Crossing Gate Issues Plague RTD, Denver Transit Partners Want Out

CBS4 ^ | June 8, 2017

[george76]

DENVER - The future of RTD commuter rail lines may be in question after its private business partner claims there is no solution to a lingering problem.

In a letter to RTD, Denver Transit Partners said the crossing gate timing issue won’t be fixed by the deadline.

Denver Transit Partners is made up of the group of contractors who built and maintain the A Line, B Line and the future G Line. At issue, the crossing gates that must be manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because of a computer glitch.

...

The crossing gate technology does not comply with federal regulations. The gates lower too early and stay down too long.

In the letter, Denver Transit Partners tells RTD that with no improvement in sight, they want to negotiate its contract with RTD and wants to stop being fined for problems that cannot be controlled.

[george76]

RTD = Reason To Drive.

Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)

[Paladin2]

Sounds like BS. Crossing gates are been around for more than a little while.

[laplata]

“RTD = Reason To Drive”.

That’s really a good one.

[thorvaldr]

Your liberal masters want to control every aspect of your life, but they can’t time crossing gates.

[wjr123]

Government. Don’t you love it?

[george76]

Earning while they are learning .

[MileHi]

Gee, have they asked the Union Pacific guys?

[Alberta's Child]

I wonder if these gates are connected to adjacent traffic signals with pre-emption phases that override the normal operation of the gates. These can be complicated systems to operate efficiently.

[Alberta's Child]

One more story to add to the growing mountain of evidence to explain why self-driving cars aren’t going to be happening anytime soon. A railroad crossing protection system is very simple compared to a technology that works on an open highway system.

[alternatives?]

“Your liberal masters want to control every aspect of your life, but they can’t time crossing gates.”

It sounds like the liberal masters running RTD can’t comply with the timing gate guidelines produced by the liberal masters of some bureau of transportation. Some other liberal master will have to resolve the problem by establishing a committee to study the issue and provide new guidelines.

Feel better?

[thorvaldr]

“It sounds like the liberal masters running RTD can’t comply with the timing gate guidelines produced by the liberal masters of some bureau of transportation. Some other liberal master will have to resolve the problem by establishing a committee to study the issue and provide new guidelines. Feel better?”

They have proven frequently that they are too dumb to run my life. So no, until I am allowed to run my own life, without their bullying, I do not feel better.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

My understanding is they’re using new radio-based technology to trigger the gates & flashers for the higher-speed trains and that it’s this technology that is the problem.

I was involved only in the early phases of that project (before it was awarded), but that’s what I understand is going on. There are challenges in trying to implement conventional train detection technology on electrified rail lines.

[Amendment10]

Thank you for referencing that article george76. Please note that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.

"The crossing gate technology does not comply with federal regulations [??? emphasis added]."

Patriots need to get into the habit of checking federal laws, regulations and actions of the unconstitutionally big federal government against the very limited powers that the states have expressly constitutonally delegated to the feds, Congress’s constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited power a good place to start checking.

And if no clause is found that reasonably gives the feds the power to justify an action, then the action is probably unconstitutional.

”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

If I understand this train-related issue correctly, partriots are reminded that the states have never expressly constitutionally delegated to the feds the specific power to regulate INTRAstate train crossing gates.

Corrections, insights welcome.

So if failure to comply with federal regulations on train crossings is the main problem here, then the real problem is that Denver schools are evidently not teaching students about the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers as the Founding States had intended for those powers to be understood.

Note that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Madison generally regarded as the father of the Constitution, had warned patriots to be on their guard against the feds unconstitutionally expanding their powers in subtle ways, train crossing regulations of good example of this imo.

• ”I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison, Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (1788-06-06)

• ”To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” —Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank : 1791

• ”The system of the General Government is to seize all doubtful ground. We must join in the scramble, or get nothing. Where first occupancy is to give right, he who lies still loses all.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797.

Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!

Remember in November ’18 !

Since Trump entered the ’16 presidential race too late for patriots to make sure that there were state sovereignty-respecting candidates on the primary ballots, patriots need make sure that such candidates are on the ’18 primary ballots so that they can be elected to support Trump in draining the unconstitutionally big federal government swamp.

Such a Congress will also be able to finish draining the swamp with respect to getting the remaining state sovereignty-ignoring, activist Supreme Court justices off of the bench.

In fact, if Justice Gorsuch turns out to be a liberal Trojan Horse then we will need 67 patriot senators to remove a House-impeached Gorsuch from office.

Noting that the primaries start in Iowa and New Hampshire in February ‘18, patriots need to challenge candidates for federal office in the following way.

While I Googled the primary information above concerning Iowa and New Hampshire, FReeper iowamark brought to my attention that the February primaries for these states apply only to presidential election years. And after doing some more scratching, since primary dates for most states for 2018 elections probably haven’t been uploaded at this time (March 14, 2017), FReepers will need to find out primary dates from sources and / or websites in their own states.

Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.

Patriots also need to find candidates that are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers listed below.

• “Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

• ”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphasis added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

• ”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

[Paladin2]

Thanks. I was wondering about what was going on during the train rides to and from DIA with guards sitting around in their lawn chairs.

Grade separation was also invented some time ago too.

[catnipman]

“The future of RTD commuter rail lines may be in question after its private business partner claims there is no solution to a lingering problem.

In a letter to RTD, Denver Transit Partners said the crossing gate timing issue won’t be fixed by the deadline.”

so the “deadline” must be “forever” if the “future” of (apparently ALL) RTD commuter lines is in question.

absolutely ridiculously alarmist BS opening paragraphs of this article.

[CedarDave]

From the article:

At issue, the crossing gates that must be manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because of a computer glitch....
The letter states no work has been done to improve the issues with the crossing gates since February.

Each of the dozen or more crossings has two persons, one on each side of the crossing, with a sign that road construction flagmen use that has a "stop" on one side and "slow" on the other. Along with the federal fines, the cost of having manned crossing guards for over a year now has to be taking a big chunk out of their budget.

[alternatives?]

LOL.

[george76]

Our tax dollars at work ( wasting millions 24 /7 ).

2- Buses would have been cheaper.

[CedarDave]

Buses would have been cheaper.

True, but Denver traffic is horrific. I drove up from NM for a convention last July and sat in a jam on I-25 for 45 minutes until I found an exit so I could bail. Surface streets were just as bad as is E-W I-70.