Free Republic

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.

Answered on the video.