Compare and Contrast
Next to Jim Cade’s auto body shop in West Philadelphia, an Amtrak retaining wall is crumbling into his parking lot.
Eight feet away, Amtrak and SEPTA trains rush past on the busy line that runs through the Main Line toward Paoli and Harrisburg.
“People ride by every day and have no idea this is like this,” Cade said, pointing to a section where the stone-and-concrete wall has given way entirely, spilling dirt and debris. “The deterioration gets worse with each rain.”
Cade worries that the failing wall could eventually undermine the stability of the tracks and cause a train wreck.
Several blocks away, at 52d and Jefferson Streets, three massive steel bridges that carry dozens of Amtrak and SEPTA trains every day are slowly deteriorating. Skillet-sized sheets of rust are flaking off, and daylight is visible through some side plates.
Throughout the Philadelphia region and much of the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak is struggling to maintain old bridges, tunnels, retaining walls and other infrastructure. Chronically short of money, Amtrak has put off an estimated $5 billion in needed repairs and upgrades nationwide, and most of that is along the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.
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Nationwide, Amtrak has about 1,400 bridges - many of them inherited from now-defunct railroads - with an average age of nearly 100 years. That puts many of them beyond their anticipated life span. About 400 of the bridges are on Amtrak’s priority lists for repair or replacement.“Many of our assets are older . . . and we haven’t had the capital allocation we would have liked,” Vacca said.
And, now, those stodgy old bastards in Dreary Europe:
Network Rail Ltd., the government- backed owner of Britain’s train tracks and stations, may build as many as five more railway lines to help boost capacity as passenger numbers climb to the highest in more than 60 years.
Network Rail will examine the case for constructing new lines to the north and west of London, it said in a statement today. Capacity will be reviewed on the West Coast, East Coast, Great Western, Chiltern and Midland Main lines, the company said.
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high-speed line for at least seven years, preferring to boost capacity by adding 1,300 carriages and expanding the Thameslink service connecting north and south London. Crossrail, a 16 billion-pound ($31 billion) project to link Heathrow airport with east London, was also approved last October.“We welcome the announcement of the study and look forward to working with Network Rail in progressing the case for new lines,” said Michael Roberts, chief executive officer of the Association of Train Operating Companies. “The challenge is to ensure that we have adequate capacity to grow the railway further on an already busy network.”
I would like to point out that our country has become the national equivalent of a child with severe Down Syndrome, except I know children with Down Syndrome, and they’re far more talented, inquisitive, and creative than the dunces in charge of America, Inc.
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