Keep an eye out for “Why Trains Crash” on NOVA on PBS this coming week. They will investigate past accidents and discuss crash-prevention ideas.
Set it to record.
Thank you.
My local PBS station is showing it Wednesday evening (22nd) at 9PM, and Thursday (23rd) at 2AM.
Nothing really new to those who are familiar with the industry. They didn’t go so far as to say that the railroads were too cheap or too lazy to put in PTC, but I kind of got that as an undercurrent.
They glossed over the “technical challenges” that we know are a large part of the problem with implementation, but did mention that getting the system to work seamlessly from railroad to railroad was an issue.
Not bad, but not great, either.
A poster on PRRCatenaryElectrics notes that there is a Web site to accompany the broadcast:
Which has a internal link to view the broadcast.
If you were looking for un-biased objective storylines, this is not for you.
But, if you are a big proponent of the nanny state where big brother knows best, well, here ya go.
Very selective reports on several rail accidents, where they don’t miss- inform you, they just intentionally leave out mitigating factors and pertinent information.
Big push on the PTC front, and implied nationalization concepts.
A very agenda driven presentation - Everything in USA (and Canada) not good. Everything in Japan great above reproach.
Somewhat surprised they mentioned the Spanish and German incidents.
Presented PTC as a ‘off the shelf’ system that railroads didn’t install by the original deadline just because they didn’t want to, with too many ‘bleeding heart’ testimonials to ‘sway the jury’ and no statements or evidence that multiple technologies had to be brought together and work in concert with each other - something that has never been done. Getting the interactions between the multiple technologies wrong would have recreated the Takata Air Bags in railroad clothing - a safety product that is more dangerous than what it was allegedly protecting.
A point alluded to, but not driven home, passenger in Japan operates almost exclusively on a network that handles very little if any freight, and that the high speed lines handle absolutely no freight.
Towards the end they did grudgingly state that the US has the best freight system in the World and that it is now operating at a profit (glossing over by omission the damages done to Class 1 carriers by over regulation from WW II (actually before) and the adoption of Staggers in 1980 that fostered the ‘rebirth’ of American freight railroads.
That’s why they are referred to as “Propaganda Broadcasting System”. Same applies to “National Propaganda Radio”.
Norm, they’re only referred to that way by the voices in your head. The Public Broadcasting Service (not system) and National Public Radio are important, smart, award-winning sources of real objective journalism, as well as opinion and advocacy labeled as such. They’re not perfect, but we’re lucky to have them.
Most importantly: they don’t deserve your cheap namecalling.
You are entitled to your opinion. So am I.
DO I care what you think? No.
Which is why they are being threatened with being de-funded after the regime change? Never mind.
It’s been known for years that PBS tends to lean to the liberal side. Not as badly as many of the commercial outfits, to be sure.
And their programming that doesn’t include any potential for politics is second to none.
No real issue with PBS….in fact my local PBS station, channel 8, KUHT, was the first station in the PBS system.
Nova has several segments with agendas, and most of the time, they point this out with disclaimers….they are not really know for extremes either way for the most part, but they do stray…but then again, the star gazer crowd tends to be sorta socialist, there is not much money in their particular discipline outside of government grants.
I was surprised that, towards the end, one of the commentators pointed out the bullet train and the rest of Japans passenger system is popular enough and has more than sufficient ridership to be very profitable, hence it can afford a lot of maintenance that is required for such operations.
How complex (routes, differing speeds, number of trains, other types of trains on it, etc.) is the Japanese “bullet train” system ? My understanding is that when it started, it was long-distance passenger trains only, essentially point-to-point, at a uniform speed (except at stations, of course). It’s a lot simpler to design and build a system for that small set of conditions, as contrasted with the complexities of many of our lines.
- PDN.
Bullet train only…like the French TGV.
I guess you guys didn’t notice that the major contributor to Nova is the Koch Foundation, i.e., the brothers who funded the founding of the Tea Party.
Have always noted PBS programming is ‘bought and paid for’. Koch’s aren’t the dastardly ‘lib supporters’.
I suppose some folks are entitled to their negative opinions re: NPR and PBS, just not alternative facts.
I would hazard a guess that because the majority of PBS programing is paid for by endowment foundations and groups and as such, this tends to allow the group footing the bill for a given program some license to influence that programs content…after all, none of us would pay to produce and air a show that offered a viewpoint opposite our own.
People tend to watch and listen to programs that closely mirror their own viewpoint, and they tend to promote such programs, its human nature to do so.
That’s one of the reason I enjoy Nova, the program tends to stay away from politics and focus more on science, history and nature.
That’s not to say they don’t get involved in partisan politics, it is that they normally are not as overt about it as this one program seemed to be…although I wonder if any program about PTC can approach the subject in an objective manner…this one certainly resorted to the scare the citizen tactic to further the cause.
I didn’t read the closing credits, but I would bet the NTSB had a big part in the content decisions.