Tag: Amtrak

Republican response to deadly Amtrak crash? Cut their budget!

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Click to enlarge — Associated Press/Patrick Semansky

House Republicans voted Wednesday to chop about a fifth of Amtrak’s budget, less than a day after a deadly train crash that Democrats pointed to as a prime example of the dangers of shortchanging the nation’s transportation needs.

They also rebuffed Democrats’ attempts to provide money for an advanced speed-control technology that federal investigators later said would have prevented the crash.

“Based on what we know right now, we feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred,” National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters Wednesday evening. Sumwalt, who is leading the crash probe, spoke hours after the House Appropriations Committee voted down a Democratic amendment that would have offered $825 million for the technology known as positive train control.

The amendment was part of hours of action on a GOP-backed $55 billion transportation and housing bill that Democrats attacked as an example of badly misplaced priorities. New York Rep. Steve Israel directly tied the crash to Congress’ spending decisions, saying people expect lawmakers to look out for their safety — and “last night, we failed them.”

“It’s not just our trains,” Israel said during a contentious markup Wednesday, which occurred as the wreckage from the seven-fatality derailment in Philadelphia was dominating the news channels. “It is our bridges that are failing. It is our highways that are congested and riddled with potholes. It is our runways, our airports. … We are divesting from America.”…

Senator Menendez said in a floor speech Wednesday that the U.S. needs to “stop relying on patchwork upgrades to old, rusted 19th-century rail lines.”

“We in Congress are … failing to recognize the real world impacts,” he said. “We have a passenger rail bill that expired. We have a Highway Trust Fund on the brink of insolvency with no plans, no plans, to fix it sustainably. We have a crowded and outdated aviation system that we refuse to adequately fund. We have failed to upgrade with presently available technologies that can reduce the number of failures. We have appropriations bills aiming to cut already low funding levels of Amtrak in particular to meet an arbitrary budget cap. I can’t understand it…”

There is little vision and no leadership allowed in Congress. The Republican Party decided as a matter of policy to block any and all legislation starting with the first day of a non-white president of these United States.

Today’s Republican Party feels they owe nothing to the population of a nation that refuses to back up their bigotry, economics of myth and hubris, political policies that disown responsibility. The only tactic that feeds the emptiness where a heart belongs is to erect roadblocks to anything that might aid ordinary men and women.

They are beneath contempt.

DEA has been paying an Amtrak snitch for passenger lists for almost 20 years

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The Drug Enforcement Administration paid an Amtrak employee for passenger lists instead of working with Amtrak police, an inspector general’s report said.

The employee, a secretary who chose to retire after her relationship with the DEA was uncovered, reportedly received $854,460 over almost two decades. The DEA payments began in 1995.

The quarterly report done by the Amtrak inspector general said that Amtrak police would have received the same amount in forfeited assets if the DEA had instead worked with the national rail passenger agency.

The information was discovered by a congressional staffer going through the quarterly report, which was dated June 30…

The chief pimps for Washington’s War on Drugs are so worried about transparency they have relied on paid snitches on government payrolls rather than their peers in law enforcement.

One more example of the secret police mentality built-in to our government. This example has been going on for almost 20 years. And you think crap like the Patriot Act is the beginning of a police state in America? Cripes!

Amtrak train gets lost in Philadelphia suburbs – Huh? Wha?

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Passengers disembarking in Bala Cynwyd — Bridget Cook photo

Amtrak said it is investigating after a train headed from Philadelphia to New York ended up lost in suburban Pennsylvania.

Officials said Amtrak Train 644 departed Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station Tuesday night and accidentally ended up on Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority tracks…

The train traveled several miles on the wrong tracks before the mistake was noticed and it stopped at a station in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb of Philadelphia.

Amtrak said the 130 passengers on the train were taken back to Philadelphia where they boarded another train for New York.

“An investigation was launched and the crew has been held out of work until they can be fully debriefed and additional training can be conducted,” Steve Kulm, Amtrak’s media relations director, said in a statement.

Does the Pennsylvania state constitution allow waterboarding?

Darwin Award candidates: Teens killed in ghost legend game

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Union Pacific Railroad Dick looking for bits and pieces

An Amtrak train struck a Jeep in Poplar Bluff, Mo., killing two teens and injuring one who were playing a game involving a ghost story…

Just after midnight Monday, five teens parked on train tracks that cut across County Road 554 and shut off the car in search of ghosts.

“They were playing a stupid game called ‘Ghost Train,’ and the object is to get scared, kind of like telling stories on Halloween,” Butler County Coroner Jim Akers said. “The game was to park on the tracks, let the windows fog up inside and let your mind play tricks on you.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported when a passenger train came around the bend, the driver couldn’t start the car again. Three teens fled to safety, but two, in a panic, were unable to unbuckle themselves. One girl ran back to help them, just as the train smashed into the car.

Victoria Swanson, 15, and Haley Whitmer, 17, died at the scene. Kaitlyn Fowler, 15, was seriously injured and hospitalized.

The game, outlined in a 2007 post on strangeusa.com, is rooted in the story of a train wreck which occurred in the 1900s, killing nearly everyone on board. Once one parks on the tracks and shuts their car off, the windows will fog up and supposedly train whistles can be heard.

Well, I imagine they heard the real train whistle. Too late.

Senator proposes no-ride list for Amtrak trains

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A senator on Sunday called for a “no-ride list” for Amtrak trains after intelligence gleaned from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound pointed to potential attacks on the nation’s train system.

Sen. Charles Schumer said he would push as well for added funding for rail security and commuter and passenger train track inspections and more monitoring of stations nationwide.

“Circumstances demand we make adjustments by increasing funding to enhance rail safety and monitoring on commuter rail transit and screening who gets on Amtrak passenger trains, so that we can provide a greater level of security to the public,” the New York Democrat said at a news conference…

Schumer, citing U.S. intelligence analysts, said attacks were also considered on Christmas and New Year’s Day and following the president’s State of the Union address.

Obviously, we should stop having holidays.

He called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expand the Secure Flight monitoring program, which cross-checks air travelers with the terror watch list in an attempt to prevent anyone on the “no-fly list” from boarding, for use on Amtrak.

Such a procedure would create an Amtrak “no-ride list” to keep suspected terrorists off the U.S. rail system, he said…

Schumer noted that rail and port security grant funding was cut by $50 million under last month’s federal budget compromise, but he said developments warrant reconsideration and increased rail safety funding.

By all means, let’s spend every possible penny on fear and trembling unto death. We have become a nation of cowards led by chickenhawks.