Thursday morning rail news:
— Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Patrick J. Foye suggested in a Wednesday news conference that the “failings” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contributed to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which has killed at least 83 MTA workers. Specifically, the New York Daily News reports, when asked if he regretted the MTA’s response to the pandemic, he referred instead to the CDC’s initial guidance that workers need not wear protective face masks. “I regret that the CDC and the World Health Organization gave the advice that they did,” Foye said. “I do regret that they gave that advice to the entire country. I think that everybody in the country regrets the failings of the CDC.”
— The California High Speed Rail Authority is releasing a Draft Environmental Document for a 90-mile segment from Santa Clara to Merced County, the first such document for a Northern California portion of the high speed rail project. The document, for part of the 145-mile San Jose-to-Merced section of the project, will be available for public comment on Friday, April 24. In a press release, Authority CEO Brian Kelly called the release “an important milestone” showing continued progress on the system. The segment included in the document passes in or near the communities of Santa Clara, San Jose, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, and Los Banos. Public hearings and open-house meetings on the document are scheduled in San Jose, Gilroy, and Los Banos, but may be online or teleconference meetings only because of the COVID-19 virus. Check the Authority website for more information.
— The Union Pacific Historical Society has cancelled its 2020 convention, set for May 13-16 in Cheyenne, Wyo., because of COVID-19 virus concerns. The convention will be rescheduled for Cheyenne in 2022; the 2021 convention is scheduled to be held in Pasco, Wash. The society will refund registration automatically. A message on the society’s website says its election and annual membership meeting will likely be held electronically; information on that is still to come.
Tough part about historical associations having to cancel is the mortality of the roads’ former employees over the course of the year. Like WWII vets, soon there will be none. The MRHA has realized this and pro-actively elected a new, younger president with no Milwaukee background who does live in a heritage state. Call them foamers if you must, but they constitute the future membership.
Milwaukee Road Historical’s website says yes it is canceled for 2020 and will take place in Elgin in 2021. The C&NW canceled their Mankato MN convention in May 2020 – but it is not yet clear whether it will be re scheduled or just omitted. Too bad as it was shaping up to be a good one.
If they shut down the transit systems in the major cities the health care workers in those cities would not have been able to get to work and I can’t imagine what the death toll would have been.
Yes, cast around for someone to blame.
Heaven only knows how the COVID-19 pandemic would have affected the sesquicentenial celebration of the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad had it occurred a year earlier. Many events would have gone virtual.
Masks limit the spread of your personal aerosols to someone else. Either everyone wears a mask or close the transit systems which expose so many. the biggest risk factor is close proximity with an infected person.
No Pat, your decision not to stop public transit in thee most populated. Most heavily used public transit hub in the US caused that, how many mta employees have died? How many got infected, Duh!! If anyone does not agree that the subway, buses, commuter rail in NYC didn’t contribute HEAVILY to the spread, is not well informed.
Well of course politicians and business-persons know more than Doctors; just ask Mr. t.
Typical New Yorker, blame someone else for your ineptness. Own up you dropped the ball!
What causes pancreatic cancer?
Who was wearing mask in Feb?
Which country is sending everyone two masks?
Likely that the MRHA (Milw. Rd. Hist. Asso.) convention scheduled for June 18-21 in Elgin will be cancelled.