From: gl4317@yahoo.com   
      
   In article ,   
    "conklin"  wrote:   
      
   > You are irrational once again.  If Metro-North needs to follow X, Y and Z   
   > for safe transport of passengers, then freight RRs which carry oil need to   
   > have track as good as Metro-North.  Or, are you saying that Metro-North   
   > needs no new program because you say so?   
      
      
   The mainline railroads already are doing these types of track   
   inspections - or rather the Federal Railroad Administration does the   
   inspections with its own cars:   
      
   http://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0120   
      
   In some cases the railroad companies have their own track inspection   
   cars to do track inspection work, or they have other methods of doing   
   this work.  The FRA is only supposed to verify their methods are working.   
      
   About two years ago I attended a SoundTransit meeting where the expense   
   of track inspection came up, and one of the contractors said the   
   cheapest way of doing the regular track inspection was, rather than have   
   a special track inspection car, to simply put the required equipment on   
   some of the cars already operating in regular service.  They said they   
   were already doing this on a few other commuter railroads.   
      
   Therefore, what Metro-North is doing is probably not really required   
   beyond the regular inspections they are already doing.  Instead, what   
   has probably happened is that someone pointed out to them that the   
   regular inspections would be a lot cheaper and somewhat more useful if   
   it were being done by the cars they already have.   
      
   Because of the sheer number of miles on a class 1 railraod, the main   
   line railroads already have crews and track inspection cars that do   
   this.  Union Pacific has a few locomotive hauled passenger cars for   
   this, or the Canadian National has a rebuilt RDC (their 1501) that does   
   this.   
      
   The problem here is that a commuter railroad has cars that pass over the   
   track a number of times a day, so Metro-North or any other commuter   
   railroad that inspects their track by having inspection equipment on   
   their cars is inspecting their track far more often than is required.   
   It isn't necessarily that they are more safety conscious but simply an   
   effect of doing this inspection with the cheapest method available to   
   them (that is, using their own passenger equipment).   
      
   For freight railroads, the cheapest thing is going to continue to be   
   doing the inspections only at the required interval.   
      
   --   
   Please note this e-mail address is a pit of spam due to e-mail address   
   harvesters on Usenet. Response time to e-mail sent here is slow.   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)