Train Derailment In Ohio - Some Details

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RANDOM THOUGHTS CONCERNING THAT RAILWAY DERAILMENT

February 20, 2023 / Joseph P. Farrell

As most readers here know, I very seldom do "op-ed" pieces, where I ramble on about some contemporary story.  I tend to avoid them because I suspect most people who are regular readers here know more or less what I think about such things anyway, and don't need any reinforcement.

But after watching this carnival develop more, I've reinvested in my circus peanut futures, and have decided to rant about it anyway, because I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm livid.

By now everyone has heard about that freight train derailment in the American state of Ohio. And by now most readers here, I assume, have heard just about every possible theory about who caused it and why.

It is, I suppose, a sign of our times and cultural degradation that many people now view such events not as "accidents" but as the result of deliberate sabotage and covert action, or at the very least, the result of deliberate government and/or corporate inaction. It certainly is the case with the derailment. There are theories ranging the whole gamut, from ideas about deliberately polluting and poisoning the water table, to disaster capitalism to force nearby Amish farmers to sell out and buy their land on the cheap, to more elaborate theories about computer chip production facilities, and so on.  In other words, cultural perceptions have so shifted that when such events do occur, a significant portion of the population no longer first thinks of them as accidents, but as manifestations of sinister purpose and planning.

You can count me in that group, and it's very easy to see why people have come to such conclusions.

In the midst of this event, the Bai Den Jo misadministration sent no one to the area, as is customary in such incidents, and initially further denied that any emergency aid would be forthcoming, while the Secretary of Transportation took the opportunity to lecture the country about white racism, and to remind us that, unfortunately, while rare, railroad derailments happen all the time, and, in this country, there were about 1,000 last year, and that works out to almost three per day (or two and some decimal change).

His point being, I suppose, that there was no reason for everyone to get so worked up about the Ohio derailment.

I decided to snoop a bit, and looked up railway derailments in Europe per year, and I found one of those sites that allows you to look, but only once, before you have to pay to look again. But I did read that Germany, for example, had 294 derailments, or something like that.  Germany led the rest of Europe in derailments. Other articles assured me that derailments are far more common than people think, and - good news for  those of you living in the Acela corridor - your probability of being killed in a derailment are low. There were three take-aways from this brief excursion into statistics:

(1) derailments are far more common in the USA than they are in European countries (about 3 times the rate of Germany);

(2) that may be as much of a function of the USA having much more track mileage as anything else; and,

(3) derailments had a multitude of causes, but basically boiled down to poor equipment or track bed maintenance, usually a combination of both.

That, at least, is the overview.

But for anyone who has ridden Amtrak outside the high-speed Acela corridor between Swampington and Boston, and who has also had the experience of riding the rails in any European system, there is no comparison.  America's rail system is, by and large, a joke. To be sure, there are major carriers whose track beds, and equipment, is in good condition, a necessity, since a lot more freight moves by rails in this country than in Europe.  Still, one can glide along the rails in the Acela corridor and, for the most part, the track beds are in good condition. For me, as a passenger, the measure of a good track bed is the smoothness (or lack thereof) of the turnouts (or "switches"). Unfortunately, my experience riding the rails pretty much everywhere else in this country has been more like riding a Tilt-a-Whirl at a carnival.  My last trip on a train in this country was years ago, and after breaking down in the middle of Kansas and sitting there in the middle of nowhere for three hours (rather like the moves Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) I vowed "never again." What used to be my favorite mode of long distance travel is no more.

All talk of high speed rail in this country by various politicians should, therefore, be greeted with a great deal of skepticism. High speed track and trains need constant maintenance, and if you've experienced this country's roads and freeways lately, you'll know that isn't much of a promise. I live quite near a major interstate interchange. That interchange until just a few months ago was the same interchange as built in the early 1960s, with, in one case, a bridge built at the same time. The bridge was so old the concrete itself was quite literally leeching and dripping. Fortunately the bridge was replaced and work begun on the interchange to replace the old-fashioned clover-leaf... but then it all stopped about a year ago, and the pylons for the new overpasses stand proudly, holding up... nothing.  But back to Ohio and its beautiful rolling hills and rich farmland:

No...we were told initially that the region was not eligible for disaster aid.

Yet, we have enough money to send billions to the Ukraine to prop up another corrupt and criminal misadministration and talk about guaranteeing their pensions, and to abandon billions of dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan (which, incidentally might have been used to help the Ukraine, which we're supposed to be interested in helping), but, oh, wait, we can't send any of our latest stuff to them because it might fall into Russia's hands and they'd learn all about our technology, but it's ok to let it fall into the hands of the Taliban and thereby, everyone else. And people like Thoroughly Modern Milley at the Pentagram wonder why enlistments are down.)

My point in all of this is simply to say that I join with those Ohioans and Pennsylvanians affected by this derailment, and share their hurt, their anger, and their frustration. Whatever the cause of the derailment, from poor maintenance or deliberate and malicious planning and intent, one point has clearly emerged from the incident, and it has reinforced the growing conviction that this government no longer cares - at all - for its people. The perception has been building for at least two decades. But for many people in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the rest of the country, it was just confirmed by its cold indifference.  As far as it's concerned, there was no disaster. We're to pay our taxes, and shut up and wear our masks, pay billions to the corrupt Ukraine, support a war we don't want, and watch the infrastructure of this country fall apart, while more bills are passed in Congress that supposedly are designed to fix it, but only end up lining the pockets of corrupt criminal political dynasties. You know their surnames; they begin with B's, and C's, the fronts for the G's, S's, and M's.

But the pylons on the new interstate interchange near me are still holding up... nothing.

And they talk about all those empty crumbling cities in China....

Ok. Rant over.

See you on the flip side...

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