WTOL11: 'Big Boy' draws thousands to Fostoria, but traffic leaves many waiting for hours
What does a train passing through Ohio have to do with national politics? Quite a bit just beneath the surface. Currently Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific are trying to broker a merger that needs federal approval. Guess what two companies were orchestrating the tour? It could be an innocent promotion or patriotism, but my gut says otherwise.
The article undersells how bad the event was. The other day I went all the way to Train City, Fostoria to check out Big Boy, and a planning screw up made the whole thing a mess. Some of this was hearsay since I was idling in a car for hours, but I overheard a lot while cooling off at KemoSabes. The shuttles around the city didn’t actually go to the train, they just went to side events, and you needed a car to get in. It was at a Norfolk Southern facility on the edge of town, with very limited road access. I guess they closed entry access down in the name of safety after they ran out of water.
Predictably, the public reaction to this was not great from what I saw. This is Fostoria "PVC is a good material for rollercoaster rails", Ohio. Fostoria "Build an urban iron triangle of rail", Ohio, Fostoria "We had a living man a judge refused to claim is legally alive", Ohio. Nobody bought that excuse, especially not when East Palestine, Ohio is still relatively fresh in their minds.
Anyway, I was able to catch big boy yesterday near a rural crossing with the intersection where crazy eights happened. Funny enough, it had to emergency break as it was passing us, though that was probably due to some moron on the track rather than corporate misplanning. People were pretty jazzed, but it was for the train, not the companies or the merger. If it does go through, and there is a next administration, I hope they seriously consider rolling it back, or nationalizing the rail infrastructure to operate as an open market, because I have near zero trust in class one railroad companies at this point.
What does a train passing through Ohio have to do with national politics? Quite a bit just beneath the surface. Currently Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific are trying to broker a merger that needs federal approval. Guess what two companies were orchestrating the tour? It could be an innocent promotion or patriotism, but my gut says otherwise.
The article undersells how bad the event was. The other day I went all the way to Train City, Fostoria to check out Big Boy, and a planning screw up made the whole thing a mess. Some of this was hearsay since I was idling in a car for hours, but I overheard a lot while cooling off at KemoSabes. The shuttles around the city didn’t actually go to the train, they just went to side events, and you needed a car to get in. It was at a Norfolk Southern facility on the edge of town, with very limited road access. I guess they closed entry access down in the name of safety after they ran out of water.
Predictably, the public reaction to this was not great from what I saw. This is Fostoria "PVC is a good material for rollercoaster rails", Ohio. Fostoria "Build an urban iron triangle of rail", Ohio, Fostoria "We had a living man a judge refused to claim is legally alive", Ohio. Nobody bought that excuse, especially not when East Palestine, Ohio is still relatively fresh in their minds.
Anyway, I was able to catch big boy yesterday near a rural crossing with the intersection where crazy eights happened. Funny enough, it had to emergency break as it was passing us, though that was probably due to some moron on the track rather than corporate misplanning. People were pretty jazzed, but it was for the train, not the companies or the merger. If it does go through, and there is a next administration, I hope they seriously consider rolling it back, or nationalizing the rail infrastructure to operate as an open market, because I have near zero trust in class one railroad companies at this point.