Free Republic

Historian John Diers, author of the new book "St. Paul Union Depot," will be among the train enthusiasts who will welcome visitors to the Union Depot on Saturday, May 11. The newly refurbished Lowertown depot, which is expected to provide Amtrak passenger service by the end of the year, is celebrating Amtrak's "National Train Day" with free family activities from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Diers, who will deliver a presentation, will have copies of his book for sale. The Radio Disney road crew, a vintage bluegrass railroad band led by Cannonball Paul, storeowner Choo Choo Bob and the St....

More than a week before three people were killed and more than 175 people were injured in the Boston Marathon bombings, a Jersey City man was arrested at the train station in Hoboken while carrying two home-made bombs, authorities say. Police also found explosive devices in the Newport Parkway home of Mykyta Panasenko, 27, Jersey City police said today. According to a criminal complaint, Panasenko is charged with having "two destructive devices, specifically improvised explosive devices (IEDs) constructed from a cylinder containing Pyrodex (black powder)" on April 5, the criminal complaint says.

Canada to announce arrests after thwarting "major terrorist attack":CBCR Reuters – 19 mins ago TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police and intelligence agencies are to announce multiple arrests on Monday after an operation to thwart a "major terrorist attack," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday, citing unnamed "highly placed" sources.

Some of you may remember the picture above and the post that went with it. The picture was taken at the train station in Bologna, Italy on August 2, 1980. I missed being there by a couple of days. Italy thought it had a deal with the PLO not to carry out terror attacks on its soil. It was wrong. The European Union is about to repeat the mistake. The EU may declare Hezbullah a designated terror organization, but only if they reach the conclusion that Hezbullah was behind the terror attack at a Bulgarian airport a few months ago....

Canadian authorities announced Monday they have broken up an Al Qaeda-linked terror plot to attack a passenger train as it crossed over a bridge in the Toronto area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that two suspects have been arrested on terrorism charges. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, who live in greater Montreal and Toronto -- were conspiring to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against Via Rail, but posed no immediate threat to the public. "It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan told reporters at a news conference. Read more:...

General Electric Co. GE +0.35%plans to cut 950 jobs at its unionized locomotive plant in Pennsylvania and shift one-sixth of the employment to a newer facility in Texas, citing weaker North American locomotive demand due to falling coal prices. The job cuts will begin in October pending a 60-day period of talks with union leaders. GE met with representatives from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers union Tuesday. The company plans to add 160 jobs in Texas. GE's factory in Fort Worth, Texas—which isn't unionized and began locomotive production in January—is 20% more productive per employee than the more-than-100-year-old...

The Rail Traffic Chart That Should Eliminate Any Of Your Worries About The US Economy Joe WeisenthalMarch 7, 2013 Rail = the real economy. This is good. Highest 12 week moving average in rail traffic since 2011. twitter.com/cullenroche/st… — Cullen Roche (@cullenroche) March 7, 2013

Vickie, Alice, Lisa, Debbie, Barbara, Chris, Clair and Cootz boarded the Los Angeles-bound Sunset Limited in Schriever, La., and immediately took residence in the glass-sheathed Sightseer Lounge car. The eight women squeezed into two booths on either side of the aisle and began to scream with laughter. With a quiet, pneumatic exhalation, the Sunset Limited left the station; it was 90 minutes into its journey, with 45 hours and 5 minutes to go... It climbed steadily for two miles before passing over the dizzyingly narrow span of the Huey P. Long Bridge. From up there, 145 feet above the Mississippi...

Newsmax Sequester Forces Biden to Take Amtrak Friday, March 1, 2013 10:04 AM By: Sandy Fitzgerald Joe Biden’s military flights back home to Delaware will be grounded starting this weekend, as the vice president plans to start taking Amtrak trains to help cut the costs involved in using military transport for the short trip. Biden said he initiated the change in travel plans, Fox News reports, saying the change is the one part of the sequester that works to his benefit. According to published reports, it costs the government tens of thousands of dollars every time Biden takes Air Force...

A cleaning woman stole an empty commuter train in a suburb of Stockholm and crashed it into a house, injuring herself, Swedish officials say. The four-carriage train was driven out of the depot for about a mile until it jumped the tracks, becoming wedged into a three-storey building. Police arrested a woman, who was flown to a Stockholm hospital with serious injuries. Nobody else was hurt. A railway official confirmed the woman in custody was an employee. "We have only heard good things about her," Tomas Hedenius, a spokesman for train operator Arriva, was quoted as saying by AP news...

