Real nice hit for the Economy if this happens. Who is the government bozo in DC that is refusing to grant them an exemption?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-safety-deadline-may-exempt-050847710.html
The “government bozo” is Sara Fienberg who is the acting adminstrator
of the FRA. She apparantly has no idea of how a shutdown would
affect the commerce of the nation.
The rails have resisted this for 40+ years. They’ve known the deadline was there for 4 years. Sometimes threats are needed for foot draggers.
The administrator did not write the statute. She may well be aware of the consequences involved but doesn’t have a lot of options in enforcing the law as written since not enforcing the statute could establish a lot of unintended precedents for other issues.
And of course the lack of available equipment and frequencies, nor the inability for defense/aerospace firms (Lockheed Martin and GE Harris) to produce a workable system doesn’t contribute.
The shutdown will NOT happen. The senate has allreadypassed an extention through 2018. When the hosue comes back from it’s Ausgust recess it is expected to pass the bill, so don;t get your insides all in an uproar over nothing.
Can you provide a source reference that explains this? If what you say is true, there is no deadline.
Indeed - while it’s a great concept, making it actually work, and at the scale it needs to work, is another story entirely. It’s already been reported that the railroads are “running as fast as they can.” I’ve seen much evidence of same in this area.
But if there are key parts of the system that are not available, whether for technical or legal reasons, it becomes very hard to meet the deadline.
Ms. Feinberg is a political operative whose background is a staffer for former Senate Leader Tom Dashle, former White House Chief of Staff Rahn Emanuel and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx. As a matter of law, her position “shall be an individual with professional experience in railroad safety, hazardous materials safety, or other transportation safety.” It is unclear to me just where she might have attained such experience.
Of course this Administration diligently inforces all statutes, no exceptions, so we should expect them to enforce this one.
Euclid:
There was a post on the CNN online site that stated this fact. Let’s see what happens when the house of representatives gets back to wrok/ Untill then I would not worry about it.
Bovine Excriment
You mean 1975 when you were the only person in the world to have a GPS helping you drive around, as your wife called on your I-phone to ask you to pick up milk on the way home. When operating trains with DPU units the receiving equipment required a separate railcar to hold it, and that was for something comparitively simple.
It is easy to forget just how recently most of the technology we now take for granted was developed, and is rapidly continuing to evolve. And much of that is critical to making PTC, as legislated, feasible. It is better to take the necessary time to ensure the safe, robust, result that is absolutely required. Hastily made decisions and designs often prove unsatisfactory in the long run.
John
John
Real professional language.
In the late 60s and later, older technologies were discussed. Development was not necessaritly dependent on wireless and GPS. The German protototype for the LZB system was first tested by Siemens in 1963, with improvements following. In 1990, 25 years ago, the NTSB put PTC at the top of its list of most wanted transportation safety improvements. The UP was in the forefront of developing PTC here.
Professional language for a professional troll.
What ever it takes to get some time off… I need a vacation ! Shut em down .
No. It’s Congress that has to legislate an extension. FRA just gets to enforce it.
Meh. Had the RRs been more active in exanding train control technology over the past 40 years, they probably could have headed off PTC legislation at the pass and built out a system to their own specs at their own pace.
But, the law as written? The RRs had no chance to comply - even without the FCC snafu. The RRs truly are pedalling as fast as they can go - expect Connecticut where only a “good faith effort was made”.
No. BN and CN took the lead, with CSX pushing from behind.