But Obama is a jerk for wanting contractors to disclose donations, right?

"The penalty shall be capital punishment for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving a bribe for giving a decision."

Some things just don't get better with age, the Romans had it right when dealing with bribery of public officials.

sinschild: "The penalty shall be capital punishment for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving a bribe for giving a decision."

Some things just don't get better with age, the Romans had it right when dealing with bribery of public officials.

In Roman times, when a when a fellow was convicted of trying to bribe a public official, they would cut off his nose, and sew him in a bag with a wild animal, and throw him in a river.

Quick math puts the R&R job at approx $600.00 per tie.
No friggin way.
Each concrete tie weighs 600 lbs. You're talking a crew + crane for each tie at union wages.

Double that unit cost.

Obviously in a system like this the cost of installation labor far exceeds the commodity cost. These ties were sold on the advantage of doubling the time between replacements, but failed at less than half of the normal time for the alternative. Heads should roll. If the state actually negotiated a lesser warranty period, those are the heads to which I refer.

PghThermal: Obviously in a system like this the cost of installation labor far exceeds the commodity cost. These ties were sold on the advantage of doubling the time between replacements, but failed at less than half of the normal time for the alternative. Heads should roll. If the state actually negotiated a lesser warranty period, those are the heads to which I refer.

...assuming they still work at the agency 16 years later, and that what they did was unethical and could legally be punished. Perhaps the company gave a discount for the reduced warranty or the like.

It does look like the (now dead) Congressman butted his head into things, and sometimes lower level government employees will, um, do what the Congressman tells them to do, knowing if they don't they will be fired or never promoted. If any actual bribery occurred between the company and the Congressman, that should be investigated, but the company probably just had a manufacturing plant in his district or the like.

Democracy: The worst system of government except all others that have been tried from time to time.

Paying less than 10% for YOUR colossal fark-up, and keeping the rest as profit?

I think this is being taught in business schools as "The Citigroup Move."

Well played.

The commuter rail is a joke. It is consistently late even with the new and improved railroad ties.

FarkedOver: The commuter rail is a joke. It is consistently late even with the new and improved railroad ties.

Beats driving.

/takes an outer express bus from Burlington
//took the commuter rail to Anderson RTC a few times until I slept through the stop and woke up in N. Billerica

abagdan: sinschild: "The penalty shall be capital punishment for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving a bribe for giving a decision."

Some things just don't get better with age, the Romans had it right when dealing with bribery of public officials.

In Roman times, when a when a fellow was convicted of trying to bribe a public official, they would cut off his nose, and sew him in a bag with a wild animal, and throw him in a river.

[www.fanlistings.org image 262x365]

In Roman times they would also bribe the jury and not be convicted.

In Roman times, they would often go into exile to avoid punishment and pay to have decisions overturned.

If you want to see the roots our litigious society, look no further than Rome.

what_now: "While the MBTA believes Rocla should pay these costs, there is no guarantee a court would agree with the MBTA, Rocla could never afford to pay such a large judgment and would surely file for bankruptcy, a trial and appeals would go on for years and be very costly to the MBTA,"


While I think the T has been criminally mismanaged in the past, I do see where they're coming from here. If they tried to get $85 million, the company would just fold and they'd get nothing. This way, they get at least a little bit of cash.

However this:

In its court filings, the T presented documents that showed the agency asked for bids in 1993 for wooden ties and declined to consider concrete ties because of prior problems. But the T says in its court briefs the bid specifications were rewritten for concrete ties after Rocla officials met with then-US. Rep. Joe Moakley to lobby for his help. The agency rewrote the specifications for concrete ties similar to what Rocla was offering and Rocla won the bid.

absolutely infuriates me. Nothing we can do now, the congressman is dead.

All of this, pretty much. The big downside is this further deepens the budgetary issues the MBTA faces.

FarkedOver: The commuter rail is a joke. It is consistently late even with the new and improved railroad ties.

Depends on the line. The Framingham/Worcester line is a joke.

Low Bid gets you what you paid for.

FiendishFellow05: Depends on the line. The Framingham/Worcester line is a joke.

Kingston/Plymouth or Old Colony Line whatever you want to call it is a joke. It has been since they introduced the Greenbush line. I don't think I've ever seen that line late once. I guess it pays to be from Cohasset or Hingham.

This is why SUPERTRAINS cost fiddy-billion dollars per mile.

/Maybe we should start with regular-speed trains and work out way up.

Railroad Tie

Lt. Col. Angus: Paying less than 10% for YOUR colossal fark-up, and keeping the rest as profit?

I think this is being taught in business schools as "The Citigroup Move."

Well played.

Heh nicely put.

If they can't get the full amount out of the company perhaps they should sue the CEO and other beneficiaries of the contract. If they were party to the knowledge ahead of time that the concrete ties would indeed be more faulty perhaps a prosecution of fraud?

hahahaha oh I crack myself up.

FiendishFellow05: Depends on the line. The Framingham/Worcester line is a joke.

Supposedly will get better when CSX moves. Not sure the timeline, but was listening to a speech recently, said that line is sucky due to the CSX ownership (and traffic on) that set of tracks, but the MBTA is going to own them soon, which will double the # of trains on the schedule for that line.

MBTA thing about it (new window)

/big grain of salt
//also a roman reference?
///first slashies
////weeeeeeeeee

HotIgneous Intruder: This is why SUPERTRAINS cost fiddy-billion dollars per mile.

/Maybe we should start with regular-speed trains and work out way up.

What the hell are you on about? The MBTA Commuter Rail is a diesel-engine pulled commuter train, pretty much standard issue. As far as I know, there are no "SUPERTRAINS" in this country, beyond perhaps Amtrak's Acela.

FarkedOver: FiendishFellow05: Depends on the line. The Framingham/Worcester line is a joke.

Kingston/Plymouth or Old Colony Line whatever you want to call it is a joke. It has been since they introduced the Greenbush line. I don't think I've ever seen that line late once. I guess it pays to be from Cohasset or Hingham.

Can't speak for Cohasset, but Hingham is full of the most obnoxious variety of rich NIMBY's.

I used to ride the Middleboro/Lakeville line regularly - that sucker ran line clockwork. Was almost never late, give or take maybe 2 or 3 times, over the year and a half plus that I rode it.

Rihlsul: FiendishFellow05: Depends on the line. The Framingham/Worcester line is a joke.

Supposedly will get better when CSX moves. Not sure the timeline, but was listening to a speech recently, said that line is sucky due to the CSX ownership (and traffic on) that set of tracks, but the MBTA is going to own them soon, which will double the # of trains on the schedule for that line.

MBTA thing about it (new window)

/big grain of salt
//also a roman reference?
///first slashies
////weeeeeeeeee

Big grain of salt there. And "double" the # of trains on the schedule? Oh, hell no. That sounds like a terrible idea - the aging equipment is a big part of the problem. I know they have new engines coming, but still, that sounds like a bad idea to me.