Energy companies behind the oil boom on the Northern Plains are increasingly turning to an industrial-age workhorse - the locomotive - to move their crude to refineries across the U.S., as plans for new pipelines stall and existing lines can't keep up with demand. ... The environmental fears carry an ironic twist: Oil trains are gaining popularity in part because of a shortage of pipeline capacity - a problem that has been worsened by environmental opposition to such projects as TransCanada's stalled Keystone XL pipeline. That project would carry Bakken and Canadian crude to the Gulf of Mexico. Wayde Schafer,...

there was no grand celebration this month as Silicon Valley marked 25 years of light rail... The near-empty trolleys that often shuttle by at barely faster than jogging speeds serve as a constant reminder that the car is still king in Silicon Valley -- and that the Valley Transportation Authority's trains are among the least successful in the nation by any metric.

Gov. Mark Dayton's own transportation advisory panel called Friday for a higher state gas tax and other fees and taxes to raise at least $50 billion more for roads and transit over the coming two decades. The Transportation Finance Advisory Committee's recommendations aim to improve the state's roads and expand transit, including new light rail lines, as a boost to the state's economy. Dayton created the group in January, saying a deteriorating transportation system was hurting economic growth. Dayton spokesman Katharine Tinucci said the governor has yet to review the recommendations. The report comes as the Democratic governor is preparing...

  "German Islamists Target Youth on the Internet" By Christoph Sydow 11/01/2012 "Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan." PHOTO CAPTION: "A growing community of German-speaking Islamists has developed on the Internet. Aiming to find new recruits, they glorify jihad and call for attacks on Germany. A new study warns that such online propaganda might foster a new generation of terrorists." SNIPPET: "International terrorist groups like al-Qaida recognized the importance of the Internet for recruiting new supporters early on." SNIPPET: "Intelligence services can also take advantage of the anonymity of Internet forums to deliberately plant false information or obtain insider...

Two live web cams went on line this weekend in Chama, NM showing the train yard of the steam-powered narrow gauge RR. As of the time of this posting, the daily eastbound passenger train from Antonito, CO has just arrived and stopped at the depot. After the passengers depart, the two other live steam engines will separate the cars for servicing and arranging for Sunday's departures. All of this under blue skies and autumn fall colors. Enjoy! http://www.coloradonewmexicosteamtrain.org/yard-cams.htm

<p>A government watchdog says Amtrak's train operators are testing positive for drugs and alcohol more and more frequently over the last six years.</p>

Organizers of a national transit advocacy conference have chosen the Twin Cities as the host site for their fall 2014 event, which is expected to draw roughly 1,000 rail enthusiasts and transit planners from across the country. The "Rail-Volution" board of directors approved a joint proposal from the Counties Transit Improvement Board, the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Organizers say their next step is to find a Twin Cities conference site. The timing is no coincidence. In 2014, the Green Line -- currently more commonly known as the Central Corridor light-rail transit line -- will begin taking...

A large-scale IDF exercise in Judea and Samaria, the first in three years, is preparing soldiers in the Menashe Brigade for a possible "Arab Spring" rebellion. The brigade is based near Jenin, located in central Samaria between the Mediterranean Coast and the Jordan River. “The drill tested main scenarios of a potential violent escalation in the region, including terrorist attacks on a local road, terrorists infiltrating a community and killing civilians, abduction of soldiers, numerous explosives set on a fence and more,” military spokesmen reported on the IDF Website. Forces from the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), Israeli Police, Israeli emergency...

California’s proposed bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco—which Gov. Jerry Brown is likely to sign off on soon—has been characterized by the Obama administration and its other supporters as an effective way to reduce highway congestion. These costs amount to more than $100 billion annually in wasted time and higher fuel expenses. In fact, a much better technological solution is on the horizon, if we pave the way by getting rid of obsolete highway design. It is already possible to imagine a world in which you could predict exactly how long it would take to drive in your...

Metro officials on Saturday said excessive heat was the probable cause for a train derailment Friday in Prince George’s County. Investigators said a “heat kink” due to extreme high temperatures and direct exposure to sunlight likely caused the rails to expand, resulting in the derailment. The derailment was reported on the inbound stretch of the Green Line near the West Hyattsville Station around 4:45 p.m.

