It seems to me, that the two derailments experienced in the Buffalo,NY area, both of which took places on overpasses gives one reason to question the safety of the condition of these railroad bridges over highways, especially such heavily travelled roadways as Bailey Avenue and Union Road, to name two examples. In one case, a boxcar narrowly missed topping onto a passing vehicle where the occupants could have been killed instantly. The same holds true for that light tower that toppled onto a minivan in the Bailey Avenue incident along the stretch of track between SK and Bison yards. The managements of the railroads involved need to pay more attention to infrastructure maintenance and not just the track, for the bridges that carry tracks over roadways and rivers, etc. are just as critical as the condition of the track and rolling stock that uses it. Moreover, I think that too much attention has been paid to the bottom line, as important as that is, and not enough to infrastructure safety. What’s more, in my opinion, some of the best railroad executives to run major carriers are those who have worked their way up through the ranks learning the business, the nuts n bolts aspects of the operation, such as Pennsylvania Railroad;s James Syms did when he landed the top job at the Pennsylvania Railroad so long ago, and not some know it all MBA fresh out of such Business SChools as Harvard, Wharton, William Simon, to name a few, who think that they know it all. These MBAs should be required to LEARN THE NATURE OF THE BEAST by working up through the ranks before being considered for any executive position on any railroad, or any other transportation carrier. It’s the plague of Wall Street types, who have no knowledge of operations that are liable to get these railroads in big legal and other trouble. Remember Penn Central? That railroad was the Enron of Railroading and with the type of executives so many railroads seem to have, an Enron or Penn Central type episode could most assuredly happen again. I b
Remember look at the RR also CSX still refuses to spend one dime more than is nessacry to fix the tracks they are also the RR that will not even maintain any river bridges. Sooner or later there will be a MAJOR derailment involving CSX and a Haz-mat I thought they had there wake up call with the Howard Street tunnel fire in Baltimore.
Maybe before you start inspecting every rr bridge in Western New York, as local politicians demand, it would be wise to determine the cause of the two accidents. And until you know what really happened it would be wise to stifle the anti-CSX rants. Those bridges safely convey hundreds, if not thousands, of freight cars every day. Two derailments could be a coincidence not caused by the bridges. Hold your fire until the facts are known.
Amen, good buddy. I might also ask the folks above you why there are no similar complaints about the bridges maintained by the local authorities and the State of New York, on their highways? If you are going to pick up a brush to tar anyone with, make sure you are an equal opportunity attacker. Been a long long time since a railroad bridge collapsed under traffic, my friends – something which you cannot say about local and State highways.
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Aren’t the bridges at the 290/90 ready to crumble…
Among others…
CSX is turning into the new PENNCENRAL in my view.