Add concrete ties to the list of things to worry about on commuter rail

I'm not a fan of companies holding a gun to their own head and hollering "any man makes a move, the negro gets it." If they're bankrupt, they're bankrupt, and the MBTA can get in line with all the other creditors for a chance to loot the corpse.

I was just pointing out an upside. I automatically took their word for it that the ties were in bad shape.

The Old Colony and Providence Lines?

These are both owned by the Commonwealth.

No, the Commonwealth owns both of these lines.

.

The MBTA is being very defensive about this, probably because it specified something for these lines that had known problems with climate and salt use:

But T officials are also warding off inquiries into the problem. A public records request for information on the original contract, warranty information from Rocla, the extent of the problem, and the cost to replace the faulty ties was met with a bill for $1,500 for the records, including a charge of $65 per hour for 23 hours — the equivalent of $135,200 in annual salary — for an unidentified T employee to compile and copy the public documents. That is being appealed.

Not only has MBTA chief Grabauskas fended off questions, including at a recent graduation ceremony at South Station for new locomotive engineers, officials at Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail, the for-profit company that operates the commuter lines, have not returned calls for comment. T spokesman Pesaturo said there’s been no need to make the public aware of the problem. “Our customers haven’t asked about it,” he says.

Not that Joe P would have any farking clue what their customers ever ask about.

Think about things like flexing.

Then they get shot down by their managers, to whom technical details present an unwelcome threat to bookings and sales.

Will a Rocla engineer whistleblower please come to the courtesy phone?

The fascinating part in this is that it seems like concrete ties are failing worldwide. They don't just crack, but they wear unevenly and the rails separate from them, causing derailment. There's an interesting NTSB report here (.pdf) about a derailment in Washington caused by concrete ties.

It's just amazing that these darn things were supposed to last 50 years and haven't lasted 10.

Don't you read Dilbert? :-)

These things have been around for decades and you'd think they have the engineering figured out - my guess is a manufacturing issue related to the engineering (substituting a cheaper or unapproved product in the mix?) - but purely a guess.