Author: Ian Savage
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146155571X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.
The Economics of Railroad Safety
Author: Ian Savage
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146155571X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146155571X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.
Railroad Safety
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 92
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 92
Book Description
Railroad Safety
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Railroad Safety
Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad accidents
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad accidents
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Book Description
Railroad Safety
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Hazardous Materials
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad accidents
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad accidents
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
Railroad Safety
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation and Aeronautics
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
FRA Railroad Safety Program
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad law
Languages : en
Pages : 96
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad law
Languages : en
Pages : 96
Book Description
Railroad Safety
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
Railroad Safety Programs
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad accidents
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroad accidents
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Book Description
Death Rode the Rails
Author: Mark Aldrich
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801894022
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
For most of the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, railroads dominated American transportation. They transformed life and captured the imagination. Yet by 1907 railroads had also become the largest cause of violent death in the country, that year claiming the lives of nearly twelve thousand passengers, workers, and others. In Death Rode the Rails Mark Aldrich explores the evolution of railroad safety in the United States by examining a variety of incidents: spectacular train wrecks, smaller accidents in shops and yards that devastated the lives of workers and their families, and the deaths of thousands of women and children killed while walking on or crossing the street-grade tracks. The evolution of railroad safety, Aldrich argues, involved the interplay of market forces, science and technology, and legal and public pressures. He considers the railroad as a system in its entirety: operational realities, technical constraints, economic history, internal politics, and labor management. Aldrich shows that economics initially encouraged American carriers to build and operate cheap and dangerous lines. Only over time did the trade-off between safety and output—shaped by labor markets and public policy—motivate carriers to develop technological improvements that enhanced both productivity and safety. A fascinating account of one of America's most important industries and its dangers, Death Rode the Rails will appeal to scholars of economics and the history of transportation, technology, labor, regulation, safety, and business, as well as to railroad enthusiasts.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801894022
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
For most of the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, railroads dominated American transportation. They transformed life and captured the imagination. Yet by 1907 railroads had also become the largest cause of violent death in the country, that year claiming the lives of nearly twelve thousand passengers, workers, and others. In Death Rode the Rails Mark Aldrich explores the evolution of railroad safety in the United States by examining a variety of incidents: spectacular train wrecks, smaller accidents in shops and yards that devastated the lives of workers and their families, and the deaths of thousands of women and children killed while walking on or crossing the street-grade tracks. The evolution of railroad safety, Aldrich argues, involved the interplay of market forces, science and technology, and legal and public pressures. He considers the railroad as a system in its entirety: operational realities, technical constraints, economic history, internal politics, and labor management. Aldrich shows that economics initially encouraged American carriers to build and operate cheap and dangerous lines. Only over time did the trade-off between safety and output—shaped by labor markets and public policy—motivate carriers to develop technological improvements that enhanced both productivity and safety. A fascinating account of one of America's most important industries and its dangers, Death Rode the Rails will appeal to scholars of economics and the history of transportation, technology, labor, regulation, safety, and business, as well as to railroad enthusiasts.