Letters

Re “Metrolink adds video cameras to locomotives,” Oct. 6

During the last several years, my wife and I have traveled throughout Europe using a variety of public ground transportation -- trains, buses, streetcars.

We never observed a driver texting or using a cellphone. The drivers take their job seriously.

Here, the union’s response was predictable. Cameras an invasion of privacy? This is public transportation. You have no rights to privacy.

Lutz Moeckel

Garden Grove

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The horrible and entirely preventable Chatsworth Metrolink collision should remind us all that rail safety is a top priority.

The threat by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen to sue to remove cameras shows that rail crews are not on board yet with the seriousness of the rail safety problem. Neither is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants us all to believe in a huge construction project for high-speed trains by 2025 using expensive bonds. He needs to start thinking about improvements in trains and public safety that can happen next year.

Bart Reed

San Fernando

The writer is the director of the Transit Coalition.