The links to the left provide information to
past, present, and future ACTION efforts regarding railroad safety
issues.
You will have the opportunity to view
combinations of documentation toward reports made by government entities,
individual's personal actions addressing the lack of concern for railroad
safety, and other organizational efforts to address the ever growing
deterioration of the railway infrastructure.
Train derailments have increased annually for the
past six years. Federal rail safety experts suspect that lax maintenance is a
factor. Derailments caused by faulty tracks -- suspected in the recent Amtrak
Auto Train derailment in Florida, and proven at the Nodaway, Iowa derailment
site of Amtrak's California Zephyr in 2001-- have increased sharply.
The Florida and Iowa accidents, the recent fatal
collision of two trains in California, and plans to ship nuclear waste by rail
to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, are focusing attention on rail safety. It is sad how
that focus is dropped within the ranks throughout Washington, D.C..
According to federal figures analyzed by Knight
Ridder Newspapers, the number of train derailments in 2001 was the highest
since 1985. Very little information is being reported today, just as the
railroad industry likes it.