Free Republic

In an unprecedented move to protect Washington Metro riders’ safety, the entire transit system was closed for a day last week in order to conduct emergency inspections of electric cables. This had to be done, since a rash of fires, fatalities and other breakdowns has raised concerns about the 40-year-old rail system’s continued capacity to deliver safe, reliable service. Currently the Metro Rail fares cover only a portion of its operating expenses. The system is completely dependent on its parent jurisdictions for paying any capital costs. Without state support, the necessary money would not be available. Few events better highlight...

A Hello Kitty themed train has made its debut in Taiwan. The Taroko Express was spotted making its inaugural run on a round trip from Taipei to Taitung on March 21. However, while the journey went smoothly, the fans clearly wanted to go home with a souvenir. Of the 376 customised headrest covers on board when the train set of, only 48 remained by the time the journey came to an end, reported the People’s Daily Online.

California will need to double down on support of the bullet train by digging deeper into the state's wallet and accepting a three-year delay in completing the project's initial leg, a new business plan for the 220-mph system shows. Rail planners have turned their construction plans upside down, attempting to fit the mega-project within the state's limited budget. The 2016 business plan, released last month, shows that the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco rail link has proved to be politically and technically more complicated to build than foreseen in 2008, when voters agreed to help finance the project with a $9-billion bond....

A new transit hub designed to evoke a bird in flight will open next week at the World Trade Center in New York. Its architect called it a 'monument to life.' 'It is a monument of faith in this city and a monument dedicated to the people,' said Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava, 64, of the Oculus, a $4 billion structure that was built around, beneath and above an existing, still-operating subway line. Steve Plate, the chief of major capital projects for the Port Authority, which funded the project, described how the building 'is aligned precisely to allow the sun to...

Authorities are trying to determine why multiple safety measures failed, allowing two trains to travel on the same single-line track and smash into each other in Bad Aibling in Bavaria on Tuesday morning. They are considering both possible technical errors and human failure. At the scene, 40 miles southeast of Munich, a huge crane was brought in Wednesday to start moving away the wreckage from the tracks - a job the German news agency dpa reported would take two days. About 100 emergency workers are helping with the removal. On the investigation front, the German transport ministry said both the...

From 30th Street Station, the train glided northwest out of Philadelphia, tracing the arc of the freeway. Near the old Schuylkill River Bridge, it jogged right, gathering speed, bound for the New Jersey border. Had you been standing anywhere near the tracks, you would have heard Amtrak 188 before you saw it, in the hum of the rail bed and the metallic shiver of the electricity in the overhead catenary wires. And then you would have felt it, in the vibration of the earth: the combined weight of a 98-ton locomotive and seven 50-ton cars, carrying a total of 258...

For almost a decade, transit ridership has declined across Southern California despite enormous and costly efforts by top transportation officials to entice people out of their cars and onto buses and trains. The LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the region's largest carrier, lost more than 10% of its boardings from 2006 to 2015, a decline that appears to be accelerating. Despite a $9-billion investment in new light rail and subway lines, Metro now has fewer boardings than it did three decades ago, when buses were the county's only transit option. The decline suggests that Southern California policymakers are falling short...

CSX Corp. executives said on Wednesday that current pressures on rail cargo volumes are at levels not seen outside a recession. “You have multiple aspects working against you: the low [natural] gas prices, the low commodity prices, the strength of the dollar,” Chief Executive Michael Ward said during an earnings call with analysts. “Except for markets like automotive and housing related, you’re seeing pressure on most of the markets.”

A train filled with passengers that left a station south of Boston Thursday morning without an operator was being investigated as a case of operator error, officials said. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said the runaway Red Line train took off from Braintree Station without its conductor at approximately 6 a.m. Thursday morning.

A passenger train collided with a heavy-duty lorry at a railway crossing in northern Bavaria late on Thursday killing at least one person and injuring several others, German media reported. The train was carrying around 50 people when it rammed into a lorry near Freihung, northeast of Nuremberg late on Thursday evening, several news websites reported. "It hurtled at 100 km per hour (62 miles per hour) without breaking into the truck,"

Infrastructure: California's high-speed rail project will never make its current 2022 arrival time, according to the Los Angeles Times. Doesn't this strike anyone in charge of this costly boondoggle as ironic?...Officials still haven't settled on a route, they're behind schedule in acquiring land, getting permits and financing, and the project faces several lawsuits. Boring on the 36 miles of planned tunnels isn't likely to get started until 2019, the Times notes, and by any reasonable estimate it will take another 7 to 14 years to complete. Even that's probably optimistic, since several parts will traverse known fault lines, vastly increasing...

Authorities say a man talking on his cellphone was killed by a train in South Florida. West Palm Beach police say the man was walking near the Regional Transportation Authority tracks Thursday afternoon when he was hit. The Palm Beach Post reports that witnesses told police the man was hit after going under crossing gates. Police didn't immediately identify the man.

North American railcar orders plummeted the most in at least 27 years as railroads shipped less oil and sand used for drilling, adding to concern over a U.S. industrial production slowdown. Third-quarter orders for new freight cars plunged 83 percent from a year earlier to 7,374, according to the Railway Supply Institute. That’s the biggest decline since at least 1988 and the lowest number for a quarter since 2010. A “healthy” three-month number is 10,000 to 15,000, Allison Poliniak-Cusic, a Wells Fargo & Co. analyst, said in a note Tuesday. Railcar makers including Trinity Industries Inc. and Greenbrier Cos. could...

Four passengers were hospitalized after an Amtrak train derailed over an embankment in Northfield, Vermont, this morning, the Vermont State Police said.

"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...