Un-be-freaking-lievable.

WASHINGTON -- Amtrak says it must spend tens of millions of dollars to replace defective railroad ties on the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor.
[...]
The ties are manufactured by Rocla Concrete Tie Inc. at a plant inside an Amtrak maintenance yard in Bear, Del. Amtrak said that under the terms of the contract, the supplier must replace the defective ties for free, but won't reimburse the railroad for the labor.
— via ProJo 7-to-7

I love Amtrak. I am a die-hard supporter of rail as the most energy-efficient mass-transit option, and our Federal government's back-of-the-hand treatment since the railroad was formed is unconscionable.

But for crying out loud, this isn't rocket science. This isn't even designing a high-speed system that isn't so grossly overengineered that it wears out its brake shoes and lateral stabilizers. ("Le cochon," as the bilingual builders of Acela dubbed it.) We're talking about freaking concrete here.

Sigh.