YOUR COMMENTS

The tracks were inspected by the Feds in July of this year.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090701/COLUMNISTS03/307019940
- Brian, Pembroke

What if, instead of several cars of coal, this derailment had impacted a passenger train with several cars of students on a class field trip??
Seems to me that NH is nowhere near ready for passenger rail...
- RB, Litchfield

Mr. Fink's railroad is as big a joke as his airline. Someone needs to keep this man from running any business.
- Kevin, Nashua

- David, Merrimack: Using your position of anti-subsidy, then remove all gasoline tax money paid to subsidize all city streets, all major state highways, all major inter-state highways, all buses, and just about all other forms of transportation in this country; then observe what deteriorating conditions would occur to the no longer public roads. Any remaining roads would then be private and subject to TOLLS and FEES levied by the road's owner. Your use of those private roads would be at the discretion of the road's owner which would mean that you would have to pay dearly and SUBSIDIZE its existence!!
Maybe that scenario should occur, because then we'd see just how much subsidizing effort would be granted by the skinflints who do not want to pay their fair share of the costs of the US's transportation infrastructure.
- Gary L. Kerr, Chichester

I work on Temple St. in Nashua and three years ago a train derailed behind the building. It was there about 36 hours and they sent a crane to set it back on the tracks. Why is the UL reporting that the last derailment in NH was in 2005? Perhaps if it does not cause any inconvenience, a derailment is not reported?
- Shannon, Nashua

What David from Merrimack fails to mention are the huge federal subsidies that make the interstates possible--the fact is that without subsidies, all of our transportation infrastructure is a losing proposition, which is why government has a role in funding infrastructure.
- Michael, Cambridge, MA

Time to take the rails away from Guilford/PanAM/Boston&Maine or whatever the current name for the greedy railroad company is this year.

Mr. Fink has been listed as the richest person in NH. If you need to know how he got that distinction, maybe we could ask the now defunct PanAm Airways personnel that tried to make a decent wage, but were effectively fired instead.

Give the tracks to the MBTA!
- Bill, Candia

Texter, using the highway system is a false analagy. Under your argument, everything that travles on the highway is profitable in some shape or manner? I think that is not the case. The highway system is simply a means that is required where there is no other...let those who feel a need to take commuter rail maybe drive, or take a bus if they need to feel good about being green.
- David, Merrimack

Gary L. sounds like he knows what he is talking about. What he fails to leave out are the huge Federal subsidies that make it possible for the downeaster to operate. Without those subsidies from us, the taxpayer, the downeaster, as most all commuter rail, is a losing proposition.
- David, Merrimack

- Ron of Manchester: YES, cost effective especially from the passenger's use view-point! A passenger can be productive during the commute, if he/she chooses to be, rather than sitting in the twice daily highway parking lot waiting for the cars and trucks ahead to move. Passenger trains normally have no such bottlenecks and the passenger rides in comfort, arrives at work relaxed, and ready to be productive for the boss. Whereas, by commuting by car or bus, the daily commute is often frustrating, slow, and very definitely subject to tension and accidents.
Besides, as another post correctly notes, the highway system in the US is even more heavily subsidized than rail by all levels of government via gasoline consumption taxes. It is actually past due for rail to be on an equal basis with the other forms of subsidized travel.
- Gary L. Kerr, Chichester

Ron, Manchester -- The federal highway system is heavily subsidized by the government, too. The railway system in this country has been neglected to its detriment, even destroyed, for the benefit of the automobile. It's time to revitalize it.
- Texter, Newfields

Pan Am has a bad record for both providing good service to it's customers and maintaining it's trackage. Take a look at the Hillsboro branch that goes through Milford. Way back when Mellon first bought the B+M railroad one of the first things done was to lower all track speeds to lower the cost of maintenance. Deferral of maintenance has been the byword at Pan Am. When they formed the partnership with Norfolk Southern to create the Patriot Corridor that runs from Ayer Mass west to NY and all the tracks west of Ayer Norfolk Southern immediately went to work on the tracks. Numerous slow orders with 10 MPH or less restrictions have been lifted as the rails have been repaired. There is customers here in NH that have to wait an average of 23 to 26 days for cars of their product to be delivered from NY state.

