Free Republic

Some armless, others hobbling on spindly prosthetic legs, Honduran migrants came to Mexico City this week to protest their plight. Maimed in Mexico when they tried to catch a precarious train to reach the United States, they feel forgotten, ignored and with little reason to live. “Our visa [to enter the U.S.] is our mutilation, our handicap, our lost arms and legs,” said Jose Luis Hernandez, 29, of Progreso, Honduras. He fell off the train, known here as La Bestia — the Beast — in the northern border state of Chihuahua; caught under its wheels, Hernandez’s leg, left arm and...

New numbers show that Northstar Commuter Rail Line ridership is down and, after five years of operation, an important goal has not yet been met. Metro Transit numbers show ridership in 2014 was down 8 percent for weekday rides. In 2008, Metro Transit had a goal of removing 5,000 cars from the road by encouraging commuting on Northstar. However, only about 2,500 commuters ride during the week, which is well below the goal set seven years ago. Taxpayers paid $315 million to build the Northstar system. Approximately $15 million each of the five years it's been running for operations and...

Mexican authorities said Tuesday they staged 153 raids over the last year on a train known as “La Bestia” that rolled toward the U.S. border crowded with hundreds of Central American migrants. Following a big surge in child migrants reaching the U.S. border last year, Mexico’s government cracked down on routes commonly used by migrants to travel from Guatemala to the U.S. border. The head of the National Immigration Institute, Ardelio Vargas, said the 153 train raids were part of 758 immigration inspections over the last year. …

SEOUL — A man and a woman were subjected to a terrifying fall, as a sinkhole suddenly opened underneath them, according to FoxCT.com. The whole incident was filmed via surveillance cameras in a Seoul train station. The couple emerge from a train, only to fall into the hole. CNN reports the hole was nearly 10 feet deep.

At least 30 people were injured, including two critically, Tuesday morning when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a tractor-trailer truck on the tracks in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles. Oxnard police Sgt. Denise Shadinger said the crash was reported at 5:44 a.m. Shadinger said the truck became fully engulfed in flames. Authorities are describing the scene as a multi-casualty incident. Details of the injuries were not immediately clear.

Energy: Three million gallons of Bakken crude burning in rural West Virginia after an oil train derails in a snowstorm ought to underscore the environmental safety of replacing rail cars with the Keystone XL pipeline. One of the reasons President Obama says he'll veto the Keystone pipeline bill that, as a result of last November's GOP electoral gusher, has found its way to his desk is that it will only carry Canadian crude to foreign markets and is not worth jeopardizing the environment. Two things are wrong with that argument. The first is that Keystone XL will also bring Bakken...

Look at this simple structure electric train made of just magnet,copper wire and a dry cell. Just a cool, inexpensive scientific effect that might be fun to play with.

At least seven people were killed and 9 injured after a car collided with a Metro-North train in Westchester on Tuesday night, according to law enforcement sources. The vehicle and the front of the Harlem line train to burst into flames killing one in the car and six on the train, sources said. One of the injured was listed in very serious condition, sources said. The northbound train left Grand Central Station at 5:45 p.m., during peak commuter hours, when it struck the car, which was on the train tracks, an hour later in Valhalla, according to officials. Authorities say...

Even before it begins significant construction on the bullet train route, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has violated federal protections for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox in the Central Valley, federal regulators said in a letter last week. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the authority had set up a nine-acre construction yard outside the approved footprint for the project, affecting habitat and resulting in the destruction of a kit fox den. n a Jan. 26 letter, the service said the rail agency, along with the Federal Railroad Administration and its contractors, had failed to comply with the...

Two police officers in Wilmington were injured while trying to catch and arrest a knife-wielding 28-year-old Maynard man who had threatened people at a commuter rail station Wednesday. Authorities say Seth Mather, used a knife to threaten two people near the Main Street train station around 3:40 p.m. The people, who weren’t identified by police, locked themselves in their cars while Mather yelled at them, police said. Mather allegedly slashed two tires. He eventually ran off, jumping off a train platform as police chased him. Officer Louis Martigetti slipped on the icy platform during the chase, injuring himself.

