Yes, the RDC' are FRA compliant, but do not comply with the newest crash standards testing requirements. They are not unsafe and are not part of the vast secret transit conspiracy to run them "until an accident actually occurs and kills people"..... But, that is certainly an interesting spin?

These RDC's were recently refurbished, underwent extensive maintenance, and this would include full FRA required safety inspections, as the article you referred us to noted. RDC's are becoming expensive to maintain, refurbish and keep operating, and many are headed to museums and tourist operations. But, they are perfectly safe in this use, and have been used by other "start up" commuter rail operations.

As to the installation of "derails", they are also "not" part of the vast conspiracy to run unsafe trains, either. As most rails on this site know, they are a standard safety measure to keep cars from rolling out of sidings on to active mainlines, and to isolate tracks in yards and maintenance areas.

The evil conspiracy to count all transit boardings is required of all transit operators by the Federal Transit Administration, and not part of the vast secret conspiracy to "inflate" ridership numbers. Apparently we shouldn't believe the data that is collected, as this is part of this apparent conspiracy by TriMet to decieve us, because you "really" "know" it is only 600 people who use it?

The comments to the article from Oregon, which you referred us to, seemed to have several cogent and correct answers to your question. The comments also contained the usual loony fringe conspiracay theories about the evil trains, the evil government, and the evil TriMet. Many of these Thomas haters were long on hyperbole and short on facts, as is typical of such bleatings.

The "unsafe train" conspiracy theorist's all like to bleat about how "unsafe" the "killer" trains are, but we killed over 900 people just in crosswalks in the Inland Empire in 10 years, and I've never heard one of these "safety" minded conspiracy theorist's ever suggest we should ban, or not have "evil government supplied roads" for that "evil unsafe killing machine" the automobile?

Since most of us like trains, I hope many of us on this site might have an opportunity to ride the RDC's while they are operating. These are passing on to the museums and tourist operations, and there are not many opportunities left to ride these historic vehicles.