Free Republic

With everyone distracted by China, skyrocketing crime and inflation, a nonexistent Southern border, and rapidly increasing authoritarianism in Washington, the Islamic State (ISIS) has taken the opportunity to strike again in North America. ... An attack on a transit bus in Surrey, B.C. over the weekend is being treated as terrorism after RCMP national security police took over the investigation.” It seems that the perpetrator, a manifestation of Canada’s deep commitment to diversity and multiculturalism named Abdul Aziz Kawam, was “initially charged with attempted murder for allegedly slashing a bus passenger’s throat on Saturday morning, but prosecutors added four counts...

Two people were killed and five injured in a knife attack on a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg. According to the police, a man attacked travelers with a knife...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Bay Area’s largest transit agency is considering drastic measures to replace its funding model — such as cutting weekend service — as it attempts to resolve the financial instability spurred by the pandemic. BART is looking ahead to 2025, when the agency is expected to fully exhaust the $1.6 billion in federal assistance it received to remain afloat during the pandemic. The funding model for BART before the pandemic relied mostly on farebox recovery, which amounted to about 70% of its overall funding. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the agency responsible for regional transportation planning and financing,...

In Chicago, on just one evening this week, there were three people injured and one person killed in multiple shootings. Sadly, that wasn’t a big enough number to make the headlines outside of the Windy City because it’s really just a typical night out on the town. An increasing amount of criticism has been leveled against the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) because the trains and buses have become some of the most dangerous places to be, particularly after dark. Now, as CBS Chicago reports, the CTA is answering the call for action. But their latest response has been to announce...

(CNN)A federal judge in Florida struck down on Monday the Biden administration's mask mandate for airplanes and other public transport methods. US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said the mandate was unlawful because it exceeded the statutory authority of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and because its implementation violated administrative law.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping order late Friday requiring the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation from Tuesday as the country continues to report thousands of daily COVID-19 deaths. The order, which takes effect at 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares and at transportation hubs like airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations and seaports. The CDC said people violating the order could potentially face criminal penalties, but suggested civil...

The relentless march of urbanization, in the United States and around the world, has been coming for a long time. .. America went from 8.8 percent urban in 1830 to 25.7 percent in 1870, then to a majority in 1920, and up to about two-thirds by the mid-1950s. We were 80 percent urban by 2010. North America has the most urban population in the world. But it is not alone in seeing an accelerating trend. The U.N. estimated that, in 2009, half the world’s population lived in urban areas for the first time in human history. Over 4 billion people...

For decades, politicians who propose and promote big government have done all they could to wean Americans off the convenience and freedom of cars and pack them like sardines into subways and buses, .. the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism ... Fortunes in taxpayer monies have been misspent trying to get people to travel in ways they wish not to, sitting or standing in close proximity to perfect strangers instead of in the private company of their own vehicle with their loved...

There’s a recurring complaint with King County Metro customers: The buses or bus stops smell of human waste. And some customers are losing their patience, sometimes unfairly. “Either you have a serial dumper or no one did anything to address this,” one customer complained. “Sick of it. Clean this [expletive] up, literally.” As a frequent bus user, I’ve experienced some of the same observations on routes 70 and 8. The bus or bus stop can sometimes smell as if it’s been used as a toilet. KTTH and MyNorthwest, through a public disclosure request, poured through over 15,000 complaints filed with...

Westminster-based Knorr Brake Co., which makes brakes, doors and HVAC systems for mass-transit rail lines, will add 200 new jobs over the next six years, the Maryland Department of Commerce announced Thursday. The company will add 30,000 square feet of space to its facility at the Westminster Technology Park, investing $2.2 million. The company built its facility there in 2013. The Maryland Department of Commerce will provide a $700,000 conditional loan through the Maryland Economic Development Assistance Authority and Fund to help the company expand. Knorr Brake currently has 280 full-time employees....

<p>TEB-1 has a spacious passenger compartment measuring 72 feet long by 26 feet wide.</p> <p>Every urban commuter laments the twice-a-day headache of traffic congestion and the often disappointing alternatives that mass transit offers.</p> <p>A Chinese company has officially rolled out one potential solution: the TEB-1, or Transit Elevated Bus. The giant "flying" bus, as some have called it, straddles two lanes of traffic and stands nearly 16 feet tall so that it can pass over cars on the roadway below. While still a long way from mass production, the TEB-1 could one day alleviate major traffic woes in China and other countries with crowded metropolitan areas.</p>

LOS ANGELES -- An elderly man was terrorized on a Metro bus and it was all caught on camera. Another bus rider appears to strike the man and screams at him after the older man accidentally sat on him. The incident happened around 8 p.m. Wednesday near Wilshire Avenue and Vermont Boulevard. "I started filming it for my husband who doesn't realize all the crazy stuff that happens on the bus all the time, and then it got really intense," said Erica Rodriguez, who captured the incident on camera. Rodriguez says she's not really surprised that no one stepped in...

This girl will either be seated legs crossed, back straight, arms folded across her chest, wearing shades covering most of her face, or she will be sitting with her handbag on her lap, white headphones wires going up from inside her bag in to her ears, and thumb typing the life out of her cell phone while appearing engrossed and distracted.

Over the past quarter century, U.S. taxpayers have pumped more than $100 billion in subsidies into the nation's urban mass transit systems. That massive taxpayer investment has paid for urban public transportation systems that fewer and fewer Americans are using. Incredibly, mass transit ridership is lower today--not only as a percentage of commuter trips taken but also in absolute numbers of riders-- than it was in the early 1960s. Despite the low and declining use of bus and rail systems, federal grants for urban transit now appear to be as popular as ever: bills before both houses of Congress would...

The discrimination ombudsman (DO) has asked Stockholm local transport authority, SL, to adequately compensate a gay man after a bus driver ordered him to leave the bus. The man boarded the bus at Danderyd hospital on his way home to nearby Täby when the bus driver is alleged to have said: "Do you think it is fun that I can see your panties?" according to the man's report to the discrimination ombudsman (DO) which has taken up the case. The man explained that while he was not wearing panties, his underwear could be seen just above the waist of his...

Michael O’Leary is focused on Ryanair growth and tackling the GovernmentTHOSE hoping that Ryanair’s outspoken chief executive Michael O’Leary will go quietly into retirement are in for a surprise. While the headlines suggested that 2008 would see his departure, O’Leary has other ideas. “In 2008 I will have done 20 years in Ryanair, I will be 47. I think it is getting closer to the day when I am going to go. Is it going to be 2008? No. It might be 2007 or it might be 2009. I will go when it is a natural time for me to...

A terror plot to detonate a bomb inside a Tube tunnel beneath the Thames has been uncovered by MI5 chiefs, it was reported yesterday. The explosion would pierce the bed of the river, leaving tens of thousands of rush- hour commuters to be drowned or trampled underfoot in the panic as people tried to flee. Blueprints for an attack on the Underground and maps of the tunnels were reported to have been discovered at an al- Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, a Sunday newspaper reported. It is the latest in a series of terror scares. Last week, reports suggested Heathrow...

<p>The Port Authority of Allegheny County hopes to begin construction as early as next fall on subway links to the North Shore and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.</p> <p>The so-called North Shore Connector would route light-rail tracks beneath the Allegheny River to link Downtown with the North Side. The extension to the Downtown convention center would run from the US Steel Tower.</p>