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Florida is right now at the vanguard of a new railroad project that could bring good news to those that care about solving bloated state budgets, common sense employment laws, and cutting the corruption that comes with unions by pushing for a non-union workforce with its proposed intrastate rail system. And the unions are incensed, naturally... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway upped its stake in Burlington Northern yesterday, paying about $26 billion for the rest of the big railway system. Is the purchase all about playing with trains? Not really. Buffett said it's a bet on the U.S. economic recovery, that moving goods around will surge when things pick-up again. It's also seen by some as a big bet on coal. B&N's system goes through Wyoming's Powder River Basin, which is the primary source for a lot of the low-sulfur coal many U.S. power plants rely on these days to keep down their emissions (including the W.A....

You might think that Warren Buffett's $34 billion bid for the rest of Burlington Northern Santa Fe ( BNI - news - people ) is the most eye-catching investment decision of the day. While the Oracle of Omaha's bullish bet on America is hardly insignificant, I would like to direct your attention half a world away and ostensibly in a different investment medium: spot gold. India's central bank bulked up that nation's gold reserves by 55% with the purchase of $6.7 billion worth of gold from the International Monetary Fund, which is selling gold reserves to raise funds for lending...

U.S. rail hauls of metal cargoes reach highest level yet in 2009 A traffic recovery for large U.S. railroads picked up steam in the week ending Aug. 1, adding to signs that freight demand may be on a sustained climb from recession lows. The Class I carriers and a few regionals that report to the Association of American Railroads said their U.S. operations carried 274,728 bulk carloads, up nearly 800 from a week earlier. Train hauls of intermodal boxes, containers and trailers combined, hit 193,332 units for a gain of about 350. From the same week in 2008, carloads were...

The Government has nationalised the East Coast main line after stripping National Express, the troubled bus and rail operator, of the franchise. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, said he had been forced into the drastic move to "ensure continuity of service to passengers, with no disruption or diminution of service standards". The struggling transport group reported on Wednesday that Richard Bowker, its chief executive, had quit and it warned on profits in a trading update. Lord Adonis, speaking on the BBC Today programme said: "I am simply not prepared to bail out companies that are unable to fulfil their commitments....

The odds that the federal government will ever get its hooks out of Chrysler or General Motors are slim to none, regardless what President Obama says. Why? In one word, Amtrak. There are reasons why Chrysler and General Motors are failing, and they have nothing to do with hard luck. Both companies are top-heavy, paying more for union labor (and retirees) than their competitors and, since the 1970s, have turned out cars that consumers want in dwindling numbers. The Big Three (that includes Ford) have higher costs and have gotten an image as lower quality than some foreign competitors. Toyota...

Book a train from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, and you’re in for a ride that takes 17 hours, 35 minutes. Given the choice between that and a two-hour plane trip, it’s little wonder that most Washingtonians prefer to fly, despite the security searches and the long lines at Reagan National. It is also little wonder that some airlines still make money, whereas Amtrak, America’s near-monopoly provider of inter-city passenger rail service, requires huge annual subsidies. But what if inter-city train service became much faster? President Obama wants to offer Americans such an option, and to that end he has promised...

Other than that Christmas Eve flight hauling gifts around the globe, perhaps there's no run more anticipated these days than the one set to start about two weeks from today. "This is the hottest ticket in town for the holidays, buddy," Lawrence Rael of the Mid-Region Council of Governments said. "Even Santa wants a ride." Mark your calendars: The Rail Runner Express commuter train's inaugural public run into Santa Fe is tentatively set to take place Friday, Dec. 12, with Wednesday, Dec. 17, expected to be the actual start of scheduled commuter service to and from the capital city. Thus...

One has to wonder what the DHS has been doing for the past 7 years. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20200234&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Corp. is taking a different approach to the government. For years, the railroad industry wanted to keep government out of its affairs. But an increase in advertising by CSX (NYSE: CSX) and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) is an attempt to make voters and policymakers aware of rail’s benefits, said Anthony Hatch, a New York City-based transportation analyst. “The industry had been going through the pains of deregulation and was trying to do as much as they could to be ignored by the government,” he said. “That began to change over the past decade as railroads...

