Free Republic

While transit advocates are discussing where to put rail and how soon, a broader debate continues about the wisdom of spending any tax money on any form of rail. Critics say that if passenger rail were practical, private investors would happily build it and reap the profits. They're half right. If profits were to be had, many people would be trying to capitalize. But that's no justification to refuse to subsidize better mobility on corridors where road expansion is impossible or would cost much more than a rail line. The great expense of right of way, the slow return on...

The new coalition government's transport secretary has told the Financial Times that domestic flights will become a "thing of the past." In an interview discussing the government's aviation strategy, Philip Hammond said hi-speed intercity trains will be key to quelling demand for domestic and short-haul European flights. The government has already blocked plans for new runways at the country's three largest airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, and instead wants to focus on developing a high-speed rail network between London, northern England and Scotland. The airlines are hardly panicking yet though, noting that it takes decades to build such rail networks....

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland plans to build a long-awaited intermodal transportation center near the lakefront to link the new medical mart, convention center and Flats east bank redevelopment. The center, north of the east edge of Mall C, would serve rail passengers, motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists. It would likely extend over railroad tracks to just south of the Shoreway and include walkways to the mall and North Coast Harbor, city Planning Director Bob Brown said Tuesday. Along with hosting a new Amtrak station that would be a stop on the proposed high-speed rail line between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, the...

LONDON – The volcanic ash cloud that's closed European airports in recent weeks is changing travel habits, leading to a surge in rail and ferry bookings. Richard Branson's Virgin Trains is reporting increased demand on its London-Scotland route. Channel Tunnel rail company Eurostar says summer sales are up, and ferry operators Stena Line and Irish Continental Group say that recent gains in bookings are more than a blip. The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano on April 14 grounded 100,000 flights in six days, costing airlines $1.7 billion in sales, figures show. Further bursts have closed airspace across parts of Europe....

SNIPPET: "08:20 GMT, April 2, 2010 defpro.com | The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the none-militant Somali Islamists Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a, which has ties with Somali government, have warned of simultaneous terrorist attacks by al-Shabaab militants in Mogadishu and in some neighbouring states including Kenya and Djibouti. The spokesman for the moderate Islamist group, Sheik Abdullahi Sheik Abdurahman Abu Yusuf, said in a press conference in the central Somali town of Dhusamareeb late Thursday that his intelligence services have gained reliable information that al-Shabaab are in the final preparations of planned terror attacks which will be...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2010 – The United States recently donated a number of water trucks, field artillery cannon and patrol boats to the Pakistani government, according to U.S. State Department news releases. The United States donated five fast-patrol boats to Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency at the Karachi shipyard Feb. 13, 2010. The U.S. government also recently donated field artillery and water trucks to the Pakistani military. The U.S. government is set to donate four more fast boats to Pakistan later this year. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Four water trucks were provided to the Pakistani Army’s special...

2009 Blessing of the Fleet The 41st annual “Blessing of the Shrimp and Pleasure Boat Fleet” will be held Sunday May 3, at 2:00 on the Clear Creek Channel, along the Kemah Boardwalk. Colorfully decorated shrimp boats and pleasure craft will file past the Cadillac “Authentic Mexican Restaurant” where they will be blessed by the officiating priest and minister. Hurricane Ike took a devastating toll on our area especially the local shrimpers.  Their livelihood was directly affected and many have yet to recover.  Therefore, our main focus this year will be to help them in their recovery efforts.  Bring...

SNIPPET: "Israeli naval patrol identifies Palestinian fishing boat moving towards Israel; boat, apparently unmanned, explodes as it nears coast; no injuries, damage reported. IDF sources believe incident was botched terror attack" SNIPPET: "A Palestinian fishing boat exploded as it neared the Israeli coast from the direction of Gaza. IDF sources estimated that the booby-trapped boat was activated by remote control and meant to explode near an Israeli Navy vessel or a coastal community. A naval patrol followed the boat for about an hour and spotted no people on board. As it was several hundred meters off the Gaza shore and...

04/13/2009 SNIPPET: "A home-made fire-bomb exploded at 3:25 a.m. at the KAPA Marines showcase, and the ensuing fire quickly spread throughout the two land plots where the company's pleasure craft are on display, totally destroying or causing extensive damage to more than 20 boats." SNIPPET: "Police bomb disposal experts are investigating the site, and have so far come up with two propane canisters."

For three days in September, an ordinary-looking cargo ship traveled up and down Norway's Oslo Fjord. Few casual observers would have guessed that the 272-foot (83-meter) -long vessel was gliding on a carpet of air.

