From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
   >On 11-Apr-15 14:28, Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
   >>Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
   >>>On 11-Apr-15 12:56, Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
      
   >>>>Platforms are hideously expensive. Metra has had standard-height   
   >>>>platform replacement projects over the last several years, and   
   >>>>they take an amazing 13 weeks under traffic.   
      
   >>>Then someone needs to get fired.  DART replaced _dozens_ of   
   >>>platforms while they were in service, closing them just two   
   >>>weekends each plus working nights when there were no trains.  Start   
   >>>to finish for each station was under a month.   
      
   >>>Then again, you're saddled with unions, so taking three-plus times   
   >>>as long (and probably ten-plus times as much money) is to be   
   >>>expected. That's the price you pay for living in the Rust Belt.   
      
   >>We don't close freight railroads for weekends.   
      
   >Neither do we; that'd be silly.   
      
   >It was just the stations that were closed, to give the crews longer   
   >periods for heavy work on the platforms.  Trains still ran through every   
   >few minutes, and there were shuttle buses to/from the next stations in   
   >both directions so folks could still get where they needed to go.   
      
   They didn't rebuild platforms as passengers were standing on them.   
   They replaced half of one side at a time; took an absurdly long time.   
   Anyway, they use outside labor for a hell of a lot of this stuff these days,   
   and they aren't necessarily unionized.   
      
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