Ignominious in the rush to blame the Amtrak Crash our infrastructure crisis
In
the first place, still do not know what caused the derailment. First
responders did not have finished combing the Amtrak derailment Tuesday
evening, the bodies of the wreck when a liberal outlet Vox: the alarming
headline, the exploitation of the disaster in the photo. The only thing
missing is a picture of a grinning Ted Cruz. In response to last
night's deadly Amtrak wreck Philadelphia calls for two observations. The
first – and I think this is important, we do not yet know what caused
the derailment. The research is ongoing. Sources tell the Wall Street
Journal, the train was travelling at more than 100 mph, more than twice
the speed limit — as it entered the curve, which derailed. But the
bottom line is, we don't know what happened. Gallery: The derailment of
the Amtrak Philadelphia yet, ThinkProgress is currently flogging a piece
titled "why you can't talk to the Amtrak derailment without Talking to
the infrastructure crisis." Of course, you can. And you should. Until
research reveals evidence that would have contributed to the accident,
the precarious infrastructure was irresponsible. Unless you (the point
of Jonah) less interested in the tragedy in itself than to exploit for
political gain. Secondly, there is no obvious connection to Amtrak
funding and on the last night of the wreck. To do this, you need to make
some assumptions: 1. infrastructure was out of order, so much that it
created dangerous conditions. 2. infrastructure contributed to the
accident. 3. There is not enough money in the budget for Amtrak repair
or update its infrastructure. 4. it would be enough money, it would have
done so. 5. had done so, the accident would not have happened. These
assumptions, of course, is not true. And, more to the point, Amtrak's
history of economic chaos that service problems are not a Congressional
stinginess but the faulty assumption (that America needed a rail
passenger transport service) aggravated by decades. Related: Hi, how the
u.s. rail safety is doing? Since it started operations in 1971, the
company has been heavily dependent on federal aid. Eggheads predicted
that Amtrak would break even in three years. It has never broken even,
not to mention turned a profit, and it will not wait: "Amtrak will never
be profitable," Amtrak President David Gunn told the Senate Committee
in 2002. The history of Amtrak's finances into chaos, shows that the
service problems are not the result of Congress ' stinginess. Some have
objected that Amtrak should turn the profit is wrong. After all, the
airlines have not received aid? Yes, but the initial aid, which helped
the ground domestic airlines have been paid back, and in 1978 the
Federal Government effectively called for domestic airlines to fly or
fail on their merits in the field of better regulation. The result was a
wave of closures — and cheaper to travel to passengers. Survive the
Amtrak without the Government's largesse? Does not succeed. Amtrak has
devoured about 40 billion dollars in federal aid, according to the life
cycle of the Cato Institute. in the 21st century, the railway line to
lose about $ 1 billion a year, or the amount of the annual subsidy. Yet
not only the Federal Government, with the support of Amtrak about $ 1.4
billion annually since 2009; In addition, the line received a $ 1.3
billion stimulus package as part of the. What is the percentage of the
losses? No, only a small number of passengers (approximately EUR 30
million per year) and lightly travelled long routes (routes that operate
in 15 percent of the riders in the accounts for 80 per cent of the
income loss, according to the Government Accountability Office).
The
vast majority of Amtrak's 20,000-employee workers ' Trade Union,
therefore, the average worker was 91,000 2010 Amtrak, wages and
benefits. March 2014 to Amtrak President Joseph Boardman letter to
employees said, "Amtrak's payroll total (including all benefits and
taxes) is 93.6 percent of Amtrak's ticket revenue. The company can keep
up this level of payroll or working overtime ahead. " Related: Biden
"among" We the people: Riding the rails of a Vice President, and it's
quite obvious expenses. "According to the Government Accountability
Office audits, investigative arm of Congress and the railroad's own
Inspector General for Amtrak loses about $ 80 million a year in sales of
food," the New York Times wrote in August 2012. "Since 2002, Amtrak's
food service has lost 834 million dollars." The culprits? "The waste,
employee theft and lack of ethics." The $ 80 million, up from $ 7
million each year, are stolen from the Amtrak employees. And the more
that other typical bureaucratic abuse, such as false overtime claims.
Amtrak supporters admit, dependent on Government largesse, but they
claim that the passenger rail transport is flourishing in America — and
if the governme
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