Sunday, June 30, 2013

State Flip Flops On the CNT

First it reallocates routes to private companies because a number of the CNT buses are apparently unfit for our roads. That seemed to have been discovered right after 11 people died recently in a gruesome accident in Soreze. And then workers strike because they feel it's a disguised attempt to privatise their organisation essentially asking why would the most profitable lines be transferred if not to further weaken the company.

Government then u-turns under pressure and hands back the lines. The strike stops but then on Friday Cabinet maintains the reallocation of the routes saying it cannot play with the security of passengers.

Now, isn't that funny? Tolerance for killer buses doesn't seem to be uniform among cabinet members. It would be interesting to find out the safety features of the CNT buses compared to let us say those of the official cars that are provided to Ministers. And about the operational history of each of the buses that the CNT bought over the last 20 years or so. Not bad either if we could be told what exactly was done after the accident in Montebello in 2009 where four people lost their lives.

By the way, how come the state buys sophisticated transport equipment like the Airbus A-340 and then buys crap for the travelling citizens. That too after an early harvest and a bumper crop?

7 comments:

akagugo said...

Ah, slight technical mistake yes, but the speed cameras are already generating 36 millions!

Compare these figures - the year-on-year number of dead for 2012 2013: so, the (speed camera + retroreflective number plate + permis à points) combination is definitely NOT a way of curbing road fatalities.
Suing heroes won't either!

What about starting with the usual suspects, or this proposal for coercing companies to be more pro-active, instead of batt-batté...

akagugo said...

Ah, don't you love this morbid logic?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Pena so versyon odio sa?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Soreze kills again. Isn't there a problem with this road strip?

akagugo said...

Alright, with my limited knowledge of traffic engineering, let's list the risk factors that are inherent to this portion of the the M1:
- a non-standard succession of curves (requires full-on attention of drivers at every millisecond: the natural topography forced that shape in the 60's, but now you have tunelling...)
- a non-standard slope(greater than 2% or 5%, depending on which standard you refer to; same as above for avaialability of new technology)
- triple carriageways (three parallel lanes, with ample room for slalom by F1 wannabees)
- violent gusts of cross-winds (that's a fixed parameter)
- unsteady traffic (thanks to the ill-planned everything that there is uphill and downhill)
- a high allowable speed of 110 km/h uphill and 80km/h downhill(without enforcement in the most dangerous portions: the curves)

Well, under other skies, that portion of road would have re-designed and re-built to a safer geometry if there was such an accumulation of potentially fatal incidents.
But here, nothing will happen. Until and unless these incidents happen in quick succession AND many highly-connected individuals get involved.
So, chicken will grow teeth in the meantime...

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Se byen ki un pibliye sa komanter la dan Forum.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

An 35 banane CNT finn gayn 3 fwa plis bis me 23 fwa plis dimunn? Ki kalite management sa?