Re: New FRA bridge inspection requirements

Let's say, Ned, that you run a light rail system. Let's suppose that--to save money--your fleet of light rail cars are 25% equipped with ramps or other devices to allow wheelchair access to the cars. Suppose you are operating a system with light rail trains on 15-minute headways. Every other passenger can find a train to board every 15 minutes. The person in the wheelchair will have to wait an hour to catch a train equipped with a ramp. Is that fair, just, and humane? I thought we had this discussion as a society at least 25 years ago (I don't remember the precise date of the enactment of ADA), and it has been long since settled in the courts, accepted by society, and taken as element of doing business today.

The problem with ADA, Ned, is not with the law or its requirements, but with Congress that enacted it and then turned its back without providing a single dime to facilitate its implementation. I work for a school district transportation operation. Very nearly half of our operation is federally-mandated special needs--without a single dime of federal support (we get a few Medicare dollars). We could decide to cancel our school bus operations because of budgetary concerns, and half of our fleet would continue to operate, budgetary crisis or no. I do not for one moment begrudge the services we provide; I think we do a wonderful job of it. It's those unfunded federal mandates that drive me nuts!

Mike