This reminds me of then EPA Administrator’s Statement ( who was a respected former female R. Gov. Of NJ) , immediately post 911, that the air quality in Lower Manhattan was safe and their was no risk from the rumble pollutants. NOT!

Unfortunately such knee jerk Gov’t.” Advisories” are all too common, treating the public like litttle children who have to be “ protected from the truth” , to avoid panic and/ or blame. The public should castigate and “shun” from public life, any bureaucrat or elected official who gets caught giving such untrue statements., without regard to their long tenure, generally likeability, former trustworthiness or their political affiliation. The equivalent of a political ”death sentence”. If this happened a few times, we might get a more honest and responsive government.

I have some substantial general knowledge about how large freight railroads operate. Truth is, especially in regard to the mile or two long transcontinental trains, the Railroad generally has no knowledge of nor is their regulation of what goes into the freight mix. Their are placard regulations for various chemicals , commodities and explaosives. Amend some slightly more extensive regulation of certain freight , post 911. But not much.

There is also no national emergency response organization, which is flown or otherwise quickly transported to crash sites to contain chemical leaks, douse highly polluting fires, deal with explosives and/ or radioactive leakage. All events which grossly overwhelm the response capabilities of the many tiny, mostly volunteer, rural and suburban fire departments , which these trains transit.

Railroads , as most recently reported in the NYT and other media, are largely self-regulated. In my experience , most management operates as if it were the 1890s and fight all safety/ pollution regulations, usually successfully, due to wide and well funded lawyers and lobbyists. In return for this relative freedom from Gov’t. Regulation, Railroads get much less Gov’t.subsidy, than the trucking or airline indusry. Railroads own and pay for their mode of transit. ( the rails and right of ways themselves) and terminal facilities. Airlines fly in air lanes closely regulated and financed by the states and Federal Gov’r. ( Air traffic control is based Nationwide) Air line terminals and adjacent trucking facilities are often publicly financed. Gov’t does rescue and much clean-up, in the event of a crash, etc. Trucking operates upon publicly funded & maintained interstate ( National Defense) intercontinental highway systems, first funded a under President Eisenhower. That’s why the USA is a surburban car/ truck civilization and not city based, joined by modern train/ trolley systems , as in Europe and almost everywhere else.