History tends to repeat itself in more ways than one. Wichita Falls historian and author Steve Goen has again been asked to give a presentation at George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at the Texas A&M campus at College Station Nov. 22. This will be his second appearance at the library. Goen’s presentation, “The Katy Railroad — Our State’s Original Trans-Texas Corridor,” will showcase the evolution of transportation along the Blackland Prairie in Central Texas. “Gov. Rick Perry and politicians in Austin are pushing for a superhighway with a railroad running through it,” Goen said. “There’s a lot of resistance...

3rd Suspect Nabbed in Subway Terror Plot By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer 51 minutes ago The investigation into an alleged plot to bomb the city's subway moved forward on several fronts Friday as a third suspect was arrested in Iraq and authorities looked into whether a fourth person had traveled to New York as part of the scheme, officials said. A law enforcement official familiar with the case said the man's trip to New York was described by an informant who had spent time in Afghanistan and proved reliable in past investigations. "He's been a source of multiple correct...

COLFAX, Calif. -- A train carrying non-hazardous chemicals derailed in northeast California and was partially suspended over a steep cliff Sunday night. One of the train's 73 cars hung over a drop known as China Wall in a rural area away from people and homes, said Placer County Sheriff's Captain Rick Armstrong. No one was injured and authorities said the rail car was not in danger of falling. One of the six cars that derailed contained non-hazardous byproducts and two were carrying an ammonia sulfate powder that is not dangerous by itself, Armstrong said. The Burlington Northern & Santa...

CRESCENT CITY, Fla. (April 20, 2002 7:34 p.m. EDT) - Investigators said Saturday that two Amtrak engineers and a conductor hit the emergency brakes just seconds before a train derailment that left four people dead and more than 150 injured. The lead engineer of the Amtrak Auto Train told the National Transportation Safety Board that he saw a disjointed track about an hour into a trip from Sanford to Lorton, Va., and slammed on the engine's brake. Seconds later, a backup engineer in the locomotive cab and a conductor two cars back felt the train hit the disjointed track and...

Local report just heard on the top of the hour update.Anomaly: 1. Deviation from the normal or common form or rule. (syn anomalousness)2. A person who is unusual (syn. unusual person) Source-Word Net 1.6 1997 Princeton University

Click on the link to view the Beijing to Tianjin High Speed Rail link The Chinese are really up to something.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2008 – Union Pacific is a company that is proud of its strong ties with the military. Hundreds of thousands of Civil War veterans helped build the first transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, which was considered vital to national defense. During World War I and II, the railroad canteen in North Platte, Neb., was a resting place for many troops on their way overseas. Union Pacific’s partnership with the military continues today and, in some respects, is stronger than ever, said Roy Schroer, assistant vice president of human resources. Of the company’s more than 50,000 employees, more...

Melanie Allen has been "scared to death" this week knowing her son was scheduled to begin a risky escape from the country of Georgia, where Russian troops are poised for further invasion. Lee Allen, 34, and his Georgian wife, Tiko, were to have become part of a caravan fleeing the war-torn country. It may be days before Melanie Allen learns if the couple made it out safely. She was at her Ocean Springs home Tuesday night with friends who are supporting her. -----snip On Monday, four days into the fighting as Russia seized several towns and a military base deep...

"...Bombardier's team was stumped. Europe is a mishmash of disparate rail systems that predate the European Union, back when governments banked on the incongruity "to protect themselves from invading armies and competition from foreign industries," says Oliver Sellnick, director at the International Union of Railways in Paris. While the European Union has managed to unify most of the continent on everything from a common currency to farm policy, combining railroads hasn't been easy. Traveling by train from one country to another has long required coordination with multiple national railways. Drivers and locomotives, for instance, are changed at the borders for...

WASHINGTON — This is not your economy. It's not even your parents' economy. To a surprising degree, this is your great-grandparents' economy. Quietly, while attention has focused on the technology, finance and service sectors, businesses that stood astride 19th century industrial America but then collapsed have been resurrected to meet the needs of a feverishly industrializing world. In the process, much of what Americans think they know about their economy is being upended. Steel makers, railroads, mining concerns and agriculture, long considered part of a fading past, suddenly have bright futures. And segments of the economy long lauded as the...

