A disaster like the Metrolink crash was bound to mean calls for change. All well and good; this editorial board took the opportunity to grouse that it's taking too long for the federal government to require--and help fund--high-tech safety backups for rail. But L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has far more lavish plans in store. He got the board to approve his motion pushing for more grade separations, straightening of tracks--both of those particularly expensive fixes--plus double tracking, improved signals and so forth.

Interesting, because Antonovich is also one of the leading voices against Measure R, the proposal to raise the sales tax by a half cent for road and transit projects in the county. So how to pay for all this? By sending a letter to the county's legislators in Sacramento (a place not notably loaded with dough these days) as well as the federal delegation. Taxes are OK, I guess, as long as someone else pays them.