Not only that; but the story is suspect on another count as well.

The notion that in order to keep on-time you had to run up hot on a red, passing it just as it turned yellow, is pure fanciful poppycock. The fact is that properly running the length of any block on a yellow, will add much run time; thus in and of itself will put you even further behind schedule - anyway. It ain't possible to keep time this way! Besides, not approaching that next signal prepared to stop is how rear-enders occur!

And even if some idiot scheduler set up the timetable for a planned run on yellows, even allowing more time for the following train, those longer run times themselves would soon put distance between it and a normally operating preceding train. By the very nature of any block signal system, the following train would soon get spaced further and further out until it was far enough back to get greens.

In the mean time, it would have taken longer to get where it was going, than if it had just waited at 3rd St the for normal headway time, to start out on greens. Not only is planning to run on yellows stupid for these reasons, it also ups the odds big time, of dangerous human error; thus is very seriously frowned upon by the FEDs.

So I would just take the story as fun hyperbole; and concentrate on the real point that "driving the trains" ain't child' play, is difficult at best, by its nature prone to deadly error; and that it doesn't really help at all the cause of safety, or even of just basic professionalism, to jam signals or otherwise provoke the very human errors you are trying to prevent.

Moreover, I would consider that tampering with the signals at any time, in any manner whatsoever, for any reason whatsoever; to be nothing less than criminal behavior deserving of a change of address to Leavenworth Kansas.

Considering, that according to FRA's own statistics, five out of the seven average incidences per five year period, of unsafe signal failure; are directly attributable to improper human fiddling with the signal plant, the FRA should clean up its own act and stop requiring this absurdity. There are better ways.

OPB