what eye thynk: Congress voting to cut Amtrak's budget by $100M the day after the deadly crash in Philadelphia was bad. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) yelling at a reporter who asked about the cuts was worse.
The first four paragraphs of today's New York Times (copied below) takes bad and worse to a whole new level. If they don't make you mad, nothing will. (The underlines are mine.)"The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night was equipped with an automatic speed control system that officials say could have prevented the wreck, which killed eight passengers and injured hundreds. But the system, which was tantalizingly close to being operational, was delayed by budgetary shortfalls, technical hurdles and bureaucratic rules, officials said Thursday.
In 2008, Congress ordered the installation of what are known as positive train control systems, which can detect an out-of-control, speeding train and automatically slow it down. But because lawmakers failed to provide the railroads access to the wireless frequencies required to make the system work, Amtrak was forced to negotiate for airwaves owned by private companies that are often used in mobile broadband.
It really doesn't get any more dysfunctional than mandating a system and then withholding the key to making it work. Or maybe Congress was just too busy working on their number one priority: repealing "Obamacare" to be bothered with finishing the rail safety job.Officials said Amtrak had made installation of the congressionally mandated safety system a priority and was ahead of most other railroads around the country.
But the railroad struggled for four years to buy the rights to airwaves in the Northeast Corridor that would have allowed them to turn the system on."
The article goes on to explain that the FCC just approved Amtrak's purchase of wireless spectrum from the Skybridge Spectrum Foundation clearing the way for final testing on the seven year old system. You can read the whole article here.
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