Passenger Trains > CBS New York - Trains Going Too Fast

Please disengage brain before reading and watching.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/05/18/cbs2-investigates-nj-transit-trains-found-going-far-faster-than-advised-speeds/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/15 21:26 by 1976.

It might be a good idea for the railroad industry to launch an all-out effort to educate these idiots...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

The media really needs to give it a rest and move on to something else.

CS

MojaveBill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It might be a good idea for the railroad industry
> to launch an all-out effort to educate these
> idiots...

They certainly are not idiots.  They just don't know anything about railroads.  And tomorrow they will be reporting on animal rights or some other very dfferent topic.  MojaveBill, how good would you do on reporting on something you knew nothing about?  Would you look like an idiot to somone who knew much about the topic?  And a reporter has no extra time to get educated on every topic on which they report.  They have no time to get educated on any topic.

Marty Bernard

 

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MojaveBill Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It might be a good idea for the railroad
> industry
> > to launch an all-out effort to educate these
> > idiots...
>
> They certainly are not idiots.  They just don't
> know anything about railroads. 

I will keep my opions on the name-calling to myself. The problem is, why are they making such bold statements and presenting them as fact? You can't go around asserting that trains are speeding dangerously without knowing that 100%.

Booker saying the trip was faster decades ago is really absurd, just shows how his party is playing the blame game.  That goes for Schumer to  a chronic whiner, who we might remember commutes by air to DC and had a history of beating up on female flight attendants. 

With gasoline about a buck cheaper than it was this time last year, most folks wouldn't mind a temporary nickel a gallon increase to help pay for infrastructure upgrade and another nickel for new under Hudson tubes.  This would have to be done with sunset provision.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/15 04:06 by PennPlat.

Nickel a gallon? How about 25 cents? (It really should be even more than that, but...) The last time the federal motor fuel tax was raised was in 1993. The gutless politicians are starving American infrastructure just so they can avoid the evil tax increase, even though this is one increase most Americans would support, and the rest would forget about before too long.

Wow.  The comments on their page were pretty brutal, as they should be.

A couple of things that crossed my mind as I read this story:

1:  In her quest to get a story out, there was certainly an effort to collect information, but what was lacking was a careless disregard for reality or an understanding of how things work.    It made me think about what it must be like to be a reporter with demands to get a story together, written and published.  
2:  As I thought about the issues above, it confirmed to me how the mass media should not be trusted to report on any topic, whether it be railroad rules, politics, social issues, etc etc.  There are a precious few individuals in this country who get to decide what to broadcast, which angle they take on the story, what facts to omit, what opinions they get to interject into the story as 'facts', and so on.

I can't speak to what things were like 100 years ago, but it is quite scary the power the media has to shape opinion, mislead the vast majority of Americans that are easily misled, elect politicians and in turn shape our country.    It's articles like this that are really glaring, but many are not as easily interpreted for what they are.   Every time we read or see a media story, we should all ask ourselves the question of 'what is the purpose of this story?'  Simply reporting the facts seems to have disappeared from most media a long time ago - if it ever existed at all.

This isn't reporting, it's sensationalism.  Reporting takes time and research...none here.
In 90% of TV world, reporters have been replaced with "talent"..a very subjective term.



MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MojaveBill Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It might be a good idea for the railroad
> industry
> > to launch an all-out effort to educate these
> > idiots...
>
> They certainly are not idiots.  They just don't
> know anything about railroads.  And tomorrow they
> will be reporting on animal rights or some other
> very dfferent topic.  MojaveBill, how good would
> you do on reporting on something you knew nothing
> about?  Would you look like an idiot to somone
> who knew much about the topic?  And a reporter
> has no extra time to get educated on every topic
> on which they report.  They have no time to get
> educated on any topic.
>
> Marty Bernard
>
>  

There was a good mix of comical and ignorance in the video, but as soon as she said engineers use timetables to adjust their speeds between stations I had to hit the red X. I'm assuming she was referring to public timetables, not employee timetables.

And the speed limit should be 60 through all stations? Sorry, but she didn't look at who actually owns some tracks NJT runs and why they have to go faster than that anyway, besides, don't they have warning signs at all commuter stations on the NEC saying not all trains stop and how fast they go like they got on the Surfline?

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They certainly are not idiots.  They just don't
> know anything about railroads. 

Ignorance is not an excuse for abysmal journalism. Their job is to dig for and reveal a balanced and unbiased account of the entire story. This one was so poorly researched and entirely one-sided that it can hardly be considered "reporting". CBS should be ashamed of themselves.

I'm in the TV news business and seeing stuff like this is embarassing.

Danny Harmon
Tampa

It is ratings over journalism.
Railway Age's rebuttal:

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/blogs/william-vantuono/meg-baker-and-her-trusty-speed-o-meter-to-the-rescue.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 12:47 by joemvcnj.