Every year, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) gives out awards to various transit agencies that make no sense at all, unless the purpose of the awards is to give the agencies political cover for their screw ups. Last week, APTA gave a safety award to Virgin Trains (formerly known as Brightline).
Brightline/Virgin trains in Florida have killed 22 people since they began operating in late 2017, including several since the name was changed from Brightline to Virgin earlier this year. Virgin claims the accidents aren’t its fault; people are simply trespassing on its tracks. But if you put a dangerous animal, or a dangerous machine, in an urban environment, you can’t claim innocence when people are hurt or killed because they failed to avoid your danger.
APTA’s award to Virgin says that the company created a “mobile barbershop situated in a see-through container on the back of a truck” and took it to low-income neighborhoods, giving free haircuts to anyone promising not to play on the train tracks. Yet, amazingly enough, people are still getting hit by Virgin’s trains. Continue reading
