Adron Hall (blogging as The Transit Slueth) has written up his first person perspective of the recent train derailment. It’s definitely worth a read.
The Story on Amtrak Cascades Train 501 Derailment
It’s a fascinating view into the environment leading up to, during, and after the derailment. Definitely worth a read.
As he points out, rail is safer than driving and this accident doesn’t change that. Personally, I’ve never travelled on Amtrak for anything except maybe some NYC to surrounding states when I was a kid. I did used to commute via Metra from Chicago to Lake Forest for work. Loved the overall serenity of it, but hated being tied to a schedule. Deb and I have talked about doing some sort of high-class regional trip, just need time to get around to it.
The only disappointing thing is that he makes a reference to a Trump tweet at the end, and that has completely derailed (ha!) the comments section. I guess that’s just the state of the world today. I think it’s okay for someone to call a President out for saying false things, but some Trump supporters do not react well to that. I’m sure it was the same way with Obama’s tweets… oh wait, not it wasn’t – he never tweeted!
Anyway, go read the post, it’s a good one. And if you don’t want to get your blood pressure up, you should probably skip the comments.