The Rude Pundit - Republicans Killed the Amtrak Derailment Victims

[MH1]

18. Reading is fundamental.

From your link.

"According to Amtrak, PTC was installed in the section of track where the Philly accident occurred," a committee source writes in an email to U.S. News. "There have been delays in 'turning it on' associated with FCC dealings and getting the bandwidth to upgrade the radios from 900 MHz to something higher (for more reliability)."

Amtrak's application for the bandwidth needed to use the positive train control system was approved in "early March," an FCC official says.

“The spectrum Amtrak wanted to use in 2011 was owned by someone else," the official says. "It took them three more years to negotiate with private parties to acquire the needed spectrum for the Washington, D.C.-to-New York corridor. Once Amtrak finalized their application, the commission approved it within two days.”

Amtrak President Joseph Boardman said Thursday the technology was installed where the crash occurred, according to The Associated Press, but it had not been turned on because the system needed to be tested further.

Positive train control uses radio and GPS signals as well as other technologies to detect and reduce trains' speed. Congress demanded the technology be implemented nationwide by 2015 after a California train collision left 25 people dead and more than 100 injured in 2008.

The spectrum was approved in MARCH fercrissakes after THREE YEARS of delay. You might think that a major corporation can spin on a dime to complete testing and go live with a critical system like that ... but if so I'm guessing you don't have much work experience in that kind of organization.

The THREE YEARS of delay was due to having to negotiate bandwidth from PRIVATE PARTIES because the government didn't see fit to reserve it. I believe that was part of RP's point.