Free Republic

Faced with sliding domestic demand for coal, the governor of Wyoming has kept pressing for access to deep-water ports in the Northwest that would allow exports to Asian markets. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead met Monday with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee in Olympia and plans to meet Tuesday with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. "I wanted to get out here and talk to these two governors," Mead said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If there are practical issues as well that we could help work through — everything from train traffic to train congestion, to issues of coal dust...

Federal officials this weekend revealed the train that crashed Tuesday, killing 8, was one of two struck by objects that day. Investigators are now looking into the possibility the doomed train's windshield was struck in the moments before the crash. Amtrak, meanwhile, has been ordered to expand speed-restriction system in area of derailment in Philadelphia. NTSB investigators, however, said Sunday that no communication from the train indicated it had been hit by an object. ...snip EPTA, Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, said there's no indication the object that hit the commuter rail train is related to the Amtrak derailment. Philadelphia Mayor...

MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews said that Republicans “treat trains like Hispanics” on Thursday. Matthews argued that AMTRAK could “unite this country. It wouldn’t be flyover country, it would be one country again. Rail could bring us together. Culturally, it would be the greatest thing. St. Louis would boom, Cincinnati, all those train stops, all those rail heads would be back in business big-time, if we were united by rail, instead of flyover, looking down on the people, the everyday people.”

Reflections on the May 12, 2015 Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia... First Day at School You’re a gym teacher at a new school, in charge of 30 kids in a gym, on your first day at work. You can’t keep your eye on all of them at once. While you were helping a couple of kids improve their free throws at one end, you hear a shout at the other end of the gym; one kid knocked another down. Scenario 1: You don’t know either kid at all, so you objectively ask the kids to all explain what happened. You...

Brandon Bostian, crashed Amtrak train's engineer, reportedly ranted about safety: 'I wish the railroads had been more proactive' BY KELDY ORTIZ , DAREH GREGORIAN The engineer who was behind the controls of an Amtrak train that derailed going around a curve at 100 mph is a lifelong train buff who's written online about the need for better rail safety, it was reported Thursday. Brandon Bostian, writing on website Trainorders.com, criticized railroads for not installing "positive train control" systems to prevent crashes, the New York Times reported. "At any point over the previous EIGHTY years the railroad could have voluntarily implemented...

Thirty-nine minutes into his southbound ride from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, DC, Joseph H. Boardman, president and CEO of Amtrak, begins to cry. We're in the dining car of a train called the Silver Star, surrounded by people eating hamburgers. The Silver Star runs from New York City to Miami in 31 hours, or five more hours than the route took in 1958, which is when our dining car was built. Boardman and I have been discussing the unfortunate fact that 45 years since its inception, the company he oversees remains a poorly funded, largely neglected ward of the state,...

At least five people died and dozens were injured Tuesday evening when several cars of an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia. Train 188, carrying 238 passengers and five crew members, was traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York. Seven cars and the engine of the train derailed in the 2000 block of Wheatsheaf Lane. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter confirmed at least five people died in the accident. "It is an absolute disastrous mess," he said. "Never seen anything like this in my life." Six people in critical condition and more than 40 people with less critical injuries were transported to...

At least 50 people were hurt after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia Tuesday night, according to officials. Read more: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Amtrak-Derailment-Philadelphia--303536331.html#ixzz3ZypyykBM Follow us: @nbcphiladelphia on Twitter | nbcphiladelphia on Facebook

The Metropolitan Council continues to struggle with a marketing problem that just won't go away. The projected cost of extending light rail from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie has ballooned to $2 billion, which would make it the largest public infrastructure project in state history. That certainly would be a lot of bridges repaired and lanes of freeway added. Mark Fuhrmann, the project director for Metro Transit, said the other day that delaying the project could jeopardize federal funding. In other words, if we don't act now, we could lose the government's contribution needed to build the line. The government's share?...

Exactly two months after the latest Warren Buffett-owned BNSF train derailed near the spot where the Galena river meets the Mississippi, resulting in a huge fire and the evacuation of all homes in a one mile radius, moments ago another of Buffett's BNSF oil trains derailed, this time near the town of Heimdal, North Dakota, resulting in the same outcome. According to the Bismark Tribune, the town in Wells County was evacuated Tuesday morning after a train full of oil tanker cars derailed and burned about a mile and half east of here. ... For those concerned that these countless...

