Off Track

Another Amtrak accident . . . :-(

An Amtrak train bound for Savannah derailed this past Sunday when it hit a backhoe near Chester, Pennsylvania, just southwest of Philadelphia.  No one aboard was seriously injured, but the two backhoe operators, both Amtrak employees, were killed.  This is the second Amtrak derailment in the Philadelphia area within a year.  

And if that weren't enough, a trespasser was struck and injured later that evening in nearby Bucks County, Pennsylvania, while a 28-year-old was killed when an Amtrak train struck a vehicle in Somonauk, Illinois, that same day.  

Letting people get killed - even if they were trespassing - is no way to run a railroad.  Before we pursue high-speed rail in this country, we have to update and improve our conventional rail system and improve working conditions and job training for Amtrak employees.  But the same members of Congress who won't allow rapid rail won't even increase funds for improvements to the current system.  If anything, they want to dismantle the national passenger railroad.  More people should be ashamed of the current state of Amtrak and demand that something be done about it.