by neroden
http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_newslog2008q3.htm
While the Capital Metro project is a bit of an odd duck thanks to Texas state law, this is not a good sign. Pretty much everyone agrees that the FRA's "crashworthiness" regulations are antiquated, many think they are useless, and they are certainly irrelevant to a temporally-separated operation. And of course, operations with FRA oversight in actual fact have a higher death and injury rate -- due to the FRA's minimal-to-nonexistent signalling requirements for low-speed operations -- than operations with FTA oversight. Yet the FRA is currently trying to force its regulations on locally funded operations and is claiming the right to force its rules on *completely* disconnected-from-the-freight-network operations. Given that the rules are no good in the first place, this looks like another attempt to choke and stifle passenger rail service.
Hopefully things will change in November.
While the Capital Metro project is a bit of an odd duck thanks to Texas state law, this is not a good sign. Pretty much everyone agrees that the FRA's "crashworthiness" regulations are antiquated, many think they are useless, and they are certainly irrelevant to a temporally-separated operation. And of course, operations with FRA oversight in actual fact have a higher death and injury rate -- due to the FRA's minimal-to-nonexistent signalling requirements for low-speed operations -- than operations with FTA oversight. Yet the FRA is currently trying to force its regulations on locally funded operations and is claiming the right to force its rules on *completely* disconnected-from-the-freight-network operations. Given that the rules are no good in the first place, this looks like another attempt to choke and stifle passenger rail service.
Hopefully things will change in November.
