Amtrak Pays Millions for Others' Fatal Errors

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This is probably a dupe. The article has been making the rounds on several railroad enthusiast listservs.

Amtrak Pays Millions for Others' Fatal Errors

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DEATH ON THE TRACKS
Amtrak Pays Millions for Others' Fatal Errors
By WALT BOGDANICH

Published: October 15, 2004

It is no mystery why, one spring day two years ago, an Amtrak passenger train jumped the tracks near Crescent City, Fla., and skidded to a stop on its side, killing 4 people and injuring 142.

Investigators concluded that the track, owned by the big freight railroad CSX, had not been properly stabilized and that management's oversight of maintenance had been lax. But when millions of dollars in damage claims arose from the crash, it was not CSX, a multibillion-dollar corporation, that paid them. It was Amtrak, the perennial money loser that survives only with regular infusions of cash from American taxpayers.

Three months later, it happened again. Poor track maintenance by CSX caused an Amtrak train to derail in Maryland, investigators said, injuring nearly 100 people. Again, Amtrak covered claims against CSX.

In accident after accident, in derailments and grade-crossing collisions, CSX and other major freight railroads have used Amtrak to shield themselves from tens of millions of dollars in liability, an examination by The New York Times has found.
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[blueknight]

1. i worked for csx

for 27 years. bush appointee sec treas, john snow RAN THAT RAILROAD INTO THE GROUND. all he cared about were the stockholders. he cut the manpower in the department that did the maintenence,didn't train the employees correctly etc. i'm suprised they dont have more de-railments

[Ruby Romaine]

2. welfare for corporations

I was really shocked when i read that article. I had no idea.
Maybe that's why the anti-northeastern repukes keep AMTRAK alive?