Train derails near Philadelphia, spilling hazardous chemical.

[w2amr]

This happened about 15 minutes from here. Scary, The infrastructure is crumbling
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15571188-dozens-hospitalized-after-train-derails-near-philadelphia-spilling-hazardous-chemical?lite

[W3WN]

The scary part is that this is the second time in three years that this bridge collapsed. If they couldn't fix it right the first time...

[n2ize]

Wow... Vinyl Chloride is nasty stuff, although I could think of a lot of other chemicals that are far worst. Hopefully most of it has evaporated and dissipated by now., My biggest issue is the collapsing bridge. Twice in three years ??? !!! That is unacceptable.

[w2amr]

Wow... Vinyl Chloride is nasty stuff, although I could think of a lot of other chemicals that are far worst. Hopefully most of it has evaporated and dissipated by now., My biggest issue is the collapsing bridge. Twice in three years ??? !!! That is unacceptable.It will be interesting to see who made the repairs.

[N8YX]

Conrail is still in business? I thought they were dissolved and their assets absorbed by CSX and NS.

[n2ize]

It will be interesting to see who made the repairs.

I am sure your governor is working feverishly as we speak to get to the bottom of it. :lol:

[w2amr]

Conrail is still in business? I thought they were dissolved and their assets absorbed by CSX and NS.
They are still calling it conrail.

[w2amr]

I am sure your governor is working feverishly as we speak to get to the bottom of it. :lol:
He is very busy right now , preparing his veto of the Democrat's minimum wage hike.

[kb2vxa]

Conrail is still a viable entity in the Detroit area where it is headquartered and has considerable trackage in New Jersey. Officially it's known as Norfolk Southern CSX Shared Assets which retains frequencies licensed by the FCC under the name Conrail.

[w2amr]

I heard Colrail owns the bridge, so they will be footing the bill for this mess. Then there will be the lawsuits.........

[n2ize]

My memories of Conrail are not very good ones. matter of fact from my experiences with Conrail a collapsing bridge sounds par for the course. I remember when I was a kid the local commuter railroad was the old "New York Central" which ran commuter service on its 3 main lines through southern Westchester. Later on they merged with the Pennsylvania railroad and morphed into the "Penn Central". At that point service and maintenance started going down the tubes. Then a few years later they were merged into "Conrail". During the Conrail years (1970's and 80's) the service and maintenance was the worst. Trains were unreliable, breakdowns were constant, time tables meant nothing. Conrail at the time had no interest in running commuter rail /passenger lines and basically let them rot. Of course this was a disaster for commuters who depended on the system to get them into work. Finally one cold winter it really went to total hell. Frozen switches,shortage of train cars, incredible delays that lasted for hours and hours, people showing up hours late for work, kids showing up later for school. Soon after the commuter services run bty Conrail were taken over by the state, MTA and it became the Metro North railroad as it stands today. Almost immediately on becoming Metro North the service started improving. Much needed repairs, infrastructure updates, rolling stock acquisitions were implemented. Tracks were fixed up, wooden tires replaced with concrete ties, welded steel rail enabled trains to run smoother. Today Metro North is pretty reliable as a commuter rail service. A far cry from the Conrail days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-North_Railroad#MTA_operation_and_the_formation_of_ Metro-North