A tiny North Dakota town was evacuated Wednesday after a train carrying crude oil derailed and 10 cars burst into flames, local authorities said. It is the latest in a string of explosive oil train derailments that have raised concerns about the large volume of crude moving across America's tracks. No injuries have been reported from the derailment of a BNSF train near Heimdal, North Dakota. The town, which in 2010 had a population of 27, has been evacuated, as have farms near the crash site. "I was in the house at 7:15 a.m. when we thought we heard thunder,"...

Monthly rail receipts of crude oil accounted for more than half (52%) of the crude oil supply to East Coast refineries in February. As U.S. and Canadian production of crude oil has increased, crude supply by rail to East Coast (PADD 1) refineries has grown, displacing waterborne imports of crude oil from countries other than Canada, such as Nigeria. While refinery utilization in Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) 1 in early 2015 has been below typical levels, this still marks the first time in EIA's dataset that crude deliveries by rail have accounted for such a high percentage of...

New safety rule on crude tank cars is coordinated through the US and Canada, likely to increase industry costs. With an emphasis on enhanced tank car construction and braking standards, U.S. and Canadian transportation officials have released a new rule to boost the safety of crude by rail in North America. “Our close collaboration with Canada on new tank car standards is recognition that the trains moving unprecedented amounts of crude by rail are not U.S. or Canadian tank cars – they are part of a North American fleet and a shared safety challenge,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx...

Construction project is believed to be under consideration and is part of proposed extension to link China with Nepal by railChina is considering extending a railway line linking the country to Nepal via a tunnel under Mount Everest, according to Chinese state media. The proposal is the latest in a series of ambitious rail schemes Beijing is reportedly examining. It comes amid scepticism about whether some of the projects will ever get off the ground and at a time of a growing Chinese presence in Nepal, which has caused some concern in rival regional power India. The Qinghai-Tibet railway already...

The growth in oil-train shipments fueled by the U.S. energy boom has stalled in recent months, dampened by safety problems and low crude prices. The number of train cars carrying crude and other petroleum products peaked last fall, according to data from the Association of American Railroads, and began edging down. In March, oil-train traffic was down 7% on a year-over-year basis. Railroads have been a major beneficiary of the U.S. energy boom, as oil companies turned to trains to move crude to refineries from remote oil fields in North Dakota and other areas not served by pipelines. Rail shipments...

Spearheaded by the Senators from Washington_State, legislation just introduced in the United States Senate will finally address the rash of crude oil train wrecks and explosions that have skyrocketed over the last two years in parallel with the steep rise in the amount of crude oil transported by rail. Oil production is at an all-time high in America, great for our economy and energy independence, but bad for the people and places that lie along the shipping routes. Just since February, there have been four fiery derailments of crude oil trains in North America and many more simple spills. More...

At his recent groundbreaking for the state's high-speed train, Gov. Jerry Brown paused while extolling the project to laud the union workers who will build it.. "You've got to put something in the ground," Brown said, riffing on what drives economic growth. "You've got to get these building trades men and women doing stuff. That's what makes America — what makes the world — go 'round." If Brown has his way, the construction workers will soon be doing a lot of "stuff." The governor's final-term agenda is stacked with legacy-cementing projects, including the rail network, a replumbing of California's waterworks...

The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority has wrapped up an initial round of public meetings as part of a feasibility study of north-south commuter rail between Ann Arbor and Howell, a project often referred to as WALLY. But after meetings in Brighton and Ann Arbor, and another one Monday night in Howell, questions still remain about how the service would be funded. Michael Benham, strategic planner for the AAATA, acknowledged it's possible that communities along the line could be asked to pay for the service through taxes, as fares alone wouldn't be enough to cover the costs. He said that...

Light rail is controversial because of its price tag -- the recently finished Green Line linking downtown St. Paul with Minneapolis cost $957 million. Supporters, though, say it's justified along dense routes where it can move many people more efficiently than buses can. <<>> Taxpayers shoulder the majority of the cost. In the metro area, fares account for about $100 million in revenue last year -- about 30 percent of the operating cost of transit. Federal grants play a big role in paying for new transitways and vehicles -- 55 percent of capital costs last year. But federal taxpayers covered...

people need to take some personal awareness of what’s around them,” Kevin Reed of the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department said. “‘How do I get out of the way before the fire department gets here?’” Minnesotans should answer in advance questions such as “what would I take with me?” he added. People living within a half mile of railroad tracks carrying North Dakota oil are in an area officials say is a “danger zone.”