WSDOT and Amtrak haven’t set a date for when Cascades service might be moved to the segment of track between Tacoma and Olympia, Wash., where a passenger train derailed Dec. 18, 2017, killing three and injuring dozens. The council’s action doesn’t carry any force behind it, since it’s not a regulatory agency with control over the line.
But it does reflect official unhappiness over the extent and pace of safety remedies being put in place.
“The safety of all those traveling in Pierce County is of paramount concern to the Pierce County Council, which finds the failure of the entities named above to implement the safety recommendations approved by the NTSB would present unacceptable safety risks for passenger rail travel in Pierce County,” the resolution says.
“Pierce County opposes the restoration of the Amtrak Cascades line using the Point Defiance line” until those responsible for its operation “fully implement the safety recommendations” adopted by the safety board.
In addition to Amtrak, WSDOT and the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit, owner of the line), the resolution cites the U.S. secretary of transportation, the Federal Railroad Administration, the U.S. Department of Defense Fire and Emergency Services Working Group, and the Oregon Department of Transportation as agencies responsible for putting the NTSB recommendations into place.
The council made the NTSB’s summary of proposed actions a part of the resolution. In addition to positive train control, which wasn’t operating on the line at the time of the derailment, the safety board also proposed phasing out older Talgo Series VI trainsets, which it says contributed to the severity of injuries, as soon as possible. WSDOT has said it plans to do so.
The News Tribune (Tacoma) editorialized in favor of the resolution.
“When asked if local governments could halt restoration of the bypass route, [WSDOT spokeswoman Janet] Matkin said, ‘You have to remember, there’s a difference between a recommendation and a requirement.’ We say, ignore them at passengers’ peril.”
But the newspaper also supported the idea of eventually returning passenger service to the line.
“Eliminating the longtime railway bottleneck along Puget Sound is still a good idea,” the paper said. “And the $181 million that’s been poured into this 18 miles of track should not become another monument to government waste, aka a ‘bypass to nowhere.’”
The resolution comes the same week as trial commenced in suits filed against Amtrak by three passengers on the train that derailed. The suits are being heard in federal court in Tacoma, housed in the city’s former railroad passenger station.
If everything was shut down because of one accident, the cause of which is not in doubt, nothing would be moving.
Ironically this might be the safest railroad in Washington State.
In case you haven’t noticed, all government agencies exist to promote themselves and steal enough money (taxes) to have a comfortable life and a good retirement. They produce nothing and are of no value to average non-governmental people. How much are members of the Pierce County Council paid?
So the old Talgos are safer on the old route?
If you know anything about the history of the Point Defiance Bypass it will come as no surprise that it was bitterly opposed by the residents of the area, including Lakewood and DuPont. The railroad may have been there first but they are there now and they want the railroad gone.
These demands by the locals are an attempt to gum up the works. They are hoping that if they become sufficiently obnoxious about the whole thing then Amtrak will give up and revert to the old route.
Lakewood is more plebian but DuPont is a redevelopment of an old explosive manufacturing facility and is built around the concept of “local villages”. The residents have money and are of the opinion that their personal feces are not odoriferous.
You get a lot of that in the Pacific Northwest.
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn sperm burping gutter whore.
This line will be obsolete by the time the pols get done playing CYA.
How many people have been injured or died on the roads of Pierce County since the Amtrak tragedy?