Want to invest in a green industry that employs the latest technology, reduces U.S. oil consumption and is priced very attractively? Look no further than the railroads. Laggards for decades after the 19th-century boom ended, they're hot again. "There was steady traffic growth until last year, and the trend looks good once the economy gets back up to speed," says Kenneth Kremar, an economist who follows the railroad industry for consulting firm Global Insight. Perhaps that's why railroad stocks have largely escaped the battering that other sectors have taken so far this year. Of course, their business could still be...

Germany has come up with the funds to launch its first magnetic levitation - or maglev - rail service. The state of Bavaria is to build the high-speed railway line from Munich city centre to its airport, making it Europe's first commercial track.

The state faces "a perfect storm" as far as paying for transportation infrastructure is concerned... With that in mind, it only makes sense for the state to divert scarce transportation dollars from the proposed Rail Runner extension to Santa Fe and plow those dollars into road construction and maintenance. [While] Rail Runner's projected total cost is $400 million, those costs are not evenly-distributed. Phase I of the project from Belen to Bernalillo, which is now in service, cost $135 million. The Bernalillo-Belen segment of the proposed RailRunner route is approximately 51 miles long— more than half of the system's proposed...

Eurostar has set a record on its inaugural journey from Paris to London via a new high-speed line in Britain. The train, carrying journalists and VIPs, arrived at St Pancras, instead of Waterloo, for the first time. It took two hours, three minutes, 39 seconds.

Congo train crash kills at least 100: government By Joe Bavier A train crash in a remote part of Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 100 people and injured more than 200, the central African country's minister of information said on Thursday. "We are still discovering the dead. So right now we are putting the death toll at about 100," Toussaint Tshilombo told Reuters, adding that the cause of the crash was still unknown. "It happened late last night, so we haven't had time to look into how it occurred. But we are sending a team tomorrow, and we...

Switzerland has opened the world's longest rail tunnel on land - the 34-kilometre (21-mile) Loetschberg tunnel under the Alps. It will cut the journey time between Germany and Italy by at least a third.

WASHINGTON - The Capitol Limited, an Amtrak train from Chicago, is scheduled to arrive in Washington every day at 1:30 p.m. But frequent rider Edda Ramos knows better than to make plans for the afternoon or evening. She knows a late arrival — sometimes by an hour or two, sometimes by seven or eight — "is the one thing you can count on." The 764-mile route is among Amtrak's most dismal performers, with just 11 percent of trains arriving within 30 minutes of their scheduled time last year. But the problem exists to one degree or another on the majority...

Phil Maymin, the Libertarian candidate in the Fourth Congressional District, doesn’t want voters to flush away their ballots this November, calling a vote for a Democrat or a Republican a “waste.” “If you’re unhappy with the course the country has been taking for the past 10 years, you have to realize that the Democrats and Republicans have made this mess,” he said at a meeting with reporters and editors from Hersam Acorn Newspapers Thursday, September 7. Mr. Maymin, a Greenwich hedge fund manager, is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Christopher Shays, and Diane Farrell, the Democratic challenger. Just added to...

Transportation pick headed highway administration when it investigated rail company President Bush's nominee to replace Norman Mineta as secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, presided over the Federal Highway Administration when the agency shut down criminal and civil investigations of CSX Transportation regarding fatal railroad-crossing accidents, according to a former employee of the rail company. Dave Nelson alleged to WND that the CSXT investigation was shut down by the Federal Highway Administration while John Snow, formerly CEO of CSXT, was Treasury secretary. Nelson said both Snow and Peters should be asked, "What did you know and when did you know it?"...

June 24— The Qatari man designated an enemy combatant by the Bush administration was planning another Sept. 11 attack, sources told ABCNEWS. Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, 37, was deemed an enemy combatant by the Bush administration on Monday after officials said he was positively identified by an al Qaeda detainee as being part of a planned second wave of terror attacks on the United States. Government officials said they believed al Qaeda's top leadership sent Al-Marri to the United States to coordinate a new round of attacks. "Al-Marri was sent to the United States as a facilitator for other al...

Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening. “Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added). Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield. Names of larger cities...

