Well Holly! The answers to all those questions are very simple. The Senator - in fact both Kalifonia Senators - are profound, class one, grade D, blathering IDIOTS!

They have been thorns in the side of the FRA ever since the Cantara Loop incident, that spilled a carload of "Vapum" into the Sacramento River. Of course, their sole purpose in all this is not to actually accomplish anything good, but only to make political hay for themselves. Their lack of understanding of the railroad/transit industry, and the issues it faces, is truly breathtaking.

In the Cantara Loop case, they just could not get it through their think heads, that as a common carrier, the SP was required by law to take all shipments offered to it; in this case, at the published tariff for non-hazardous agricultural chemicals; thus SP could not require the use of tank cars designed for hazardous chemicals, which could have prevented the disaster that followed.

And that was because Congress had specifically exempted "vapum", a soil sterilent, from being designated as a hazardous chemical, at the behest of California agribusiness. Otherwise, farmers could not spread it all over their fields. Though these very Senators gave in to their own state's agribusiness, they managed to specifically pin the blame on the SP (or did the UP just take over) and the F.R.A.

More recently, their involvement since Chatsworth has also been far less than stellar, from getting extreme legislation passed, requiring a whole new not ready for prime-time technology, for the benefit of a sole vendor who has been lobbying congress, the FRA, and the NTSB for a number of years. Most appalling of all here, is that this vendor has succeeded in compromising the independence of the NTSB. And all with pie in the sky claims, that most in the industry still do not believe are so.

So Senator Boxer is now having another tantrum, because they are not doing what she says. Big deal. If either of them knew what they were doing, they'd 've figured out a long time ago that the whole industry is only giving lip service and has no real intention of doing any of it their way. They will have to be pushed and forced at the point of a sheriff's posse, first! Oh, and a cool trillion from the gov't besides!

In the mean time, A.R.E.M.A. Signal Committees (A.A.R.), are working on real solutions - and were even before Chatsworth. The Senators should stick to strictly functional requirements of the law, and not dictate technologies. The technical and engineering practicalities of various technologies, should be left to the experts - technicians and signal engineers.

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As to why Metro-link has not managed to double up locomotive personnel on all runs; you yourself must understand that one. How the heck is any transit agency in California supposed to increase their operating personnel by 50%, when both farebox and tax revenue are down 30%. How are they to pay the wages - they don't have the money. Surely, you wouldn't expect those locomotive engineers to donate their time.

But even if they did have the money, locomotive engineers do not just come out of the woodwork already qualified and ready to work. Any rush to quickly double the workforce will literally cause the same kind of corner cutting in personnel recruiting that has already happened; which led to the Chatsworth accident in the first place.

And surely you know this - that 99% of the currently unemployed are simply not cutout for the job, and never will be. Bottom line - it's gonna take time and hard work. Same bottom line for PTS - it's gonna take time. A lot more time than allotted - and close to a trillion dollars, especially if they try to use the mandated technology.

Now - If only those two otherwise useless Senators, just knew what they were doing.....!

OPB