Innacurate newspaper stories about railroads.

[henry6]

The news media...papers, radio and tv stations....are owned mostly by big investment companies whose' main purpose is to add up the projected sales figure by 4PM so that they can use the overnight money markets to have a tidy sum the next day to use to leverage for more buying of properties and to up their stock prices if not a privately held company.  To do this they consolidate properties and staffs pushing the older and higher paid out while bringing in young and inexperienced, often recruiting off the street rather than from college campuses or move up from smaller markets or within the company.  Supervisors are those who see the writing on the wall and leave to sell real estate or financial advice and stocks.  Those left to do the work are given an 8 hour, Monday to Friday, usually 9-5 job with no overtime allowed and no one to edit or fact check..  Items released to the public either in newspaper or via broadcast stories, are what the reporter has received in his emails or via fax.  He neither has the time nor the ability to fact check so the story goes as received.  He is given a pat on the back and made Assistant Editor or assistant to the Assistant Editor.  Reporters will often have to work more than one paper or station at a time and often, too, especially in broadcasting, more than one market at a time.  Thus the morning news reader at a station in city A may be doing the afternoon newscast in city B hundreds or thousands of miles distant.  Or maybe be doing the 6-9 morning on the east coast followed by the 6-9 morning on the west coast.  So, overall, the news media ownership doesn't care as long as they earn on their investment and those who work the news don't know how to care because they either aren't trained, aren't supervised, or don't have enough time between textings and twitterings. I can say all this after 50 years of being in the business and seeing it taken apart as I have described.

So, as for railroading and railroads, unless you have a reporter who knows railroads and railroading, you're gonna get more "garages for trains" and the other idiocies we see and hear.

[CShaveRR]

Inaccuracies about things pertaining to the railroad are, unfortunately, becoming more common as railroads become less a part of everyday life (for the record, this doesn't apply only to print media).  Do everyday people care about this?

Well, they should!  If they're making erroneous statements about things basic to the railroads, who among us is to say that they aren't doing this about other things less important to us?  Do the media distinguish among utility poles, or is everything a "telephone pole"?  Wouldn't it be terrible if the media were as slipshod with political facts as they are with railroad facts?  Oh, wait...

Having said that, your story about the Michigan Central in Kalamazoo is hilarious, Andrew!  That just indicates a lack of thought about transportation corridors, the easiest places to put tracks, locate industries, etc.  And the people probably have no desire to go deeply enough into the story to find out why things were that way.  (Of course, if there were a commuter-rail station somewhere near this riverfront housing complex, things would make a whole lot more sense!)

One has to hope that they aren't mistaking the current low water levels for reality, too (I'll stand corrected if there are still dams below Kalamazoo on the river).

[rrnut282]

Even though my best friend works there, (also a railfan), about the only time the paper says anything correctly about the RR is how many citations were issued for blocked crossings.

[tree68]

Andrew Falconer

They even say absurd things like the Michigan Central railroad poorly chose their location when they built the tracks and yard by the Kalamazoo River because now it is prime land for riverfront development. 

Why am I reminded of the woman who called into a talk radio show complaining that the "Deer Crossing" signs should be moved to a safer location so not as many deer would be hit when they crossed there.....

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

When you consider the fabrications that were printed in the "Front Page" era, most of today's journalists are still doing a pretty good job. 

[henry6]

schlimm

Schlimm...what do you mean by that?  I am no longer proud to say I am a member of the media because of the lack of understanding journalists have about what's around them...they no longer take time to get the facts or the truth but will take what is handed them and use verbatim.  They do not seek definitions nor history nor do any kind of background research but just pass on what is emailed, faxed, phoned to them or what they are told to say.  Journalism is almost non existent today, has little integrity,  by standards and practices we developed in the latter half of the 20th Century.

[schlimm]

[bn13814]

Springfield, Illinois' State Journal-Register is notorious for sensationalizing railroad issues.

Back in 2009, Union Pacific's line through town (used by Amtrak) was designated for Higher Speed Rail (HrSR). The railroad indicated it wanted some grade crossings closed, a few replaced by overpasses or underpasses. A second main track would be put in to prepare for projected increases in freight and passenger traffic. Present maximum capacity is estimated at 25 freight trains and 15 passenger trains per day.

SJ-R's exaggerations and distortions ("40 MORE freight trains a day," "40 to 60 freight trains a day," etc.) prompted local citizens to stage protests claiming vibration from trains threatens the city's Medical District (which somehow developed with the tracks already in place), delays caused by increased train frequency and danger to motorists and pedestrians from faster passenger trains.

Consequentially, citizens and politicians demanded Union Pacific's so-called "3rd Street Corridor" be removed with trains moving to Norfolk Southern's parallel 10th Street tracks several blocks to the east. Some demanded all rail traffic through town be moved to Canadian National's 19th Street tracks, or even along I-55!

Plans like these are immediately viable because everyone knows that tracks can be moved just like HO scale trainsets and that money grows on trees

[tree68]

We have a similar problem in the fire service - though it's not usually sensationalism that's the issue - it's simple ignorance. 

Some larger fire departments will actually run "mini fire academies" to help teach the press (and others) just how a fire department works.

Back on railroads - I don't know how many times I've had to correct mom or dad on the train when they tell their kids the I (the conductor) drive the train... 

In reality, I do, as I'm also an engineer, but not when I'm the conductor.

[henry6]

Last Friday's paper in Port Jervis, NY called a roundhouse a "garage" for trains and noted that the existing turntable had been removed years ago.  Lionel made great trains, great memories, and even some great railroaders and railfans.  But those who have never left the Christmas tree don't know track about railroads.

[JoeKoh]

big headline in the local paper"Continental water line concerns CSX" the story talked about how a section of waterline could possibly infringe on a RR Row.Problem with the article was that NS(former nkp line) goes through the town.I emailed the editor and they printed a small retraction in the next days paper.

stay safe

Joe

[nik .n]

Sensationalism sells, not the facts.

[Andrew Falconer]

I have read news stories about railroads in my local newspaper the Kalamazoo Gazette over the past 30 years and the writers of the information have never had more than half of the information correct.

They have been in direct contact with railroad employees and still have left out facts or changed them to make the story flow better.

The once printed that there were 96 trains a day based on the fact that somebody once saw 4 trains in one hour. There have not been over 24 trains in a 24 hour day in the past 30 years. The 4 trains an hour was just because there is a double track to single track in Schoolcraft, Michigan.  

An anonomous writer once said that trains have not been on the former PRR-PC-CR track in 30 years, but they never included the fact that the GTW served the paper mill using those tracks until 1996. If they can just gloss over a simple fact like that, what else have they fabricated out of bits and pieces?

They even say absurd things like the Michigan Central railroad poorly chose their location when they built the tracks and yard by the Kalamazoo River because now it is prime land for riverfront development.  They built the tracks there because paper mills were by the river and steam locomotives needed water. The editor of the newspaper did not catch that insane remark.

How many newspapers in the U.S.A. have writers and editors who do not bother to get facts and figures about railroads accurate.  The local newspapers are going out of business, so hopefully no one will belive them.

Andrew