Re: Folks asked, so here's my best attempt to anger all fringes.... ADA & Hi-Level Cars Car crash worthiness "cost effectiveness" compared to other "modes"? LOSSAN?
Author: BOB2
Date: 03-21-2024 - 12:50
The ADA issues are extreme, and it's not really about accomodating needs at some point, it's about making some kind of political statement... Which is more "well meaning" "do gooderism" that has begun to run amok, when the result is that many physically disabled folks who actual do make a lot of "use" of Amtraks's local and long distance services, have no services at all to meet their travel "needs"....
But a bigger and bigger problem with equipment availability is the unrealistic reasoning behind some of the crashworthiness standards.
If the FAA put the fatality risk parameters into a regulation on "crash worthiness" standards on air frames, that the FRA now is applying to passenger rail cars, then no one would be flying again, "ever"...
The same risk parameters applied to automobiles would eliminate a lot of automobile makes and models... In a mode of travel with a much higher fatality/injury rate.
When, in fact the risks are already absurdley low for rail passenger fatalities, and there are much more cost effective investments to reduce fatality risks, than by adopting ludicrous risk standards for rail passenger cars, it has mostly made rail passenger equipment difficult to procure... And, it's hard to point ot a life that could not have been saved by other investments, like PTC, or even proper training, at a much lower cost....
And, I had folks attacking me for advocating that we look at proper gating high requirements for speed/high volume grade crossings, to reduce the "way too many" accidents that have actually killed "real" (and not just statistically "probable") "people"....???
Meanwhile, as of Monday, San Clemente's 1887 single track 25 mph. segment is fully reopened, and all rail services are restored to "normal" operations on LOSSAN.
Given FRA's logic on car crash worthiness, maybe the real answer to threats of slides, like in San Clemente, is to have crash worthiness standards for the equipent to withstand any impacts with falling cliffs....?