The CSX mainline through Baltimore is crucial to rail service along the East Coast. A few years ago, there was a fire in the tunnel under the city, and the world discovered that a large portion of the long distance phone system and Internet lines also run through the tunnel.
For years, the city has known the street running next to the train tracks is sinking, and did nothing more than patch the road surface. It’s not obvious whether CSX is the cause of the problem or the victim. The retaining wall was probably built in the 1850s, before there was steel and reinforced concrete. It’s just a pile of very heavy carved stones.
This boring video has a surprise ending
Could you catch the badge numbers of those two big police officers that walked past without tip-toeing? How do we get their names for the lawsuit. 🙂
Environmentalists keep saying no to the Keystone pipeline because big Obama supporter and rail freight company owner since the 2008 election makes more money shipping it via rail, yet they seem to believe they are damaging the environment by helping Warren and Charlie Munger profiteer at the environment’s expense.
http://news.yahoo.com/derailed-train-virginia-carrying-crude-oil-city-official-191421959–finance.html
This one made it to national television – quite fascinating. Go Keystone! Maybe Mary Landreu in LA can inflict enough Democratic horse sense to get this built and we can worry about passengers and freight.
BTW – I think Amtrak has been on the government dole since the 1850’s also.
Well – kind of. I can flush that out a bit.
The transcontinental railroads were funded by the Federal Government giving “land grants” on either side of the proposed routes. The real estate and mineral rights were given to the railroads, which then used those to sell bonds to get the money to finance the construction.
There was a very significant condition on that generosity – the grants were contingent on the railroads operating passenger service in perpetuity along the route.
That’s what Amtrak changed – essentially the Federal Government permitted the railroads to escape that obligation to provide passenger service but to retain the land grants. The Southern Railroad was a holdout – they continued to operate their own passenger trains after the formation of Amtrak – something about not trusting Yankees or something…. So now Amtrak has to pay the railroads to lease the routes they cover.
Since then, another important thing happened – the railroads figured out they could strip out the mineral rights and the fiber optic rights of way and sell them off seperately, leaving the actual railroad without the income stream from the mineral rights, etc… so someday you can throw them railroads through bankrupcty and not have creditors claim to have dibs on the natural gas wells under the railroad rights of way.
Paging Warren Buffett – please pick up the White Courtesy Phone
That’s racist for the Whites to have their own Courtesy Phone. Paging V. Stiviano.
Interesting train story:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-20/socialist-efficiency-france-mistakenly-orders-2000-trains-which-are-too-wide-its-pla