It's not that the train derailment spread toxins and will likely kill many citizens in East Palestine for many years in the future. It's probable that would have happened in the very BEST scenario if the corporation and government were competent.

In this case, and as usual, the government was not only incompetent, but appeared to be either so poorly prepared or they made it as bad as possible by trying to cover up their gawd awful response.

This kind of thing used to be a big deal with the commies, but since we can sacrifice whomever we want these days for political purposes, I'll be surprised how many folks carry this. Better yet, will it last more than a day.

Unlikely!

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That's what a good message board is for.

I'm just glad there are reasonable and erudite posters to rebut, cause you're agreeing, by bringing further information to the situation.

Candidly, I never would have cared if Buttaguge (not gonna look up his name) was competent----AT ANYTHING. He's awful on two fronts, being a politician which got him in the administration AND also at leadership.

I'm sure he's a nice guy, but lives were going to be lost long term, no matter who was in charge. But damn, if you don't know what you're doing, let the career employees of the Transportation Administration handle it, albeit I'm sure all of these same employees these days are dyed in the wool communist, like all other cabinet employees.

Fully agree the administration has mishandled this in a big way. Not a surprise, given their ineptness on many other fronts also.

And the NS railroad has some culpability also. They and other RR's were suppliers of mine in recent years. I'm confident in saying they all cut corners trying to maximize profits instead of safeguarding their core responsibility to transport precious cargo safely. A similar story to Boeing.

Eleven years ago I did a fellowship at Norfolk Southern. It was at the end of Wick Moorman's time as CEO and just ad Jim Squires was taking over. The safety culture at NS was very impressive. What transpired at East Palestine and the reaction to it is completely alien to what I would have expected from the previous leadership. Since Squires retired, it seems that the new regime has been trying to increase share price by cutting every corner for cost savings. The stuff their union is saying about management was not at all true a decade ago. They have allowed termites into the woodwork of that company.

Ulysses90 said:

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Eleven years ago I did a fellowship at Norfolk Southern. It was at the end of Wick Moorman's time as CEO and just ad Jim Squires was taking over. The safety culture at NS was very impressive. What transpired at East Palestine and the reaction to it is completely alien to what I would have expected from the previous leadership. Since Squires retired, it seems that the new regime has been trying to increase share price by cutting every corner for cost savings. The stuff their union is saying about management was not at all true a decade ago. They have allowed termites into the woodwork of that company.

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I met Squires and his replacement Shaw, and also witnessed a cultural slide that began under Squires.

A downhill trend.

I'm reminded of the 2020 Beirut explosion .

The aftermath was such a disaster I've never heard what actually caused the derailment.

In relation to y'alls outstanding replies, I kinda wonder if the apparent cost cutting of the last ten years was worth the share price dive?

Point being, I've not heard of any firings, corporate investigations, etc.. Candidly, I haven't paid attention to that side of it, but I bet y'all probably know.

I expect government employees, well, Dem govt. employees, to act with impunity, but not a corporation with a board.

I thought this was a thread about Joe Biden's used depends....

fasthorse05 said:

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The aftermath was such a disaster I've never heard what actually caused the derailment.

In relation to y'alls outstanding replies, I kinda wonder if the apparent cost cutting of the last ten years was worth the share price dive?

Point being, I've not heard of any firings, corporate investigations, etc.. Candidly, I haven't paid attention to that side of it, but I bet y'all probably know.

I expect government employees, well, Dem govt. employees, to act with impunity, but not a corporation with a board.

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The train had a car with a dry axle bearing that was red hot and throwing flames for at least 20 miles before the site of the derailment. There are supposed to be hot bearing thermal sensors along the track every dive miles. None of those sensors caught the hot bearing and the visual was captured by a security camera that had a clear view of the train as it went through a grade crossing.

The railroad right of way has extensive wired and microwave wireless coverage that is independent of the commercial cell phone network. The "Positive Train Control" system mandated by the Railroad Safety Improvement Act depends on this communication infrastructure to be able to bring a train to a stop remotely even if the engineer is incapacitated.

After the East Palestine disaster, the investigation revealed that as a cost saving measure Norfolk Southern had combined two functional competencies with different skill sets into one. The Communication and Signal personnel were absorbed into the Track Maintenance workforce. The union had warned that skills were deficient in the combined workforce but their warnings were ignored.