We've got plenty of typical mainstream news outlet train naïveté happening there. I probably shouldn't have expected any more from them, but...argh.
Albert Linden: These tracks are in horrible shape.
Lesley Stahl: Had you ever seen any other accident? Any derailment?
Albert Linden: Yes, ma'am. It's quite frequent.
Lesley Stahl: It's frequent?
Albert Linden: In the last ten years, there's probably been seven, eight of them. They forgot to flip the switch, and derailed them in here.
Somebody else can jump in here, but this doesn't sound accurate.
Lesley Stahl: The same thing?
Albert Linden: Yes, ma'am. Forgetting to flip the switch.
But how does that connect to the tracks being "in horrible shape"? And does this mean the track has always been dark territory every single time there's been a crash here for the past ten years?
The major railroads – including CSX and Amtrak - each own miles of their own tracks and their trains ride on each other's tracks.
Wow! Whole miles of tracks!
Lesley Stahl: It seems so obvious. It just seems so urgent that it's almost unfathomable that it doesn't get done.
Leslie, I don't think you understand all the technical and practical challenges here.
Lesley Stahl: Why are they so lenient with the railroads? Somebody told us that in his opinion they're captive to the railroad system, to the industry.
What would that even mean here, and what “someone” told you this?
Lesley Stahl: I mean, it's safety. You're, they're, they have people's lives in their hands.
What? The whole reason they were running in dark territory IS TO INSTALL PTC. This is such a crucial and easily discoverable fact!
And there are tens of thousands of miles of trackage in the U.S, and it takes A LONG TIME to implement PTC on all of it. Even without PTC, rail is the second safest way to travel (behind planes) so if America just shut down any track that doesn't have PTC, travelers would end up much less safe.
Lesley Stahl: In your opinion, is train travel safe?
Mark James: No.
Lesley Stahl: Would you put your daughter on an Amtrak train?
Mark James: No. I wouldn't get on one myself.
OK, this is just lazy Amtrak-bashing now. This crash was CSX's fault! It was the actions of a CSX employee that caused it. Amtrak didn't do anything wrong.
And as I said above, rail is the second safest way to travel, so him or his daughter taking a car or bus instead is a much worse idea. Sigh.