Problems with the railroads

From the NY Times comes this not-too-unexpected story: bq. U.S. Audit Faults Federal Regulators on Rail Safety America's four biggest railroads suffer from substantial and systemic safety problems, according to a new federal audit that raises questions about how well federal regulators are overseeing the rail industry. bq. Citing a series of serious accidents in recent months, the Transportation Department's inspector general said he was concerned that the Federal Railroad Administration's approach to regulation, which stresses "partnership" over punishment, might be failing to fix the most persistent safety problems. He asked the agency to prepare a comprehensive plan to improve its inspection of railroads and enforcement of federal safety rules. bq. The report also criticized the railroad agency's former acting chief, Betty Monro, saying she had failed to recognize the ethical problem of vacationing on four occasions with a Union Pacific lobbyist. bq. The inspector general, Kenneth M. Mead, said in the report, dated Dec. 10 and obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act, that it was wrong for Ms. Monro to have shared a house on Nantucket, Mass., with the Union Pacific lobbyist "at the same time the agency you represent is, among other things, proposing and settling millions of dollars in fines against that railroad." OUCH! I can understand becoming friends with other people you work with -- even if they are on the "other side" but the ethical issues here are very plain. And the railroads themselves? bq. The report comes at a time of growing concern about railroad safety in Congress and across the nation, spurred by a number of high profile crashes. Regulators have been unable to reduce the overall accident rate among most of the biggest railroads, and after declining for a number of years, grade-crossing accidents were up sharply in 2004. And not only accidents that happened, accidents that didn't: bq. In addition to accident rates, the report also examined safety defects uncovered during inspections and found that "defect ratios" at three of the four top railroads rose. In both categories, Union Pacific had the worst record among the four railroads, even though it had paid relatively more money in fines. The age of rail is over -- time that they recognized it and pulled the plug. The rail industry made a classic business blunder when it "didn't get" what long-distance trucking and air freight could do. The management was hidebound thinking that rail would always be king. It still is king but of a very small decrepit backwater nation -- the rest of the word has moved on.