UPDATE: 8:40 PM Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe, obviously concerned, asked the Town Manager tonight if Amherst had the authority to prevent the trains coming through town if they don't get their upkeep act together. Unfortunately the answer was "no".
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Thank goodness the maintenance program for C-5A aircraft that routinely lumber over Amherst is so top shelf because if one of those babies ever falls from the sky...And if it happened a month ago, like the first train wreck in Amherst, the entire fleet would be grounded until they figured out what caused the mishap and then corrected it.
Two trains derailing within a stones throw of each other in less than a month's time is unacceptable--especially when both occurred within a half mile of Lawrence Swamp where wells are located that supply half the town's drinking water and an overpass where automobiles and bicycles routinely travel directly underneath.
What gives?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that nobody mentioned the possibility of sabotage. Why is that? Musante talked of mechanical failure, operator error, or failure of the track/railbed. But no 'penny on the rails' theory at all.
ReplyDeleteOK folks, John Oliver is a US Congresscritter who actually happens to live in town. He is the one whom you ought to be asking to intervene in this, he is the one who has the ability to get the NTSB and FRA to start asking questions, not the least being two trains on essentially the same piece of track?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteEd: That's John Olver...not John Oliver.
ReplyDeletePlease do not confuse Ed with facts.
ReplyDeleteThree words:
ReplyDelete"Caution: Salamander Crossing"
o, the plight of public Ed.
ReplyDeleteEd's middle name has to be Armchair Quarterback. Can you imagine being in the driver's seat with him as a passenger? Talk about hell on earth.
ReplyDeleteI seem to notice that a 300 degree steam pipe no longer is only six feet over a sidewalk, and instead of nonchalantly telling students to "remember to duck", UMass managed to weld in couple sections of pipe to raise it up out of the way.
ReplyDeleteForget armchair quarterback, Ed gets things done.
I don't care if his name is John Oliver or John Olver or Jolly John the Leftwing Twit -- he is your Congressman, you folk voted for him and supported him and had "things" for him, and now is the time to ask him to do his job.
What the Selectboard ought to do is formally petition Oliver to investigate/act -- a formal resolution from them will give him something to dump on various admin folk -- who *will* answer him.
If you want to do something, this is what you do.
Or you can just call me names. Whatever.
Sa-bot-age! Ooooooooohhhhhhhhh.
ReplyDeleteNobody mentioned that. Why is that? Ooooooooohhhhhhhhh.
Here's what's really scary: we give the commenters on here the right to vote.
If you want to do something, this is what you do.
ReplyDeleteGee, Ed, we'd thank you for the unsolicited advice -- except that as usual nobody but you is crying that the sky is falling.
So why don't you get off your perpetual student's ass and do it yourself? Here's a pointer: Olver is your Congressman, whether you voted for him or not.
Still laughing. Not only sabotage, it could be a dry run for something bigger. Think about it.
ReplyDeleteThis just in: "Ed gets things done".
ReplyDeleteNow that Ed is referring to himself in the third person, we would ordinarily conclude that he has crossed some important psychological line in his descent into madness, but just how far can one man go? And all of it documented so clearly right here?
It is chilling to watch this man chill. But consider the alternative, and join me in urging him to stay right there by his computer screen and keep on staring. Damage control.