WHY CAN'T WE GET BETTER TRANSPORTATION WRITERS?

Florida's Brightline will be resuming scheduled train operation.  That's good news, but check out the misleading sub-headline in the story.  "The passenger rail service, linked to an unusual number of deaths, suspended operations in March 2020." No, the trains were not a coronavirus vector.  The linkage, also, is suspect, but you have to read way down for the clarification.

Brightline is completing several projects to address safety issues that arose soon after its bright yellow trains began zipping through densely populated South Florida at speeds up to 79 miles an hour.

A 2019 Associated Press investigation documented that its trains killed more pedestrians and car drivers per mile than any railroad in the country. The 45 deaths prior to Brightline suspending service translates to one death for every 31,000 miles.

Most of the deaths have been by suicide. The rest were drivers and pedestrians trying to beat the train by going around guardrails or running across the tracks.

None of the fatalities was deemed to have been the fault of Brightline engineers or trains, but the crashes have had a psychological impact on crew members. Several have been involved in multiple fatalities.

If only journalists on the railway beat would read Cold Spring Shops.  We've also called attention to the anguish dub drivers and suicidal pedestrians cause the engineers.

All the misinformation in that article does is make people less willing to ride trains, or to provide public money for railway infrastructure that is often more productive than the usual roads, bridges, airports, and waterways.