Trains

I caught half of the world news tonight but that was enough.  To begin with, it was very warm and the pool was calling (it was either go in there or fall asleep in the chair).  But beyond that, I got tired of seeing what I read about earlier in the day and I had my rant picked.



One of the hottest topics out there today was regarding the rail car explosion that happened this morning.  I find it the way in which, ABC at least, covered the story.  They went beyond reporting on the story and brought up the same information that they did when the last train derailed.  They focused on the fact that no one knows what is on the trains that are moving through their communities.  This isn't something new.  Trains have almost always run without having to reveal their contents to the public directly.  Part of that has to do with the fact that everyone would say that they didn't want the dangerous stuff going through their community.  Don't believe me?  Think about what happens every time there is a talk of a new trash dump or sewer treatment plant being planned.  You will go from council meetings with hardly anyone in attendance to meetings where the fire marshal is forced to enforce the room limit on people, all trying to say why the facility shouldn't be put in their community.  In the case of trains, no freight would be moved and our economy would be in a worse place then it is now.


And how about the question that they posed, "How safe are trains?"  A spokesman for the industry stated that they moved millions of tons of freight for each accident.  Trains are by far the most economical and safest way to move huge amounts of product over long distances.  But if we want to improve safety we need to strip the railroads of their power.  They have a lot of control over the government, and the public, that dates back to the beginnings of the industry.  Did you know that if they decide that they want to put tracks right where your house is all they have to do is say so?  Not much the government can even do about that unless they change the laws either as I believe it has held up in court.  Heck, if they really wanted to they could even put a huge cramp in the property tax free mall expansion that just went in!  So how much authority do you think the government has over the safety of the rail system?  My guess is not that much.  But even so, the overall track (ha, no pun intended) record is very good when compared to other shipping industries.  So why is ABC bringing it up?  Pretty simple, they are trying to get the scoop on everyone else by trying to make something out of nothing.


So that leaves a couple of quick open ended comments.  First, if we let communities start deciding what they will and will not allow to pass through on a train, how are we going to move things like nuclear waste?  Second, if we decide that there are too many train accidents and that the government needs to regulate the safety, who is going to pay for it?