Pedestrian vs. Amtrak.. no contest

Only one problem Robert...

Out here in flyovercountry, Amtrak doesn't own the ROW. The investor-owned railroads do.

Who do you propose to pay for the fencing?

John

Oh well, hoepfully, they'll follow Amtrak's lead, and install such fencing too.

YES I HAVE THE NERVE!!!!! I say this fearlessly of what anyone thinks. If someone has to say these things it should be me because no one else has the guts to say them.

So just because I'm not conforming these views you have the nerve to hound me. Well too bad. She is smart enough to reason between right and wrong.

I guess since I'm not a politically correct minded individual but rather a call it like I see it man I guess it ruffles feathers that *gasp*someone has actually spoke the truth.

No I never crossed the tracks at the wrong place and plus Ido look both ways unlike some fools in America today. I also take reponsibiltiy and common sence seriosuly and not blame my mistakes on others like msot politicians do today.

Do I think of myself as perfect? I'm a regular person who has commons snce and takes responsibility. Unlike my geneation aka the MTV crowd who watches the dopey music videos, fear factor, hangs at the malls and are too busy gabbing on the cell phone, doing illegal narcotics driving the SUVs recklessly on our highways endangering lives while I do constructive things in life such as being with family and friends and watching the news to keep up with current events.

Yes! I have the nerve!

A famous saying. "I can please one person a day at a time, Today is not your day...Tommorrow doesn't look good either!"

NJTRailfan wrote:If someone has to say these things

Stop right there. No one "has to" tell anyone to rot in hell.

She is smart enough to reason between right and wrong.

Make that was. Still doesn't earn her a ticket to hell.

I guess since I'm not a politically correct minded individual

Cheerfully consigning people to hell is not an act of courage. It's a gross lapse in judgment. Let's cut the persecution talk. Maybe USENET is the better fit for these semiliterate rants.

Let's keep this discussion related to Amtrak railroading.

-otto-

The matter of people tresspassing onto active rails is certainly a serious one for the railroads but the attempt to forestall the problem by fencing is not entirely realistic. Not only would the cost be prohibitive but the usual fencing is easily breached. I teach high school and am well aware of the foolish behavior that our young people engage in. Most of our students are really unfamiliar with the properties of rail travel and transport especially the actual speed of trains. Since trains look big they often seem to the unfamiliar to be slow. If they are propellled by electric motors they are silent, often deadly silent. Many schools offer programs to instruct students about the danger of illegal drugs, underage drinking and the hazzards of the highway. I very much wish that railroads would offer similar programs, geared to the high school level, to warn our young people about the dangers of getting to close to railroads. Conrail once did offer a safety program for schools but I have not seen it advertised for some time. As for condemning these youngsters and consigning their souls to the infernal regions, please be kinder. Think back to your own teenage years. Who of us never did something foolish, stupid, dangerous and possibly illegal ? We stopped doing those things when we matured ( I hope). Studies show that the very last portion of the brain to be fully developed, and that not
till after about one's early twenties, is the portion that deals with affective decision making, that is conscience. Young people have litteraly not yet fully developed the capacity to appreciate the consequences of their behavior. Hopefully education can encourage the completion of that development before they wind up in deep trouble so let's all try to do what we can to alert folks to the dangers of proximity to trains and perhaps we will have fewer stories like the one above to write about.

I think that one other problem here relates to the decline of the railroads generally. During the period when every town had a railroad station and therefore also had railroad crossings, even if these were only branch line operations, more attention was paid to the dangers of tresspassing on railroad property, particularly on active rights of way. I agree with kevikens, -----during the ten years that I taught ( in the DC School system) I don't remember ever seeing anything which addressed the issue of the dangers of tresspassing on railroad rights of way. On the other hand, as a child in school in the 1950's ( in the Philadelphia area), we were inundated with warnings of this type.

I have ridden the Sounder Train to Everett several times, and that section of track needs a fence, because it is where the trains have just cleared the Ballard Locks, and are speeding up. All Grade Crossings between S. Spokane St. and Golden Gardens Park should be bridged or removed, and it is easy to do, there are very few, and fence off the track, and we have a speedway for freight and passenger trains.

I see this problem everyday there are people who just dont understand walking on the right of way or trying to beat a train through a grade crossing can be dangerous. Not just teenagers grown men and women who should know better, just the other day I watched as a father and his very young daughter walked down the middle of the tracks heard us coming jumped out of the way laughed as we passed and then continued there walk right back in the middle of the tracks. Just remember if you out walking along the tracks looking for that perfect picture, it cant stop on a dime and it wont swerve to miss you.

PS to my last post programs are offered on the dangers of being around railroads the program is called Operation Lifesaver it deals with grade crossing saftey and why one should stay away from the right of way. The program can be presented to any group of any age.

OL is a great program, and should be presented to every child in school. They do have drunken driving programs, especially around prom time, with simulated car crashes and videos showing the consequences. They should have a similar program with OL in every school. Maybe slightly less graphic pics of those at Rotton.com should be presented by OL. Maybe an "incident" (in RR terms) should be recreated with a lifelike dummy with that gelitan flesh stuff, and a video of what the engineer sees, and how long it really does take for hte train to stop from track speed.

Kids don't make the right decisions and as said above, don't realize the hopefully possible, consequences of their actions. Its a real shame when a child or even teen gets killed.

I almost threw up when I was working one night when my train when into emergency and my engineer called me over the radio and told me he "might have struck several young trespassers" My stomach just hit rock bottom. Luckily we didn't hit them (that engineer STILL can't believe that we didn't hit them). Its almost like hitting an animal in the car or even on the train, they don't know better. Now, when trains strike veteran RR commuters, thats another story, and pure stupidity on their part, because they do konw better....

But being a RR'er, you have to have a slighly different view on fatalities of all ages to keep your mind sane. The train is going to be in that space in time whether or not your there, hopefully you won't be, because the train will be. And if you are there, well, that sucks for you.

Here's some background on Operation Lifesaver.

This argument always comes up especially in the NJT forum where I hang around most of the time.

IMO- yes, the girl did something stupid- a lot of people do stupid things. We are stupid naturally as a race. Yes, the crew of the train will suffer because of this and I feel deeply for them. But, I also feel for the girl. She is a human being who made a mistake and had the ultimate consequence.

Having witnessed a very, very close near miss at Rahway/Union Interlocking up first hand with an AEM7, I can understand how traumatizing this is. I was in shock just watching a near miss.

metrarider wrote:

hsr_fan wrote:Is this as much of a problem in Europe as it is here? With so many more trains, and trains that run much faster than Amtrak's, how do they keep people off the tracks?

While it still happens in Europe, high speed lines are fenced or grade seperated, platforms are all high level, few at grade crosswalks, and far fewer at grade road crossings than in the US. Also, mainlines are much busier than most US mainlines, and trains are much more widely used, so it's much more obvious to the average punter that walking on the tracks is not such a good idea.

Actually, NONE of the platforms in europe are high platform. I go there every year and see them every year. See the photos at photos.yahoo.com/commanderdoom21

They really need to give more education on this stuff at schools.

Actually, NONE of the platforms in europe are high platform

Patently false. Most countries in Mainland Europe have a mix of both low and high platforms. The British Isles use high platforms exclusively (or at least until new LRT systems were built).

Here's an interior view of Frankfurt Station in Germany with an ICE train adjacent to the high platforms...