Two days ago I asked you all to answer my ignorant questions about Amtrak, which I misspelled as Amtrack. (Thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2889095/posts) First, thanks for the helpful responses. It was very informative. Today I made the 5 hr trip by car that I loathe. This same trip that would have cost me ~$300 and 16+ hrs round trip on Amtrak, according to the estimates on their website. By car, (assuming gas prices stay the same), it will be $100 and 10 hrs. Obviously, the car wins. But there's one thing missing from the comments on the other thread--something no one even...

Alternate title for this post: Dreams from My Freightcar: A Story of Pace and Incompetence 1. Why can't private passenger trains operate like plane companies? 2. Why don't we rip up some old tracks and turn them into true high-speed elevated rail that travels at 500 kilometers/hr? 3. Why is Amtrack, as it is now, so inefficient and crappy when train transportation is supposedly so efficient (CSX's 430+miles/gallon fuel) 4. There seems to be an inverse relationship of luxury to efficiency. Plane travel is torture, but it's efficient. Train travel could be luxurious since it's not fuel inefficient, but is...

The Wall Street Journal has the backstory about how Governor Jerry Brown is insisting on trying to complete the high speed rail plan despite a budget shortfall of $16 billion: Transportation experts warn that the 500-mile bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles could cost more than $100 billion, though the Governor pegs the price at a mere $68 billion. The state has $12.3 billion in pocket, $9 billion from the state and $3.3 billion from the feds, but Mr. Brown hasn't a clue where he'll get the rest. [Snip] In 2008 voters approved $9 billion in bonds for...

Italy's burgundy red Ferrari on rails is finally going into service. Starting on April 28, the "Italo" will travel at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour between Milan, Rome and Naples. The new high-speed train is more environmentally friendly and also cheaper than its competitors -- on both the rails and roads.

Our nation's most famous locomotive "The General" is now home at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia. See more at: http://www.southernmuseum.org/2012/02/southern-museum-gearing-up-for-great-locomotive-chase-sesquicentennial/

The plan to build the California bullet train is almost certain to be approved Thursday by the state's high-speed rail authority at a board meeting in San Francisco, but the project is facing a less certain future in Sacramento. The rail authority has long insisted that it needs to move as quickly as possible, starting construction on an initial $6-billion segment of track through the Central Valley this year to meet the terms of a federal grant that covers more than half of the initial project. But that push by the authority, labor unions and the Brown administration for quick...

For nearly a decade, traffic has been zipping through Boston’s Big Dig tunnels, the nation’s costliest highway project that has also left a gaping financial hole in the state’s transportation budget that isn’t likely to be filled anytime soon. "Big Dig debt" has lately become one of the most frequently used—if not fully understood—terms in Massachusetts government. It was at the forefront of a tumultuous public debate over the MBTA’s finances that ultimately produced an average 23 percent fare hike and modest service cuts, but no permanent solutions for the chronically underfunded transit system. Next year, it could spark a...

At a campaign stop on Saturday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that if he is elected he will stop federal funding for passenger rail, including Amtrak. “I like those things, I just think they have to be paid for by private funds, not by funds from China,” he said. The Michigan news website Mlive.con highlighted the story and quoted a response from Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman about similar statements in the past that would cut funding to the service: “Congress has given Amtrak a critical national mission to provide intercity passenger rail service, and with an appropriate...

The Swedish National Rail Service, SJ, was not wrong to kick a Muslim man off the train for not showing his pass while deep in prayer, ruled the Swedish Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO) who say that it is impossible to prove he was discriminated against. ”We have made the decision to close the investigation as it wasn't possible to prove that the man had been a victim of discrimination,” said Anna-Lena Sjölund of DO to news site Nyheter24. The man reported the incident, which occurred in May last year, to the watchdog not for pecuniary compensation but in order to...

Three freight trains collided in Porter County, Ind. this afternoon... *** The accident involved a collision, derailment, fire and chemical spill, according to officials. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.

One question that might be interesting to know the answer to is this:Did any of the presidential candidates travelin the great state of Iowa ever come across the town of Brit, the site of the annual National Hobo Convention? If so, did any of them pay a visit to the hobo museum? Every year since 1900 freight hopping hobos from all across America make their way to the town of Brit, Iowa. What started during the years of the great depression with folks travelin to find work, became a lifestyle for many. An adventure for others.These days people still take...

