Actually, it seems to me that everything I've observed has been supported by the Metrolink final report. Its major point is that neither Connex nor Metrolink conducted sufficient safety testing prior to the Chatsworth accident. It says, among other things, that the Long Island and NJ Transit have found that increased testing means fewer safety violations. This has been my question from the start: where were the supervisors?

Another big conclusion was that Metrolink's contract set up conditions where Connex had an incentive not to do testing, since "liquidated damages" meant that every safety violation discovered had to be reported and also resulted in a financial penalty. This would explain why Connex did nothing despite alleged reports from employees (and a supervisor) that Sanchez was texting.

Mr. Johnson, you sound like another of those who think the jobs of rail employees are just so demanding that nobody should expect them to follow rules, and people with common sense observations are off base. Seems to me that the Metrolink report backs up what people with common sense would say: no supervision, more safety problems. Contract that encourages lax supervision, more safety problems. More safety problems, eventual major accident. All I can think from this discussion is that there are rail employees in labor and management who are happy as bugs being part of the problem. Did you report the engineer reading the sports section while switching, by the way? If that guy causes you to lose a leg someday, you've got nothing to complain about if you didn't.