Free Republic

Facing a hole in the budget of nearly a half-billion dollars, Metro’s general manager is proposing massive budget cuts to rail and bus service that would take effect this summer. General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said in September that without more federal help, big cuts would be needed. Overall rail ridership is down more than 85% most weekdays, while bus ridership is less than half what it was in 2019. Among the things Wiedefeld is proposing for Metrorail: In addition, Metrobus would also face big cuts. Wiedefeld is proposing only having a total of 41 bus routes. Those routes would be...

Multiple videos posted to social media on Saturday morning apparently show Trump supporters in trucks and cars harassing a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaign bus in Texas, causing the campaign to cancel a planned event in Central Texas. A Biden campaign spokesperson told Forbes that the Trump supporters “attempted to slow the bus down and run it off the road.” And one local Democratic Party leader, Katie Naranjo, tweeted photos and said Trump supporters “followed the Biden bus throughout central Texas” and “ran into a person’s car, yelling curse words and threats.” Texas state legislator Sheryl Cole said that...

A male rider threw hot coffee at a female MTA bus driver and pushed her to the ground after she asked him to wear a mask amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to police. The alleged assault against the bus operator took place at 8:19 a.m. Thursday onboard an S46 bus at Castleton Avenue and Jewett Avenue in Port Richmond, officials said. The driver asked the suspect to put his mask on when he stepped onto the bus. The rider allegedly ignored her request and headed toward the back of the bus, according to an NYPD spokeswoman. The driver approached...

Public transport bosses in northwest England on Tuesday clarified the rules on face coverings after a bus passenger was spotted with a snake around his neck and mouth. The commuter was spotted on a bus bound for Manchester on Monday, but fellow passengers initially believed he was wearing a colourful face covering, the Manchester Evening News reported. "At first I thought he had a really funky mask on, then he let it crawl around the hand rails," one witness was quoted as saying.

A 1940s-era bus where a 24-year-old adventurer starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness has been removed after tourists died while trying to reach it. A US Army helicopter airlifted the vehicle from the spot just west of the Teklanika River, where it had been left to rust for more than half a century. The bus was made famous by Into The Wild, a book and film that told the story of Chris McCandless' death after he lived inside it for 114 days during the summer of 1992.

SEATTLE - A Metro bus plowed into a car and pole Saturday morning on 3rd Avenue in downtown Seattle, trapping the driver and bashing in the front end of the bus, emergency officials said. One of the two occupants in the car was also injured. The lone passenger on the bus sustained very minor injuries, said Torie Rynning of King County Metro.. Officers and fire crews responded to the scene, at the Spring Street intersection, at about 9 a.m. after receiving reports of an accident involving a bus. The King County Metro bus was found against a pole. Crews worked...

While face coverings are not required to ride Metro, we recommend all transit riders wear face coverings and/or masks on our buses and trains as well.

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -- Madison’s Metro Transit won’t stop running during the coronavirus outbreak, but the bus service is drastically cutting back on the number of passengers who will be allowed on any given line and will eventually draw back the number of routes it runs in a day. Starting Wednesday, Metro Transit will cap the number of passengers allowed on the bus to 15 riders. It is asking people to take the bus for essential trips, for example: if they are going to work, a medical appointment, or the grocery store. In all other cases, passengers should try to...

One person was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting on a Greyhound bus traveling from Los Angeles to the Bay Area early Monday, officials said. An unidentified man was taken into custody, according to California Highway Patrol communications supervisor Steve Loftus. Investigators have not determined a motive. Police began getting calls from passengers on the bus, traveling on Interstate 5, at about 1:30 a.m. local time, Loftus said. The bus had left Los Angeles about an hour earlier and following the shooting, the bus driver pulled off at the nearest exit, in Grapevine, south of Bakersfield. About...

Covington Catholic High School students are back in the news after a charter bus carrying a group of students and chaperones was involved in a fatal accident on its way back from the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C. One person was reportedly killed and several more injured in the collision that took place Saturday morning. (Via WLWT-TV Cincinnati) According to witnesses on the scene, a southbound car somehow entered the northbound lanes of the highway, striking the charter bus head-on."I saw a car come across the median and head toward me," said Ricky Lynn, a witness who was...

Jacqueline Abad, 53, and Sara Armijo, 51, were killed as they were traveling on a roadway to Belmopan City in a Grey Dodge passenger van as part of their Carnival Cruise trip, the Belize Police Department confirmed Thursday. Abad and Armijo's van struck a red Chevy SUV head on when it entered their lane to overtake another vehicle. Five other Americans were wounded in the crash, carrying injuries ranging from broken legs and arms to cuts, pelvic fractures, abrasions and dislocated knee caps. The three passengers in the red SUV, all Belizean, died on impact, police said. The driver of...

