Taking time to vet new equipment can pay off
It has to be frustrating for MARC riders to realize there are 26 new locomotives in the pipeline -- held up by the Maryland Transit Administration's demands for more extensive testing -- at a time when old locomotives are breaking down and causing long delays for riders.
The following link may provide a clue to why the MTA is being so persnickety:
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/02/wes_service_off_track_for_seve.html
The manufacturer is not the same as the one that made the locomotives for MARC, but the principle is the same.
It's just a shame that the MTA didn't explain the reasons for delay up front instead of having to have the information dragged out of it. At some levels of the organization, there seems to be an institutional impulse to conceal rather than reveal. Often, its managers leave the MTA's public affairs people out of the loop when there's bad news. Then they're surprised when the agency gets hammered in the media.
So even when MTA does the right thing, it does it the wrong way.
Comments
Sorry, Mike, but this comparison does not wash with me. The MP36 is already in-service on several mass transit lines-the RailRunner in New Mexico and the Front Runner in Utah. If one of MARC's issues is approval by the FRA, just how did these railroads manage to start up? Utah's system was funded in part by a $67 million grant from the feds-would it be likely that they would verify that the equipment met standards? Sorry, the MTA's response sounds like petty bureacratic horse manure to me.
Posted by: Ralph Woods | August 14, 2009 4:07 PM