NASHVILLE - A national railroad company is calling a proposed Nashville law "bad public policy" because it would force it to spend nearly $5 million during a recession to repaint a bridge, according to the Tennessean.
But Metro Councilman Jim Gotto isn't backing off his efforts to force CSX Corp. to repaint a rusting downtown railroad bridge over the Cumberland River.
Gotto is closer to passing a new law to fine railroad companies up to $50 a day for not maintaining their property within Davidson County. The bill has passed two of its required three votes; the final one could take place next month.
CSX said it spends $1.7 billion a year on safety and infrastructure repairs on 21,000 miles of track and cannot afford to pay for beautification projects.
The state of the economy and its effect on businesses makes this a bad time "to pass a local ordinance governing railroad aesthetics," CSX said in a document given to the Metro Council last week.
Gotto suggested that the company could have painted the bridge "when they were making all this money in a bullish market," but chose not to.
Under federal law CSX is required only to maintain railroad infrastructure for safety. Local governments cannot pass any laws regarding railroad safety. There is nothing that deals with aesthetics or prevents local governments from passing such laws, though they could be challenged in court.
(This item appeared Feb. 9, 2009, in the Tennessean.)
The state of the economy and its effect on businesses makes this a bad time "to pass a local ordinance governing railroad aesthetics," CSX said in a document given to the Metro Council last week.
But they can spend $60 million on two 30 second commercials that aired on NBC during the super bowl...guess the economy only affects some things....
This RR better learn how to do better PR. They could of made a big deal out of helping that community in giving them what they want instead of being the usual jerkoffs that they are. The idea of hard times when the rr turns in any kind of profit is stupid.
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I started ophph with nuthin, and I can safely say I have most of it left.... <img
