Sacred Cods and Holy Mackerals

This story should be infuriating to everyone.

Basically, a Denver company promised that its concrete railroad ties would last twice as long as traditional wooden ties. Instead, they lasted half as long.

Turns out the whole Northeast freeze-and-thaw cycle is pretty tough on concrete! Who knew!

Here’s the worst part: the company has spent so much money fixing problems elsewhere such as New York’s MTA anmd the Long IslandRailroad, the company says it will file for bankruptcy if the MBTA tries to make it pay too. Nice. God bless corporate accountability.

So the MBTA is now forced to shut down non-rush hour service between Middleboro and Bridgewater for two weeks while they rip out the old ties and replace them. And this is just the start, because there are similar problems elsewhere on the Middleboro line, as well as along the Kingston/Plymouth line. (Don’t worry Greenbush riders, this won’t be a problem for you for at least a few years.)

 Don’t worry…it will only cost the MBTA $100 million to fix.