The New York Times "Taking Note" Editorial Page Editor's Blog, 5/21:
How to Improve Rail Safety
Americans who grow up with this country’s slow, limited and poorly maintained passenger train systems are typically stunned by the speed, comfort and punctuality of the trains that crisscross Europe and East Asia at speeds often greater than 200 miles per hour. It turns out that state-of-the art train systems abroad are also safer. A lot safer.
As Nicola Clark of The Times reported on Thursday: “the United States has among the worst safety records despite having some of the least-extensive passenger rail networks in the developed world. Fatality rates are almost twice as high as in the European Union and countries like South Korea, and roughly triple the rate in Australia.”
SNIP
As Ms. Clark reports: “In terms of safety, the return on that investment has been clear. Japan’s famous Shinkansen ‘bullet train’ network has never experienced a fatal crash or derailment in 51 years of operation. The same can be said of France’s gleaming fleet of high-speed TGVs, which have zipped across the French countryside for more than three decades.”
If this country wants to improve rail safety, it is going to have to pay for it.
More here.
