Anyone who has read Tom Wolfe’s book on the early space age The Right Stuff or has seen the movie knows what the above line is all about: without funding, you can’t make the spectacular things happen. In the case of the space program, you needed the attention of the people providing the funds, i.e. the government, and the way you got the attention of the government was through the people who paid and elected them, or us, the American public.That being said, here is where I get your attention, American public. We have all seen the stories in the news with all sorts of elected officials calling for more government inspectors because rail safety is suffering. Sorry folks, all this is going to do is set up a situation where you now have someone who can point at a problem and say what is wrong, but it is your problem to find the funding to fix it. Or, as the flow of legislation trying to add “risk reduction” systems (PTC and Hours of Service are good ones to use) starts to increase, we are going to be left with a laundry list of things we must do “for our own good” and no way to pay for (or develop) them. And finally, where are these additional inspectors going to come from? If they come from within our industry, are you pulling out the people with talent who should be solving the problems, or are you getting those who have less talent, and we are creating a situation where a little bit of knowledge is dangerous? The FRA has a very talented group of people keeping the ship upright. Let’s not weigh it down so it founders.Where should the money (if there is any) go? If we are going to reduce risk, let’s use the funds available to improve the ability to access these systems and avoid the situation we have in PTC right now that has some railroads installing safety equipment on a locomotive that has a value two to three times the value of the locomotive itself. Attentive rulemaking is one way of reducing cost, but does it really reduce the risk because you are just saying that in some situations the amount of risk that would actually be reduced by these systems is so small that the cost isn’t justified. My question is, if that is the case, is the original way we are operating intrinsically so safe that the system isn’t needed, or the cost versus risk reduction so lopsided that you are putting good money after bad?To those in Washington that feel that inspectors are the solution, I’m sorry, but you need to have committed the act or have a process in place that will create the evidence for an inspector to find an issue to correct (this is also my argument against cameras looking into the cab of a locomotive, but that is for another blog). Now I will agree that more inspections have a greater chance of catching a potential problem before it happens, but the problem has to be there to find it. Why don’t we spend our limited funds on accessibility, which will have everybody operating with the same systems and procedures?Hopefully, it will lead us to the stars.
---By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR's Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA's board of directors.
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR's Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA's board of directors.