The track standards set forth in government regulations go from Class I to Class 9. Each higher class has more rigid standards, and allows greater speed. For example, on Class I track freight is allowed 10 MPH, passenger is allowed 15. For Class II, freight may go 25 and passenger 30. And so on.
For track which does not meet Class I standards, there is "Excepted track". This is sub-class I and no passengers are allowed, and no more than 5 haz-mat cars per train.
As you may expect, Excepted track can cover a wide range of conditions. On one hand you could have a proverbial streak of rust, few good ties, excessive crosslevel, you name it. ONCT is at the other end of the excepted spectrum. We have had various tie programs through the years, including a state-funded program a couple years ago which ran almost a half million dollars. Most of the parameters have been met to raise above the Excepted status.
When all was said and done, we discovered some technical defects. In some cases, a good tie was located just outside the prescribed distance from a rail joint. While overall there were enough good ties, the placement was not what the book requires. Let's say you car has a burned out light bulb on a side marker. The car is perfectly safe to drive, but a cop could give you a ticket if he wanted.
So the FGLK is going to install ties as needed on the former ONCT. This will bring the line into legal compliance and will allow upgrading to a Class I - and perhaps higher - category. Unfortunately, these defects are scattered here and there rather than all in one place, so the entire line is being walked and marked as they are located, one here and one there. It's time consuming but FGLK is committed to doing it safely and legally - as ONCT was before it.
A bit more patience and you should be able to ride the line later this summer. Hope this explains it, Otto.
