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"Operations across our entire network will likely be compromised by congestion and effectively shut down," warned Carl Ice, the president of BNSF. Widespread disruptions of freight and passenger rail traffic are likely if Congress doesn't extend a deadline to start using certain safety technology before the end of the year, railroads are warning. Freight and passenger railroads have said in letters to the Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., that they won't have the technology — known as positive train control, or PTC — in operation by Dec. 31, the deadline set by a 2008 rail safety law. The...

But soon, there could be something a little different and a lot faster: a high-speed train connecting Palmdale to Victorville, all the way to Las Vegas. XpressWest and China Railway International have put out $100 million to start the project. Not only would it provide a comfortable and fast-way to get to Vegas, but you could avoid the 15 Freeway as well. "The 15 Freeway is murder. Trying to get to Vegas for New Year's or any other holiday, it's like a three, four or five-hour delay," said Brigette Conyers of Victorville. ... He also said the environmental hurdles for...

Cavuto just indicated that there has been a shooting at Union Station in DC.

"Because of the massive overcrowding of trains coming from Hungary, ÖBB has to suspend train services to Hungary temporarily," the company said in a statement. The suspension covers both Railjet intercity trains between Vienna and Budapest and regional cross-border services, it said. It also called on volunteers and bus companies to stop bringing people to train stations. "The flow (of people)... and the large numbers of people waiting at stations to travel onwards has outstripped available capacities since this morning," ÖBB said. The announcement came after 3,700 people crossed the border on foot from Hungary overnight, many of whom were...

A culture official in Poland said radar imagery appears to confirm a story by two men who said they know the location of a mysterious Nazi train that may contain gold or other treasures. Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said Friday he's "more than 99 percent sure that the train is there," but couldn't confirm what was inside the train. ...... ........ The mystery train is believed to be in an abandoned tunnel near Ksiaz Castle, in southwestern Poland. Local legend says the train contains gold, precious stones, art and weapons. The two men who brought the train to the...

Train staff on board the high speed train which was the scene of a suspected Islamic extremist attack yesterday have been accused of barricading themselves in their staffroom and locking the door, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. The Moroccan terrorist was disarmed and beaten unconscious by US servicemen and a British man after he opened fire on a Paris-bound train with a Kalashnikov. Now, French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, who was on board the Thalys train during the attack has slammed train staff who he claims locked themselves in an office away from the attacker and refused to help the...

Two people in Poland say they have found a Nazi German train cloaked in mystery since it was rumoured to have gone missing near the end of World War Two while carrying away gems and guns ahead of advancing Soviet Red Army forces. Local authorities in Poland’s southwestern district of Walbrzych said they had been contacted by a law firm representing a Pole and a German who said they had located the train and were seeking 10 percent of the value of the findings. “Lawyers, the army, the police and the fire brigade are dealing with this,” Marika Tokarska, an...

Shipments of crude oil out of the Midwest region (Petroleum Administration for Defense District 2) to other U.S. regions have steadily increased as a result of pipeline reversals and rail transport. Rail movements out of the Midwest contributed to the region becoming a net shipper of crude oil. Without these rail movements, the Midwest region would still be a net recipient. The Midwest started to ship more crude oil to other regions than it received from those regions for a few months in 2013 and on an annual basis in 2014. The most recent Petroleum Supply Monthly, which contains data...

CULBERTSON, Mont. – A train carrying oil derailed in northeast Montana Thursday, hours after the tracks reopened from another train derailment that occurred on Tuesday in the same county. The westbound train derailed about 6:05 p.m. Mountain Time east of Culbertson, Mont, said BNSF Railway spokesman Matt Jones. The westbound train contained 106 loaded crude oil tank cars and two buffer cars loaded with sand. Twenty-two cars derailed and two of those remained upright, Jones said. The other rail cars were still on the track in the desolate area near the North Dakota and Montana border. Roosevelt County Sheriff Jason...

At 8:10 a.m. on Monday, April 27, the Metropolitan Council released the startling news that the price tag of the proposed Southwest light-rail line had increased by $341 million to $2 billion. Met Council Chair Adam Duininck said in a news release at the time that “all options are on the table,” including not building the line at all. E-mails among Duininck, Metro Transit officials and other political players — including Gov. Mark Dayton — obtained through a Minnesota Data Practices Act request reflect the behind-the-scenes positioning in the days leading to the announcement. The 231 pages of e-mails don’t...

This Week in Petroleum has previously examined crude oil supply patterns on the West Coast, noting the increase in unaccounted-for supply, and then linking the increase to movements of crude by railroad. EIA’s recently launched crude-by-rail data enable a more detailed analysis of emerging crude oil supply patterns on the West Coast. The data indicate that most crude-by-rail deliveries into PADD 5 are destined for refineries in Washington state, and that despite recent delays in crude-by-rail projects in California, refineries in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas are not entirely without access to domestic crude oil from other regions....

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?...