(The following editorial appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on March 26.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Ever since Texas and Pacific Railroad surveyors laid out the original Arlington, there’s been an ongoing, 128-year train-and-town relationship. The association has been mostly harmonious, with a gripe about nighttime horns here, a grumble about rough road crossings there.
But excluding the 1885 derailment of T&P’s Engine No. 642 at a flooded-out bridge at Village Creek, there were few safety concerns about the many trains traveling through the city daily.
For more than a century after the 1885 accident, the only other derailment involved a relatively minor problem off the main track in a switching area of the Great Southwest Industrial District.
But a series of three derailments in the city during the past five years poses reason for concern.
The first took place in late 1998 — investigators citing the cause as inadequate maintenance. The second occurred in December 2002. Again the problem involved a short section of track in the same general area and, again, an apparent maintenance problem. That derailment left a rail car dangling over Texas 360 and closed down the freeway for several hours.
A third derailment took place in Arlington this month — the problem this time being cited as a communication problem involving a remote-control system.
All of this could, of course, be coincidence. It could well be that the rail system will function flawlessly for the next century.
Or maybe not.
The idea of a 100-car train loaded with hazardous chemicals having an accident in the middle of a city — itself with 375,000 residents — in the midst of the Metroplex is at the very least an unsettling possibility.
At this juncture, the current track record, so to speak, isn’t impressive.
It’s time for Arlington leadership to insist that a higher level of public safety be assured