A $491 million public-financing deal promoted by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a boon to commuters actually paves the way for shipping more cheap goods from China to the North American marketplace, charges a whistleblower. Ex-CSX Transportation employee Dave Nelson told WND the deal in Florida amounts to providing CSXT with a public subsidy. Money from the public purse will position the railroad company as a major freight carrier throughout Florida, transporting cargo containers filled with cheap goods coming into the NAFTA marketplace from China. CSXT is positioned to receive millions in the deal. Under the terms of the agreement,...

Can the Port of Humboldt Bay be a participant in the new “Silk Road” as experts predict West Coast shipping trade traffic with China will triple by 2020? It could happen with the help of the Port of Oakland, which is setting the stage for a agreement with its northerly neighbor to begin an formal relationship in the upcoming months with the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District. But actual container shipping between Oakland and Humboldt's deep-water port couldn’t happen any sooner than 2011, according to Port of Oakland Maritime Director Wilson Lacy, who presented an overview of the...

The illegal invaders are threatening our Ports on May 1. Go here to read the transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/12/ldt.01.html CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They've already marched in the streets. Now supporters of unconditional amnesty for illegal aliens are taking their protests to a whole new level, trying to shut down the nation's ports and rail lines. ERNESTO NEVAREZ, L.A. PORT COLLECTIVE: It will come to a grinding halt, transportation, commerce. They are going to put a wall along the border with Mexico. We're going to put a wall between us and the ocean. And those containers ain't going to move....

This morning we learned that Senator Trent Lott was "tired of hearing from" the "so-called porkbusters." What was Lott defending that he was so insistent about? Lott, and other lawmakers from the Mississippi delegation are using a Senate "emergency" supplemental spending bill to fund a massive $700 million new rail line along the gulf coast of their state. Nevermind the fact that this is supposed to be "emergency" funding. And nevermind the fact that $300 million was just spent to repair an already existing line adjacent to where they want to build the new one. The Senate appropriators claim that...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Mid-South gamblers may be able to knock back a few more drinks in Tunica, and then take the train home. The Mississippi Legislature Monday approved a transportation bill that includes $500,000 for a feasibility study of a monorail network that would link casinos to one another as well as connect to the Tunica Airport and Southaven. The light rail line could even reach into Shelby County, connecting to the proposed Memphis rail system that is to link Midtown with Memphis International Airport. The bill is now on the desk of Mississippi...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.The Georgia Department of Transportation plans to hire a firm to conduct a study that could determine the fate of a proposed rail link between Atlanta and Chattanooga. State officials say the proposed super-fast, magnetic levitation rail line could cost upwards of $4 billion to build. That's about twice as much as the state spends each year on all road and highway projects. The idea to link the two cities with the so-called maglev rail began in the late 1990s. That's when the US Congress began exploring the the technology in which...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Johnstown) has announced that the House of Representatives and the Senate last week passed legislation that includes funding for important road improvements and other transit projects, as well as community initiatives, in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties. The bill is awaiting the president's signature. Included in the fiscal year 2006 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, and Judiciary spending bill are the following projects: Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation - bus replacements and renovation of the Uniontown transfer station, $1.5 million Waynesburg College Center for Economic Development...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. VICTORVILLE - With high gasoline prices forcing Inland Empire commuters to reshuffle their budgets, many are expected to welcome the concept of a super speed train propelled by electromagnets., Congress has authorized spending $45 million for maglev in the current federal transportation bill, said Bruce Aguilera, chairman of a bi-state commission overseeing the $12 billion project. Visionaries say the proposed maglev train eventually may whisk passengers the 269 miles between Anaheim and Las Vegas in 86 minutes. Under the maglev system, short for magnetic levitation, trains propelled by electromagnets would zip...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SHANGHAI, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Germany's Siemens AG announced that it has got a contract to work with a Chinese partner in supplying 60 high-speed trains for China. "In the next 15 years, China will lay 12,000-km-long rail trackfor passenger trains. The signing of the deal marks another step of Siemens' market success in China," said Klaus Kleinfeld, chief executive of Siemens, in Shanghai on Saturday. The high-speed trains, named CRH3, will travel at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. They will be first put into operation on the Beijing-Tianjin...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Trains could ascend and descend at much higher speeds One of the big questions concerning rail in the mountains has to do with how to handle the steep grades. The legendary narrow-gauge trains that made their way over Colorado's passes in the 19th and 20th centuries did it by going very slow up and very slow down. But if people are going to be convinced to leave their cars at home and take a train to the ski area, creeping down the hill to Silverthorne or Vail at 10, 20 or...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.California High Speed Rail Authority Approves Nation's First Environmental Impact Report for High-Speed Train System SACRAMENTO -- The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) voted unanimously today in the State Capitol to approve their environmental impact report on one of the nation's largest transportation projects. "California is a giant step closer to building a 700-mile high-speed train system serving Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley and Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego," said CHSRA Chair Fran Florez. According to the environmental impact report, which affirmed...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. China has completed the final section of the pan-Himalayan Golmud-Lhasa (1956 km) railway at 5,072 metres above sea level. The final section of 1,142 km, running across Tibet's snow-covered plateau — dubbed the roof of the world — presented some unprecedented difficulties. The engineers had to contend with building on a 550 km frozen belt, with the snow alternately melting and freezing in summer and winter! Workers had to breathe bottled oxygen in order to cope with the high altitude and there was not a single mortality on this count! And...