Ruling in what it called a "tragically bizarre" case, an appeals court found that the estate of a man killed by a train while crossing the Edgebrook [Illinois] Metra station tracks can be held liable after a part of his body sent airborne by the collision struck and injured a bystander. In 2008, Hiroyuki Joho, 18, was hurrying in pouring rain with an umbrella over his head, trying to catch an inbound Metra train due to arrive in about five minutes when he was struck by a southbound Amtrak train traveling more than 70 mph. A large portion of his...

KABUL, Afghanistan—Operators ran the first train down Afghanistan's first major railroad Wednesday, clearing the way for a long-awaited service from the northern border that should speed up the U.S. military's crucial supply flow and become a hub for future trade. A cargoless train chugged into a newly built station in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Wednesday after a 47-mile (75-kilometer) trial run from the border with Uzbekistan, said Deputy Public Works Minister Noor Gul Mangal, who was on hand for the arrival. The new rail line is the first stage of an ambitious plan to link landlocked Afghanistan to...

Alexandre Mapokopero is proud to work for SNCC, the national railway of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the last time he actually mounted a train was back in June. As chief train attendant in the southern city of Lubumbashi, his job is to attend to passengers' every needs while they are travelling. He turns up for work every day but there is no work to go to because so few of the country's trains are actually running. Mr Mapokopero complains that he is owed more than 60 months' back-pay. "I can't afford to resign," he says, hoping that one...

The Las Vegas Monorail was developed at a cost of $650 million — but based on its meager ridership and revenue levels it’s now worth just $16 million to $20 million. That caused a bankruptcy judge to express skepticism Monday about Las Vegas Monorail Co.’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy in which it would still be encumbered by $44.5 million in debt — more than twice its value as a company. On top of that, Judge Bruce Markell noted, the monorail’s own financial projections show it facing a deficit of $38.4 million in 2019. “I don’t buy it,” Markell told...

On Tuesday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority laid down their cards in the form of a new “business plan” for the proposed line, and its cards are not good – the system is now projected to cost $98 billion in year-of-expenditure dollars, which, taking into account inflation, is about twice the $33 billion figure given in 2008.* But despite the price hike, not many people’s opinions on the project seem to have changed – those who were for it are still for it, while those opposed are even more set against it. Everyone, that is, except the engineers. I don’t...

The California-as-Greece meme picked up steam this week when Oakland turned into the poor man’s Athens – clashes with police, protesters shutting down the city’s port (one of Oakland’s few remaining economic engines) and calls for a general strike. And there is a genuine danger for California, which has come upon some very hard times. The state is utterly broke and likely past its ability to increase revenue through tax increases. Wealthy individuals and businesses are fleeing the state for spots in Texas and across the West. New taxes would only worsen the trend. California Democrats were able to resist...

Gov. Rick Snyder yesterday in a speech at the Michigan Rail Summit proposed a vision for making Detroit the hub for a rail system serving North America as reported by the MIRS Capitol Capsule (subscription required). He envisions a rail freight and passenger system that would connect Montreal to Detroit to Chicago to St. Louis. The symposium was sponsored by the Michigan Environmental Council. Chris Kolb, a former Democratic state lawmaker who is president of the MEC, was enthusiastic about the governor’s remarks, stating: “This is huge. If we do this right we will really start to rebuild Michigan’s economy.”...

A glutton for bad press, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has canceled on the Sacramento Press Club. Again. The rail authority, which canceled a luncheon once already at the club -- and delayed the release of its much-awaited business plan -- said this afternoon that it will still release its business plan Nov. 1. But it will be just somewhere else. Lance Simmens, the authority's new deputy director for communications and public policy, said he made the call "to roll out what is going to be a very significant business plan at another venue." That venue, Simmens said, has yet...

Dead. Kaput. Through. Finished. Washed up. Gone-zo. That, I think, is a fair description of the Obama administration’s attempt to build high-speed-rail lines across America. It hasn’t failed because of a lack of willingness to pony up money. The Obama Democrats’ February 2009 stimulus package included $8 billion for high-speed-rail projects. The Democratic Congress appropriated another $2.5 billion. But Congress is turning off the spigot. The Republican-controlled House has appropriated zero dollars for high-speed rail. The Democratic-majority Senate Appropriations Committee has appropriated $100 million in its budget recommendation. That’s effectively “a vote of ‘no confidence’ to President Obama’s infrastructure initiative,”...

