Atlas Twitched

Los Angeles Metrolink officials are criminally negligent dissembling weasels.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand includes a description of a rail disaster caused by fictional analogs of the real-life Metrolink commuter line officials.

It has been well-know for years that the "push" method of running trains is inherently unsafe. Various transportation observers AND the rail union have complained for years about it. But, it is cheaper to run the trains unsafely rather than switch the engines to the front into the normal "pull" method, when appropriate.

Yes, the crazy Mexican suicidal wife-beater drug dealer should not have put his SUV on the track, but a train with the engine in front may not even have noticed it as it ran into it (and through it). But with a lightweight "cab" car at the front of the train, the SUV stopped it while the engine at the rear continued to push, causing the cars inbetween to fold like an accordion, and off the track into other trains.

Atlas Shrugged is the story of the collapse of the United States (and the world) due to rampant stupidity. Los Angeles Metrolink officials are criminally negligent stupid dissembling weasels. The Metrolink CEO said in a television interview that the push mode is not a problem, when obviously there was a problem, e.g., a train wreck.

Who is John Galt? -- Atlas Shrugged