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 Want to read what would be a good joke if it weren't true?Well then, here it goes: Emmerich is a small town in Germany, very close to the border with The Netherlands. There's a shack at a railway crossing of a busy street at the outskirts of Emmerich. Since April 2004 there are three men in that shack waiting for a phone call. Whenever the phone rings, two of the men take two red tapes and place them across the street on both sides of the railway tracks to stop the traffic while a train passes in either direction. After the train is gone the men return to the shack with the red tapes and wait for the next phone call that tells them that a train is nearing the crossing. The third man is in charge of controlling the procedure. There are three 8-hour shifts with three men for each shift. Totals 9 men. Is there a barrier to close the crossing? Of course there is... but it doesn't work since April 2004 and it can't be repaired because the model (1960) is too old for spares. Will there be a new barrier to replace the old one. Yes, probably by May 2005 but the bureaucratic process to buy and install it takes some time, you know. So the railway commissioned these 9 men to close the crossing with red tapes every time a train comes. The expense for salaries has up to now amounted to Euros 1,100,000 (about U$S 1,400,000) and, of course, this doesn't include the price of the new crossing barrier. But who cares? The railway company is the DB (Deutsche Bahn), it belongs to the government and the money comes from the taxpayer. So, why should anybody worry to place the railroad in private hands? As I said at the beginning: it's no joke,,, though it looks like one. | ||||
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