Freight rail lines running in the middle of major roads will be a thing of the past, if voters approve Proposition 1. Proposition 1 would amend the Texas Constitution to create a Rail Relocation Fund to be used by the Texas Department of Transportation and regional mobility authorities. Early voting began Monday for the Tuesday, Nov. 8 election. Essentially, Proposition 1 is asking voters if they want to spend taxpayer money and taxpayer credit to move rail lines like the one in the middle of MoPac. Round Rock Rep. Mike Krusee supports the idea. "For a long time, a goal...

Gov. Rick Perry's ceremonial signing of the eminent domain bill Monday in Waco didn't get a positive reaction from his rival for his 2006 reelection, Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, or from Richmond resident and private property rights activist Jack Myska. Strayhorn accused Perry of grandstanding and said the bill is filled with loopholes, and Myska concurred. "I agree with her wholeheartedly," Myska said Tuesday morning, adding he has not yet read the bill thoroughly. Perry officially signed the law into effect on Sept. 1, but the ceremonial signing was postponed due to hurricanes Rita and Katrina. He said Monday...

AUSTIN -- For years, El Paso officials have studied the multimillion-dollar plan to move hundreds of acres of rail yards out of Downtown to make way for more-attractive development. Texas voters might give the officials help with their plan next month. Proposition 1 on the Nov. 8 constitutional amendment ballot would create a state fund of up to $2 billion to help move and improve rail lines statewide. Proponents of the measure say the fund would be the only way to generate billions of dollars needed to move rail yards out of urban areas. Critics contend that the fund would...

AUSTIN - The first of nine state constitutional amendments proposed on the Nov. 8 ballot would establish a fund through which taxpayers would help pay for relocating freight rail lines from congested urban areas. Like most of the ballot proposals, except for the ban on same-sex marriages, Proposition 1 has received little attention. But it is beginning to spark some debate and, depending on how it fares at the polls, could become an issue in the March Republican governor's primary. Proposition 1 supporters, including Gov. Rick Perry, think the new fund would be an important step toward easing traffic congestion...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The map seems logical. And thought of renewing an old form of travel with a modern twist is intriguing. Hop on a train in Cleveland and shoot off to places like Columbus, Detroit, Pittsburgh or Toronto at 110 mph. You'd be in Columbus, for example, in one hour and 38 minutes. It would take around four hours to get to Chicago. The idea, in various forms, has lingered for decades. But now, in part because of interest from Congress and isolated successes of similar routes across the country, train advocates are...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. HAMILTON — With measurable public support and federal funding legislation in the works, the movement for an Ohio passenger rail network is gaining steam after being batted around for years. Surveys and public hearings held by the Ohio Rail Development Commission across the state from September to May showed that more than three quarters of the participants would use service connecting Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland. The larger network proposed by the commission could include Ohio's Great Lakes cities and Detroit with connections to other systems to the west — serving...

People will be debating the causes of the New Orleans tragedy for years to come. But one thing is already abundantly clear: For individual New Orleanians, automobility made the difference between safety and disaster. "The white people got out," an article in The New York Times declared shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit. But that isn't quite true. White families with cars got out, as did black families with cars. Families without cars, white and black, for the most part did not. Over the past century, the number of deaths due to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and fires...