Posted on 04/01/2017 6:10:01 AM PDT by iowamark
Before the week’s headline Supreme Court debate, senators are poised to get the Delta Queen back cruising America’s waterways.
The legendary riverboat has been barred from carrying overnight passengers since an exemption to the 1966 Safety of Life at Sea Act for the largely wooden vessel lapsed back in 2008.
Lawmakers from Cincinnati to St. Louis have pushed for the Delta Queen to get a new lease on life since then, and the Senate has scheduled a Monday evening vote on passage of a bipartisan bill that would do just that...
Sen. Rob Portman, who hails from Cincinnati, remembers the days whwn the Delta Queen was based out of his home city.
“The Delta Queen is an important part of the Queen City’s history. I remember riding on the Delta Queen as a young boy, and I am proud to be a part of the effort to keep it afloat,” Portman said.
The 2017 bill would allow ships like the Delta Queen to restore overnight passenger service in exchange for certain safety improvements.
The exemption lapsed in large part because of Coast Guard skepticism about the vessel’s safety that was shared by the late House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar, who in one debate likened the wooden Delta Queen’s operation to allowing a 747 aircraft to fly without having over wing exit doors.
The vessel was docked in Chattanooga, Tenn., after the loss of the exemption from the boating safety law, serving the city as a floating hotel until being brought to Louisiana for eventual refurbishment — if and when an exemption is restored.
WTF? Why does the goddamned Senate have to be involved in this?
Oh, I thought it was someone who .... never mind.
I put N6 fuel on the Queen back in my St. Paul days.
This is truly an antique.
It's not a question of federal money or subsidies. It's a regulatory issue. The Delta Queen was regulated out of service. It needs to be grandfathered.
One of the reasons for the law for which they are trying to get a federal exemption from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRcTij_ZpFc
There are a long list of other wooden ships that burned with large loss of life including Yarmoth Castle, and Morro Castle.
“Why does the gd senate have to be involved?”
Because the tentacles of government have wrapped around everything we use. I really like going to the john and knowing there’s some federal bureaucrat sitting next to me to ensure I’m flushing with a Washington mandated tank. Mr Trump, make my crapper great again.
Mr. niteowl77
I am wondering if there was not a union issue involved.
When the Delta Queen employed a union crew getting the waiver
was never a problem. If my fading memory is correct, a new company purchased the Queen and took the crew non-union.
At that point all kinds of safety issues were raised and the waiver was pulled.
This makes Marge & Gower feel like dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZprGYcQ-HI
I like the Delta Queen. Sell it to the highest bidder. Government will just...mess it up.
5.56mm
You said it.
Post of the day, AFAIC.
Nobody get forced to ride the delta queen. If something goes wrong, everyone there knows there is a little more risk than a modern ship.
Let people be adults and choose. I thought “choice” was the holy grail today.
I’m humming a few bars of “Proud Mary”.
I had no idea it was an actual steamboat. After reading Life On The Mississippi and the death of Twain’s brother, I won’t be booking. Still happy it’ll be plying the river again.
They let hundreds of families live in huge, three-story wooden apartment buildings, but they won’t let people overnight in a wooden ship?
Mr. niteowl77
They’re just rearranging the deck chairs Doug.
Bump!
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