The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority has a nearly $1 million deficit projected for fiscal 2011-12 at a time when its top executives are among the highest paid transit bosses in the state. The AATA has eight employees making $90,000 or more, according to a Freedom of Information Act request. The AATA has 171 employees and a $21.4 million operating budget. Grand Rapids, which has 308 employees and a $31.9 million operating budget, had four employees making $90,000 or more. Flint, which has a $21 million operating budget, has two employees making $90,000 or more. Jackson Transit Agency’s highest paid employee...

Hear Us Now is pleased to host Randal O’Toole of the CATO Institute on October 11th. His topic will be, “The Best Laid Plans”: […]how government attempts to do long-range, comprehensive planning inevitably do more harm than good by choking American cities with congestion, making housing markets more unaffordable, and sending the cost of government infrastructure skyrocketing.

While the Obama administration has been desperately seeking to spend $53 billion on so-called high-speed rail lines, private businessmen have developed Chinatown and Megabus lines that provide intercity service that has attracted legions of price-conscious travelers. Chinatown bus service started in 1998 to provide a cheap way for Asian immigrants to get from New York to Boston. You lined up at the curb, paid your $20 fare to the driver, and settled into a comfortable bus for four hours or so. Now there's service to multiple destinations (including gambling casinos) from New York and on the West Coast too. And...

In the Beginning“While the mighty Pennsylvania boasted of having pushed its steel tentacles into some of the nation’s most populous cities, it could not make that claim with regard to New York City. Throughout the last years of the nineteenth century, the PRR struggled in vain to conquer the great natural barrier – the Hudson River – which lay between it and America’s largest metropolis.” – Michael Bezilla, Electric Traction on the Pennsylvania Railroad 1895-1968, Pennsylvania State University Press To understand the United States, one must contemplate the challenges of those earliest days of the Republic. The two largest cities...

The federal government may have staved off the imminent threat of default Tuesday when President Barack Obama signed a bitterly fought budget deal, but the woes and uncertainty for states have just begun. In California, some of the most likely cuts include nutritional programs for low-income women and children, the federal portion of the controversial high-speed rail project, clean drinking water programs, and subsidies for farmers. Also potentially at risk are federally funded university research projects and military bases, policy-watchers said Tuesday after hastily reviewing the plan to cut national spending by $2.1 trillion over 10 years. None of the...

Three breakdowns in four days on the new Beijing-Shanghai rail link tarnishes the government's biggest single investment. Anything you can build, China can build better. That was one of the underlying messages behind China's high-speed rail network. It was intended to showcase the country's newly developed prowess in building high-tech projects on a grander scale than even Japan could achieve. But three breakdowns in four days have sent that notion skidding off the rails. One of the southbound trains came to a halt last Sunday night, only ten days after the much-vaunted project made its debut on June 30, one...

(Reuters) - At least 32 people died when a high-speed train smashed into a stalled train in China's eastern Zhejiang province Saturday, state media said, raising new questions about the safety of the fast-growing rail network. The accident occurred on a bridge near the city of Wenzhou after the first train lost power due to a lightning strike and a bullet train following behind crashed into it, state television said. The total power failure rendered useless an electronic safety system designed to warn following trains of stalled trains on the tracks up ahead, and automatically halt them before a collision...

A new railroad in Uzbekistan, used extensively as part of the U.S.'s transportation network shipping military cargo to Afghanistan was built using low-quality steel and goes through such mountainous terrain that when the train gets to the bottom of the mountain crossing, the wheels are glowing red from the friction of so much braking. That's according to a new U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks and the Washington Post. The Post published a story today on this transportation system, the Northern Distribution Network, and while readers of this blog won't find much new in it, the Post did publish a...

A witness says he saw a group of teen boys tie two dogs to railroad tracks in Haltom City moments before a train ran over the animals Tuesday morning. The witness told police he was in a wooded area near the First Baptist Chruch of Fort Worth on the 5100 block of Northeast Loop 820 when he saw the boys. Cpl. Joe Heckfield, with the Haltom City Police Department, said investigators believe the dogs were already dead when they were hit by the train. Heckfield didn't elaborate as to what led police to that conclusion. Officials said when officers arrived,...

CHURCHILL COUNTY, Nev. -- At least two people were killed and about 20 others were injured in a fiery collision between a Sacramento-bound Amtrak train and a semitrailer on a rural northern Nevada highway. Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said the truck driver and one person on the train were killed in the 11:25 a.m. Friday accident about 70 miles east of Reno. He says an unknown number of other people on the train were injured and are being taken by ambulances to the hospital.