anyone here has claimed that funding will solve all the railroads problems but evidence shows it could have had an impact considering that portion of the rail line is scheduled for installation of the speed control system but lack of funding has slowed down implemetation.
So basically the article you posted shows that Amtrak sucks less then other rail lines.
But this statement in the article seems to contradict your claim that funding had less impact on the derailment then some of believe.
Money has also been an issue in implementing positive train control.
Not sure how your article proves funding had less impact then has been claimed.
[Edited on 5/15/2015 by Bill_Graham]
[Edited on 5/15/2015 by Bill_Graham]
[Edited on 5/15/2015 by Bill_Graham]
[Edited on 5/15/2015 by Bill_Graham]
IMO, a better use of awareness in this situation would be to point out the massive amount of crumbling infrastructure in America.
But, unfortunately, that's just not that important. Oh well.
So? No?
Why couldn't you just answer the question? Instead of the sky being the limit... Could we just spend 60 billion like we did in Iraq?
Why are the Republicans ok with spending over there and not ok with spending in the United States?
Don't hold your breath on those answers.
Once again, it's different variations of the same theme.
quote:
So? No?Why couldn't you just answer the question? Instead of the sky being the limit... Could we just spend 60 billion like we did in Iraq?
Why are the Republicans ok with spending over there and not ok with spending in the United States?
Don't hold your breath on those answers.
Once again, it's different variations of the same theme.
Listening to Republicans in Congress I'm thinking alloak is just using their playbook - snark but offer no solutions. I don't know why so many people in America support a political party that has no answers offering only rehashed failed policies.
Nobody has answered the question as to why the GOP is fighting appropriations for Amtrak?
IMO, a better use of awareness in this situation would be to point out the massive amount of crumbling infrastructure in America.
But, unfortunately, that's just not that important. Oh well.
If you were to round a curve at 90 MPH, when 30 is called for and you run into a tree would the cause of the accident be crumbling infrastructure?
Was the infrastructure crumbling in 2009? We are in year six of the Obama regime. The first year featured a Trillion dollar stimulus bill that could have addressed infrastructure upgrades.
Apparently it wasn't important then, either.
Nobody has answered the question as to why the GOP is fighting appropriations for Amtrak?
Maybe a better question would be, what's the government doing trying to operate a railroad in the first place?
quote:
So? No?Why couldn't you just answer the question? Instead of the sky being the limit... Could we just spend 60 billion like we did in Iraq?
Why are the Republicans ok with spending over there and not ok with spending in the United States?
Don't hold your breath on those answers.
Once again, it's different variations of the same theme.
Listening to Republicans in Congress I'm thinking alloak is just using their playbook - snark but offer no solutions. I don't know why so many people in America support a political party that has no answers offering only rehashed failed policies.
Failed policies like a balanced budget (or surplus) that you're glad to take credit for? Yes, that was all Clinton's doing, right? If that's failed policy, we need to rehash more failure fast.
I suggest everyone do a whole lot more research into the facts prior to blaming funding alone. Funding alone does not seem to be smoking gun some of you wish it to be. Sure it is a factor in not having implemented the new safety system, but not the sole factor.
100% correct. Unfortunately, whenever something bad happens we have politicians tripping over themselves on the way to the microphone all placing the blame on lack of funding. That's why we'll NEVER get out of the debt mess we're in. Never.
Those that disagree are quickly labeled as racists, crazy, mean, extreme, all down the line.
[Edited on 5/15/2015 by alloak41]
IMO, a better use of awareness in this situation would be to point out the massive amount of crumbling infrastructure in America.
But, unfortunately, that's just not that important. Oh well.
If you were to round a curve at 90 MPH, when 30 is called for and you run into a tree would the cause of the accident be crumbling infrastructure?
Was the infrastructure crumbling in 2009? We are in year six of the Obama regime. The first year featured a Trillion dollar stimulus bill that could have addressed infrastructure upgrades.
Apparently it wasn't important then, either.
That comment wasn't partisan in nature at all. Was speaking more in a general sense. And, that trillion dollar stimulus bill was widely mocked and ridiculed, and, given the depth of the issue, a trillion dollars might not have been enough. That stimulus could have been administrated a lot better than it was, and once again illustrated the deep problems that our government has. The infrastructure issues remain.
A couple weeks ago one of the bridges that link two major interstate arteries in KC was found to be in an extremely bad way, as in risk of collapse way. Before it was closed for repair, rumor has it that a group of local conservatives gathered under the bridge and started yelling at it to take responsibility for its failings and pull itself up by the bootstraps.
Sadly, the bridge, unable to break free of its entitlement mentality set by years of leftist rule, had to relent, accept public assistance and close for repairs.
Now, since you wish to rehash 2009, let's do so.
As one who was anti-stimulus in general, I favored the construction and infrastructure parts of the bill. I wish they would try to release the funds for projects like this faster. -alloak41, 7/8/2009
That was 2009. This is now:
I think we should go to blank check funding of everything. Sky's the limit. When anything bad happens, regardless of the factual cause just throw more money at it. Sooner or later nothing bad will ever happen.
We're now deep into year seven of the alloak41 Republican Perfection Era. Why did you support funding then but not now?
Maybe a better question would be, what's the government doing trying to operate a railroad in the first place?
Exactly. Privatize it. But you would never hear that from the people who want government to run everything and then the only solution to any problem is give it more money.
I suggest everyone do a whole lot more research into the facts prior to blaming funding alone. Funding alone does not seem to be smoking gun some of you wish it to be. Sure it is a factor in not having implemented the new safety system, but not the sole factor.
100% correct. Unfortunately, whenever something bad happens we have politicians tripping over themselves on the way to the microphone all placing the blame on lack of funding. That's why we'll NEVER get out of the debt mess we're in. Never.
alloak, do you believe our infrastructure, whether it be transportation, power, or electronic, has been properly funded over the last 5, 10, 20 years? Is there any infrastructure spending that you were in favor of in 2009 that you would still be in favor of today? Or should it all be allowed to crumble in the name of debt reduction?
Maybe a better question would be, what's the government doing trying to operate a railroad in the first place?
Exactly. Privatize it. But you would never hear that from the people who want government to run everything and then the only solution to any problem is give it more money.
Yes, let's just wave a magic wand and privatize it. Brilliant!!
