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https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-rail-is-stuck-in-the-aol-era-ohio-train-derailment-amtrak-boeing-technology-brakes-norfolk-southern-5a63f15a

Train Derailment Shows That Rail Is Stuck in the AOL Era

Two decades spent on ‘positive train control’ leaves the industry lagging.

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

Updated Feb. 24, 2023 6:44 pm ET

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Jason Riley and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly

In the 1990s, while enjoying a boom in air travel, Boeing was worried. Then-current growth rates combined with the existing accident rate meant a major accident would be happening somewhere in the world every week by 2010. Air travel was by far the safest form of transportation and yet a conveyor of gruesome TV images would send a different message to passengers, employees and regulators. It was a future about which the industry could only say ick.

Boeing might have been more inclined to keep its mouth shut if it did not also see technology and human-factors practices on the horizon that could further reduce the accident rate, to the point where Bill Clinton’s transportation secretary was not laughed at when he proposed aiming for an accident rate of zero.