Join the discussion on the following article:
NS issues ‘Notice of Cessation of Service’ for poisonous inhalation hazards, passenger trains effective Dec. 1
Here we go, folks! The first shot has been fired. I hope they sent copies of embargo to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate and POTUS.
What Speaker of the House? There is none as of November 1st!
There has already been a extension on PTC to 2018.
This restriction on poisonous inhalation hazard commodities is basically the fault of Norfolk Southern RR for having fast moving trains on non-signaled track without a distant signal indicating the position of all facing point switches. And it was the fault of a Norfolk Southern employee who failed to restore the switch in proper position after terminating his train on that siding. The management of NS is at fault because of the train wreck on January 6, 2005 at Graniteville, SC causing a rupture of a car of chlorine which resulted in 9 deaths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graniteville,_South_Carolina,_train_crash
If you want your trains to run at speed greater than restricted speed, then you need a signal system. Most railroads have a distant advance signal indicating the position of facing point switches when the track speed is over 15 mph.
And now they are the leading notice of embargo of the needed traffic. This is SICK! If your water supplier uses chlorine in your water system, how lone will it be till your water system will be shut down and your pipes are dry? When we receive no water, can we sue Norfolk Southern for failing to provide common-carrier service? They caused this! I better sell my stock in the company!
I’d put the blame on an over zealous, ill-informed government ordering unfunded mandates. Not Norfolk Southern.
No extension yet of PTC unlike stated erroneously beloe
They’re crazy! They can’t ban passenger trains on their tracks! Communities along Amtrak, VRE, and Metra lines are gonna suffer from lack of passenger rail service!
Only four valid comments out of seven so far. That is not a good sign. I hope the following clears up some misconceptions.
First, the PTC law is the result of Congress having a knee jerk reaction to the Chatsworth CA collision of Metra and UP. Inhalation hazards might have been included due to the NS incident noted below, but had there not been the Chatsworth head-on crash then there probably would not be a PTC law.
Second, as has been pointed out many times, the railroads are in a catch 22. As common carriers they cannot embargo certain traffic, but if they transport certain cargoes and passengers after the beginning of 2016 then they will violate the PTC law. Thus NS is not crazy. This action will probably bring the judicial system into the fray with appeals probably all the way to the Supreme Court unless Congress takes some action, which is very unlikely. Either the PTC deadline must be extended, even if on a case-by-case basis, or the common carrier statutes must be modified.
And so it begins.
WRITE your Congressional representatives.
Your Congressman in the House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Your US Senator : http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC
If enough people write, email, phone, even send telegrams congress will listen. The threshold for your elected representatives to respond in Washington on an issue is about 10 residents per district.
HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE WRITTEN THEIR CONGRESSMAN ABOUT THIS. Instead of just writing here.
Hi, All: Thought this link might be of help: http://trn.trains.com/railroads/positive-train-control/2015/05/positive-train-control
Andy actully they can since they own the line.
Oh boy
There are two choices NS can make, Do this and be inside the law or carry on as is and break it. Life is about Choices, choose wisely.
Should be several more notices in the next few days. Mr. Bates, you are absolutely correct, CATCH 22, (odd book, very odd movie), They will break the law if they haul the ‘PIH’ chemicals and they will break the law if they don’t allow passenger trains. D----d if they do, D----d if they don’t.
Mr. Cook where do you get your information. The mandated speed limit for non signal territory is 49 MPH.
Mr. Kenneth Packard and all: That is my point of what is safe operation? Can the engineer stop in time at 49 MPH when a switch is improperly set ahead of him? No! Not unless there is some advance signal, or a switch target which gives sufficient warning. The days of just charging ahead at 49 MPH and dam the results, expecting clear track should be a thing of the past.
PTC will put a signal system into effect at Graniteville, SC. If any signal system was on that NS line, nine persons would not have been killed by chlorine gas. If there was a split point derail following the signal at Chatsworth, CA preventing the passenger train from getting onto the single track against its signal light indication, there would not have been a head-on collision and 25 deaths. It would have been much cheaper to rebuild every interlocking at ends of double tracks by adding a split point derail than to built PTC. Way back in the 1890s there used to be much safer operation as interlockings had split point derails that lead to what was called a sand track. That ditched a train that failed to stop onto a track where sand stopped the wheels and did not derail it.
Yesterday reportedly house and senate managers agreed to work together on getting a PTC common extension measure passed, so while it’s not true an extension is ready, it looks increasingly like NS will not have to resort to such drastic measures.
Concerning the idea that NS et al being “common carriers” means anything in this context, the STB has already stated they consider a shutdown due to safety issues (as this, legally, would be) perfectly legal. There are plenty of cases where carriers just cannot carry something, whether they’re common carriers or not, this is one of them.
Scare tactic by NS to get the PTC deadline extended. Expect to see the other Class 1 railroads follow suit shortly.