Currently Pan Am has worked on forcing out New England Southern Railroad that supplied daily service to it's customers north of Manchester. Several of the customers will now have their product delivered by Norfolk Southern on a timely manner to an intermodal facility in Ayer Mass where it will be transloaded into multiple tractor trailer trucks and trucked to New Hampshire. The day that the state of New Hampshire announced it was looking at getting "back" rail transit Mr Fink smelled the money and wanted to control all of the apples. As for the train wreck it could easily be a bad wheel axle or a bad wheel bearing but if none of that is found then it could be track spreading that is caused by poorly maintained track. However I'm reminded of the fact that in another paper Mr Fink was quoted as saying "One side of the truck fell off" It appears he had drawn his own conclusions without waiting and by the way I have never heard of "One side of the truck fell off" and I'm a member of the Boston and Maine Railroad historical society.
- Don Armstrong, Henniker

Gary, Amtrak is heavily subsidized by the federal government and could hardly be considered "cost effective".
- Ron, Manchester

You don't need to be an expert to see what condition Fink's tracks are in. Go look. They go up down left and right...it's a miracle this hasn't happened more often. Who the heck inspects these things? It's a safety issue.
- Mel, Nashua

It has been a well known fact for years that Pan Am's (Guilford) rails from the Masschusetts border up to Concord are in such bad shape that speed must be severely restricted to avoid such incidents. Such slow trains cause serious backups and traffic delays at rail crossings in Nashua and Manchester.

Fink and Pan Am refuse to upgrade and improve the tracks, the State and Feds seems unwilling to force them, and in the meantime everybody is inconvenienced while the parties are looking for Federal Money (taxpayer money) to pay for the upgrade that will benefit a private company that refuses to do the necessary work on their own, at their expense.

Since Railroads are considered a Public Right of Way (restricted use), I say tell Pan Am fix them or lose them, because if the taxpaeyrs have to pay to upgrade them, then we own them, and they should pay us to use them.
- Howie Howe, Manchester

John, where did you come up with the 25 million number?

It is irresponsible for Peter Burling to jump to conclusions. He allowed his bias to show in a bad way by making his comments. That's not to say he may be found to be correct, but without specific knowledge of the accident cause, he should have kept quiet.
- Ron, Manchester

Mr. Fink's reputation does proceed him in that his prime directive seems to be to make himself rich and not to care who is hurt along the way. His apparent lack of proper and timely maintenance of the supposed NH Mainline could be proof that he and his philosophy should be replaced by those who run a real railroad as a railroad and not as a real estate company, as Mr. Fink does.
If Guilford/PanAm were ever to be replaced by operators of a real railroad, then both freight and passenger service could co-exist. That condition does occur even in NH and on Fink's tracks, but it took a couple of decades of bickering to make it happen. That arrangement is very cost effective and beneficial for all concerned, passengers and freight alike. By the way, that passenger train is called the Downeaster and run by Amtrak.
- Gary L. Kerr, Chichester

A few hundred billion? I think not.... Commuter rail could return to NH for under 25 Million.
- John Bard, Boston, MA

Seems that Jack is an expert too and must have personally inspected the tracks and found them to be bad. Smart man, that Jack.
- David, Merrimack

Bad Blood? I seem to recall a recent Union Leader/ Boston Globe article regarding Pan Am Rail (Mr Fink) Versus NH Rail (Mr Burling) Both pointing the proverbial "finger" at each other re; commuter rail in NH. Perhaps It may be time to bury the hatchet, and work together, to solve a common problem? Life's too short kids! Why don't we all grow up, and play nice in the big sand box? Oh I forgot, there are millions of Federal Dollars involved! Silly me!
- P Hickey, Campton

This is why we will never see anything other than freight run on Pan Ams rails. They are in such deplorable shape they are total garbage and would cost a few hundrend billion to remove and replace after regrading and rebuilding the rail road beds.
- Jack Alex, Manchester