Stray current and Richmond rail: An evolving story
Over at Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Cory Crow notes an evolving story by Rad Sallee on Chron.com today.
Apparently, opponents of light rail on Richmond held a press conference earlier to criticize the possible placement of the Westpark light rail line (renamed the University Line, even though that description was nowhere to be found in the 2003 referendum) on Richmond because of stray-current concerns and a 66-inch water line that runs under the street.
The version of the story carrying a 12:36pm time stamp had the following headline:
Rail foes: stray current may harm water line
Later in the day, the story (with the same hyperlink) "evolved" with no warning to readers, and so did the headline. Here's what was posted at 3:35pm:
Metro disuptes rail foes' stray current claims
The spelling error has not been corrected in the latest version of the story, which carries a 5:41pm stamp.
As Crow observes, this probably should have been posted as two separate stories (with their own hyperlinks), since the headlines read almost like a point/counterpoint. The final, balanced story could have been prepared for tomorrow's print editions (and given yet another hyperlink). The Chronicle does some nice work in getting stories to the web quickly, but we have long thought that once a story is posted, any significant changes ought to come in a new story (much as print newspapers once had multiple editions).
On the substance of the claims, METRO really cannot deny that it has been unable to end the stray-current leakage along the Main Street rail line. METRO cannot deny the simple physics of stray current (which can corrode metal over time). METRO also cannot deny that the TMC report indicates that the problem will have to be monitored carefully for the life of the rail line on Main, because of the critical infrastructure in the area. And as Tom Bazan can attest, even getting METRO to produce documents related to stray-current after multiple public-information requests has not been easy (suggesting it is a topic METRO would prefer not to talk about).
Whether you think this relates at all to the infrastructure located along Richmond probably tracks closely with your preference for the placement of the Westpark rail line. That said, METRO's record with regard to stray current issues along the Main Street rail line certainly doesn't entitle the organization to the benefit of the doubt when their PR representatives say, "don't worry, we have considered it and it's not an issue" (or when they idiotically compare the stray-current issue to graffiti).
RELATED COVERAGE: KRIV-26.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/15/07 07:07 PM | Print |
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