PITTSBURGH - A Port Authority bus, with a passenger on board, was swallowed by a massive sinkhole Monday downtown. The bus fell into the giant sinkhole at 10th Street and Penn Avenue just before 8 a.m. The driver and a passenger were on board at the time, Port Authority officials said. The passenger was treated by paramedics, officials said. Witnesses tell Channel 11 the bus was at a red light when the street gave way and the bus fell into the hole.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) – Protesters have gathered about 100 feet away from the arena where President Trump will be speaking Monday night. The crowd has steadily grown in what’s been designated as the “Free Speech Zone” across the street from the entrance where Trump supporters are heading into the Sana Ana Star Center. So far, the protests have been peaceful, with people holding handmade anti-Trump signs. There has been some arguing back and forth with Trump’s supporters and some chanting. People in this crowd believe Trump will not win over New Mexico. “We’re all about love, we’re not about...

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A newlywed woman from Belarus who was swept away by a river in Alaska was trying to reach an abandoned bus made famous by the book and film “Into the Wild.” Veramika Maikamava, 24, and her husband, Piotr Markielau, also 24, on Thursday were heading for the bus where hiker Christopher McCandless met his death in 1992, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. The bus has been the source of multiple rescues since it was made famous, first by Jon Krakauer’s book published in 1996 and then by Sean Penn’s 2007 film. Both chronicled the life and death...

**SNIP** Over the last decade, both Los Angeles County’s sprawling Metro system and smaller lines have hemorrhaged bus riders as passengers have fled for more convenient options — mostly, driving. Southern Californians are capitalizing on a stronger economy by buying cars in record numbers, experts say. They also point to half a dozen other factors putting pressure on bus systems, including falling immigration rates, rising rents that have pushed low-income families to more remote areas, and a law that allows immigrants in the country illegally to apply for driver’s licenses. Dropping ridership follows years of complaints about bus routes that...

Vallmoe Shqaire, 51, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was sentenced Friday in L.A. district court to nine months behind bars after pleaded guilty in January to illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship. Shqaire was given until May 28 to surrender to begin serving his time, but U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may take him into custody at any time based on the fact that his citizenship was revoked and he is under an immigration hold for deportation, attorneys said at the sentencing hearing. U.S. District Judge John F. Walter made clear that he would prefer that Shqaire — who is free on bond —...

MILAN – Italian authorities say a bus driver transporting schoolchildren stopped his vehicle on a provincial highway, told the passengers to get off and then doused the interior with gasoline and set it on fire. Italian media reported that the driver, an Italian of Senegalese origin, was immediately apprehended. The motive for the arson attack Thursday morning on the outskirts of Milan was unclear. An official told Sky TG24 that the middle school-age children alerted authorities, aiding a speedy emergency response. Twelve children and two adults were taken the hospital but authorities reported only one injury. Video showed firefighters dousing...

Between 40 and 45 students were taken to local hospitals near the city of George, Washington -- about 125 miles east of Spokane. The bus was taking the band members to Friday's Night's game between the No. 16 Huskies and No. 8 Cougars in Pullman -- located near the Washington border with Idaho. "The injuries reported were cuts, complaints of general pain and back pain, but the injuries are not believed to be critical," Washington spokesman Victor Balta said in a statement, according to ESPN.com. "The University is doing everything it can to ensure the health and safety of our...

An overcrowded bus plunged into a gorge in southern India on Tuesday, killing at least 55 people and injuring several more, in one of the worst such accidents this year, authorities said. The bus, part of the state-run network in Telangana, was returning from a hilltop temple in the district of Jagtial, about 190 kms (118 miles) from Hyderabad, the state capital, a district official said. "The driver lost control and the bus skidded off the road and fell into the valley," a top district official, G. Narendhar, told Reuters. "The majority of the passengers have suffered severe injuries."

In a development that cast further doubt over the independence of the judiciary in Turkey, judges and prosecutors from one of the top courts in the country were taken to the presidential palace in Ankara by bus for a ceremony marking the inauguration of the new judicial year on Monday. In past years, ceremonies marking the opening of the new judicial year were held in judicial buildings in a symbol of the independence of the judiciary from politics. However, this ceremony began to be held at the presidential palace in Ankara in 2017 upon an order from President Recep Tayyip...