I found this to be a long but fairly informative article. Some unsurprising but also potentially infuriating stuff for anyone affected by this.
Quote:
According to federal investigators, the derailment was caused by a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. Ditmeyer and two other experts told The Lever that ECP braking probably would have reduced the damage caused by the derailment by bringing the train to a halt more quickly and stopping all of the cars simultaneously.
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The AAR lobbying group concurred that “the costs of the ECP rule substantially outweigh its benefits,” and claimed the mandate would cost them about $3 billion — or roughly 2 weeks of their operating revenue in a typical year. The FRA estimated the brake requirement would cost about half a billion.
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But instead of investing in the safety feature, the seven largest freight railroad companies in the U.S., including Norfolk Southern, spent $191 billion on stock buybacks and shareholder dividends between 2011 and 2021, far more than the $138 billion those firms spent on capital investments in the same time period
Possibly the case that this train already had issues as of Feb 1st as a result of carrying too heavy a load and that Norfolk was warned by employees that something like this was possible because the train was carrying too heavy a load.
From 3:50 in this video
__________________
"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"
In a Twitter thread posted more than a week after Norfolk Southern’s fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Buttigieg indicated that he cannot reinstate an Obama-enacted, Trump-repealed law requiring some trains carrying hazardous materials to replace their Civil War-era braking systems with new Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brake technology.
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Buttigieg’s tweet refers to a law passed by Congress in 2015 — at the urging of the railroad industry — requiring the executive branch to conduct cost-benefit analysis of the ECP brake rule before enacting it. Trump used that law to kill the braking rule, but the cost-benefit analysis his administration used to do so was subsequently discredited.
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Asked about the braking rule, the spokesperson said that it would be difficult “to reinstate the rule in its previous configuration,” given previous legal challenges.
The spokesperson said proposing a new rule would require performing a new cost-benefit analysis, though they acknowledged that the department has the ability to prepare that analysis.
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nothing prevents Buttigieg from using his existing rulemaking authority to expand the definition of a “high-hazard flammable train” to cover trains like the one in Ohio.
Under the existing limited definition, the Ohio train — which was carrying five tanker cars of vinyl chloride, a Class 2 flammable gas and known carcinogen — was exempted from the classification’s more stringent safety regulations.
there were concerns among those working on the train over what they believed was the train's excessive length and weight — 151 cars, 9,300 feet long, 18,000 tons — before it reached East Palestine, which contributed to both the initial breakdown and the derailment.
Quote:
"We shouldn't be running trains that are 150 car lengths long," one of the employees said. "There should be some limitations to the weight and the length of the trains. In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it's very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated."
Reading the comments this appears to be totally misleading. 6 year old video of a small side line that can't carry passengers or hazardous materials. Limited to 5 or 10 mph and, apparently, fixed years ago.
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Reading the comments this appears to be totally misleading. 6 year old video of a small side line that can't carry passengers or hazardous materials. Limited to 5 or 10 mph and, apparently, fixed years ago.
The picture itself is misleading, the angle of the shot exaggerates the bumps and wiggles. I still wouldn’t want to ride on it but it’s not as bad as it looks.
The picture itself is misleading, the angle of the shot exaggerates the bumps and wiggles. I still wouldn’t want to ride on it but it’s not as bad as it looks.
My deal is hating conspiracies like the media and government are in cahoots to not talk about a train derailment in Ohio. Or that the government is chasing objects in the sky to distract from a train derailment in Ohio.
Get mad at the media or the government for being inept all you want and they likely were in this case, but the whole conspiracy stuff loses me.
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My deal is hating conspiracies like the media and government are in cahoots to not talk about a train derailment in Ohio. Or that the government is chasing objects in the sky to distract from a train derailment in Ohio.
Get mad at the media or the government for being inept all you want and they likely were in this case, but the whole conspiracy stuff loses me.
Conspiracy?
Spoiler!
Here is the front page news of MSNBC, Fox news, and Cnn at the very second of me making this post. All culture war bull####, where is the train coverage?
No one watches these mainstream outlets anymore for a reason. Maybe they aren't in a dark room somewhere but, the great George Carlin said it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAFd4FdbJxs&t=5s
These corporate owned media whores have like interests of the corporate whores who put the public in danger for money.
Last edited by White Out 403; 02-18-2023 at 09:45 AM.