A Texas prison bus carrying 15 people veered off a road and was hit by train on Wednesday, prison officials said, with local media saying at least 10 people were killed in the accident. The bus with 12 inmates and three corrections officers was traveling from Abilene to El Paso when it skidded off a highway and ended up on railroad tracks, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said based on preliminary reports. The accident took place near the western Texas city of Odessa.

One dead, two critical and 82 hurt as DC Metro fills with smoke from huge electrical fault: Terrified passengers lie in the dark for an HOUR before help arrives - as announcers tell them to 'stay calm' *Passengers described being stuck inside a pitch-black train for 40 minutes with some lying down to avoid the smoke *One female passenger was reportedly taken to hospital after paramedics found her unresponsive. She later died *Two other passengers are said to be in a critical condition at George Washington Hospital *A firefighter was also hurt during the evacuation and was transported to hospital....

Police confirm to CBS News multiple people have been stabbed Friday evening on an Amtrak train in Niles. dispatchers say the call came in around 7:00 p.m. for reports of multiple people stabbed at the station near N 6th Street and Pokagon Street in Niles. Police confirm to CBS News one person has been arrested. The conditions of those injured are unknown.

**SNIP** “But what competitive Senate races is the president campaigning in?” Heilemman asked. “Is there one?” “There are races that the president is campaigning in around the country, and he’s also governing,” Wasserman Schultz said. “He’s doing his job and he’s also spent time recording robo calls, and doing radio spots, and making sure that our GOTV focus is aggressive as possible.”

Observers have long known that only a few options were available for the route of the privately funded high-speed train line between Houston and Dallas. Now a firmer picture of where the trains might run is emerging. (Photo courtesy of JR Central) (Photo courtesy of JR Central) As part of the federally required process to evaluate the line, the Federal Railroad Administration and Texas Department of Transportation released maps of the nine routes they are considering and the two chosen for deeper evaluation. The lines that didn’t make the final cut seem to be a bit longer, or else have...

Most members of the Metropolitan Council rarely use the public transportation system they are in charge of overseeing, based on transit pass usage and a Star Tribune survey of the 17-member body. Met Council members receive a free transit pass as part of their appointments to the board. Information obtained through an open records request shows that 10 of those passes were never used in the past year. Five council members swiped their cards between 10 and 21 times, while just two registered more than 70 rides. By comparison, a full year of two-way weekday commutes would rack up closer...

The Obama administration has spent almost $11 billion to build a high-speed rail system that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Since 2009, the president has been pushing for the United States to have a bullet-train-like system similar to those found in Europe and Asia, but a combination of setbacks and dwindling support from states and Congress has slowed the project to a halt, The New York Times first reported. Just last month, Congress rejected the administration’s request for an additional $10 billion for high-speed rail and last year, three governors canceled their federal funding for the projects—deeming them too...

Scores of travelers were stranded after the Acela Express 2253 took off from one platform about 3 p.m. — while they were waiting at another and unaware the train was leaving them behind. An Amtrak train bound for Washington pulled away from Penn Station on Saturday without some pretty important cargo: its passengers. ... They literally sent us to the wrong platform, and the conductor took off without any passengers,” said Damien Miano, 60, of Chelsea. “The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing. It was just so bizarre.” Miano said he and the other abandoned travelers...

On 21July2014 Amtrak Wolverine was due to arrive in New Buffalo Michigan at 8:10pm from Chicago. But it was over 2 hours late. When my wife FINALLY talked with a REAL person she was told that AMTRAK's own dispatch center could NOTcontact the train and to call back in 10 min for update!!!!!!!!

(Reuters) - A cargo train used by Mexicans and Central Americans to travel toward the U.S. border derailed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Wednesday, stranding about 1,300 migrants, emergency services said. Many of the migrants aboard were young people and nobody was injured when the train nicknamed "the Beast" came off the tracks, a spokesman for local emergency services said.