Those Bombardier cars do not in fact meet the FRA standards, as has been clearly shown by the particular way they have failed in several accidents. Indeed, Bombardier tried to pull the same wool over Amtrak's eyes with the Accela trains. But Amtrak caught 'em at it - flatfooted. They frankly proved that claims of compliance were false, and managed to enforce compliance with the original specs in the purchase contract. Of course, that delayed the project considerably

As to Europe: the death toll per accident, and the accident rate too, have been far higher over the last few decades, than in the United States - far higher. But there are bright spots. Not all equipment in Europe is a death trap by any means. Indeed, crash worthiness and collision avoidance systems of the TGV are superior, as it performs to a higher functional standard. So to also is the Shinkansen. British railways though, have been a mixed bag at best - especially with their very high accident rate. But most German or Italian equipment, including the ICE, is not much better than a BART car, and BART cars are appallingly unsafe in even the slightest collision, as were the similar WMATA cars each time they were wrecked.

However, the specific cars that SMART is in negotiations for, are in frank non-compliance with any effective safety standard any where in the world. They are not much stronger than an ordinary city bus, but their own weight is much higher. They are by comparison to other available options - death traps.

And being in such extreme non-compliance, there is virtually no hope of operating them in conjunction with any freight service. Worse, there will be much death even if they just ran into each other, at any speed at all - about the same as for any bus crash.

Europe will do whatever Europeans do, But given the very long history in this country of at least trying obtain the best safety that known technology will reasonably afford; it is unconscionable to do otherwise, here.

So, if you think I am biased in favor of higher standards - so be it. I think it is for good reason.

OPB