SNIPPET: "The fire was reported about 11:23 p.m. Thursday by someone who called 911 reporting flames coming from the covered slips at the Halls Crossing Marina, a remote part of Lake Powell on the Kane/San Juan County border. National Park Service firefighters from all over responded, some flying up from Page, Ariz., to help. Photographs provided to the Deseret News showed boats engulfed in flames and burned out hulls floatingon the water. There were more than 150 boats moored at the marina — firefighters saved about 130 of them." SNIPPET: "Anyone with information on the fire is asked to call...

Print By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Ramola Talwar Badam MUMBAI, India – The gunmen who attacked Mumbai set out by boat from the Pakistani port of Karachi, then later hijacked an Indian fishing trawler that carried them toward this financial capital on their suicide mission, a top police official said Tuesday. As evidence of the militants' links to Pakistan mounted, Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Ghafoor said ex-Pakistani army officers trained the group — some for up to 18 months — and denied reports the men had been planning to escape the city. "It appears that it was a suicide attack," Ghafoor...

<p>An annual parade of boats on a Long Island river that dropped "Christmas" from its name has apparently lost lots of supporters.</p> <p>About 1,000 people showed up Sunday for the Patchogue (PACH'-awg) Boat Parade of Lights. That's 500 fewer than usually showed up when it was called the Patchogue Christmas Boat Parade.</p>

(The high price of fuel has boating enthusiasts spending more time anchored and less time with the motor running) Down on the boat docks, fishermen and weekend sailors are getting keeled by high fuel prices. Marina gas generally sells at about 50 cents a gallon more than auto fuel. By the peak of the power-boating season, in July, boaters could pay nearly $5 for a gallon of fuel that in some cases lasts only a few miles. Even now, a few hours of fishing on Lake Michigan costs George Artka several hundred dollars in fuel. He keeps his 39-foot power...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2008 – Three U.S. Navy vessels took evasive actions after five Iranian boats buzzed the ships transiting the Straits of Hormuz yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today. Speaking to Pentagon reporters, Whitman called the Iranian provocation “a serious incident.” The fast Iranian boats approached at “distances and speed that showed reckless, dangerous and potentially hostile intent,” he said. The incident lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, he said. The Navy ships were going into the Persian Gulf when the Iranian boats confronted them. “Small, Iranian fast boats made some aggressive maneuvers against our vessels and indicated...

IMMOKALEE, Fla. -- From a distance, the brown object near the bank of Lake Trafford looks like a log, or maybe a big alligator. Close up, though, it becomes identifiable as a large section of a dugout canoe, possibly more than 1,000 years old. As lake levels have dropped during the ongoing drought, normally submerged areas have become dry. Ten canoes, long buried in the sand, have been exposed. Click here to find out more! "They started showing up a couple of months ago, but I wanted to verify what they were," said Ski Olesky, owner of the Lake Trafford...

August 9, 2007 -- Lost in a fog so thick and dark that they might well have been in the belly of Jonah's whale, six Hasidic fishermen drifted off the eastern end of Long Island for 14 hours before they were finally rescued early yesterday. Throughout the damp night, two of the men, who'd gone on the trip wearing only their bathing suits, kept warm by sharing the traditional Hasidic garb in which their four pals were dressed. "It was very frightening. We were just afraid of the unknown," said Levi Kirschenbaum, 22, a Brooklyn resident.

Swedish boaters may soon need to pass a 'driving test' before taking to the seas. Should a forthcoming government proposal gain acceptance the new requirement will apply to boats that are over seven metres long and/or have a top speed of at least ten knots. "Between 200,000 and 250,000 boat owners may need to take the driving test," said Lars Högdahl from the Ministry of Enterprise. A generous set of transitional rules may however soften the blow. Seasoned boaters with many years of documented experience will for example be eligible for a licence without needing to first pass a test....

Storm-battered and abandoned in winter, Sweden’s harbor-side restaurants come alive in the summer. But two million boat lovers’ thirst for good food and seaside relaxation means tough work for the seasonal restaurant owners.

RVs -- or trailers, auto or trailer coaches -- cannot be stored for more than 48 hours in the home's "setback" area. That's basically the driveway or any spot between the sidewalk and the front of the house. That's city ordinance 15.140.020. Break the city's 48-hour rule and you could get a $100 ticket. ... If a person really is loading or unloading the RV for a trip, officials may give him some extra time, Fernandez says. But, he says, you can't keep putting things in and taking things out. "You can technically load and unload ad infinitum," he says....