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.