Free Republic

The Surface Transportation Board held two long open sessions in late April – a total of nearly 18 hours of testimony. The invitation it sent out asked for the Class 1 carriers – the biggest railroads in the country – to send “senior executives” to face questions from the board. The railroads took that to mean executive vice-presidents, corporate attorneys and other key managers. Despite the instructions not calling for CEOs, Robert Primus, a member of the board, lectured each of the representatives who came before him the board that yes, it was good they were there, but their CEOs...

Utilities are worried that the slowdown in coal deliveries could threaten U.S. electricity supply and destabilize the power grid.A BNSF train climbs Edelstein Hill near Chillicothe, Ill.Chemical producers say erratic rail service has forced them to curtail production of essentials like chlorine used to treat public drinking water systems and the plastics used in medical products. And one of the nation’s largest retailers of diesel fuel, renewable diesel, ethanol, and diesel exhaust fluid says Union Pacific’s plan to cut its shipments by 50% will create fuel shortages, bring trucking to a halt, and raise prices at the pump. Those were...

As you may recall, ten days ago I warned that rail carriers were declaring “force majeure” and halting shipments of grain to dairy herds and other cow herds across America. In that announcement, I also warned that this was an engineered collapse of the food supply, where rail carriers were essentially being ordered to drop certain loads in order to maximize the coming wave of food scarcity and famine.Now, devastating news from CF Industries — one of the largest fertilizer producers in the world — confirms the engineered food collapse plan is being expanded to include fertilizer shipments.According to an...

Ed Morrissey wrote a story about the costs of California’s high speed rail project going up back in August 2011. More than ten years later, we’re still seeing that story repeated over and over. Last January, we learned from a contractor’s letter that project delays were “beyond comprehension,” often thanks to failures by the state to buy needed property to build on. ... The cost to build California’s ambitious but long delayed high-speed rail line has once again risen, with rail officials now estimating it could take up to $105 billion to finish the line from San Francisco to Los...

In a typical year, freight trains in the United States move about 1.7 billion tons on over 140,000 miles of track. The massive tonnage hauled by freight rail every year means that most American consumers own goods transported on freight trains. Yet, despite the importance of freight rail to American consumers and the broader economy, the Biden administration has proposed several potential changes that could undermine the profitability of freight rail companies and enhance government control of the industry. Given the importance of freight rail, any government intervention could have catastrophic effects for consumers. Policymakers only need to look at...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) on Wednesday called on Congress to increase funding for high-speed rail in the infrastructure package. President Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal invests $80 billion in rail projects, but industry experts say that money will mostly be spent on updating existing Amtrak lines rather than building new high-speed railways. Biden's plan includes far more funding for roads, bridges and electric cars than public transit. "Rail is climate infrastructure," Ocasio-Cortez said at a press conference Wednesday. "For every buck that we're going to put into a car and a...

SAN JOSE — Authorities are trying to determine the motive for a mass shooting that left eight people dead Wednesday morning at a Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in San Jose. The gunman, who worked there and had some kind of workplace dispute, also is dead. Details about the gunman and the attack are beginning to emerge. He was identified by sources as Samuel Cassidy, 57, a maintenance worker at the VTA. Sources said the suspect is believed to have killed himself after the mass shooting. Early indications are that the shooting was related to a workplace issue, according to...

Proposed federal infrastructure funding for rail projects has transportation planners taking another look at a Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas passenger route that Amtrak stopped in 1997 and at a high-speed rail line along the congested Interstate 15 corridor to Victorville, California. The measure might provide funding for Brightline West’s project that would have passenger trains whisking at up to 200 mph (322 kph) on a route generally along the busy interstate, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The deal is an effort by Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to capitalize on an expected increase in the flow of trade as the three countries rebound from the pandemic. Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern announced plans on Sunday to combine in a $29 billion deal that would create the first railroad network connecting the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is an effort to capitalize on the trade flows expected to run through the three countries after President Donald J. Trump signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law last year. It’s also a bet on the strength...

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...

A man in Germany has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly loosening bolts on a high-speed railway track. The stretch of track affected was just before a bridge outside Frankfurt. A train driver noticed "something unusual" while crossing the bridge early on Friday. Several trains had already passed over the section before the issue was discovered. Rail operator Deutsche Bahn described the incident as "sabotage". . . . According to German news site Der Spiegel, the rails were five centimetres further apart than usual. This could have caused trains to derail and even send them plunging off...

In the midst of Sunday's presidential debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, Biden blurted out that his campaign's high-speed rail plan would take "millions of automobiles off the road." This is the second debate in which the former vice president brought up the belief that bullet trains will get people out of their cars. This is, to put it mildly, extremely unlikely. Biden's campaign site calls for "the construction of an end-to-end high speed rail system that will connect the coasts, unlocking new, affordable access for every American." Would bullet trains passing through major cities scattered across the U.S....

Amtrak announced Friday it would temporarily suspend its Acela Nonstop trains between Washington and New York beginning March 10 amid concerns about the coronavirus. The company said in a statement that demand for direct routes between the cities has decreased and that nonstop service will be suspended through May 26. "As we are experiencing some reduced demand for our service, we are making temporary adjustments to our schedule, such as removing train cars or cancelling trains when there is a convenient alternative with a similar schedule that will have minimal impact to customers," Amtrak said in a statement. The statement...

Last Friday, Prime Minister Trudeau abruptly reversed himself and demanded that the blockades of rail lines, which have sprung up in various places this month, be cleared. Monday, police in Ontario cleared out one of the larger protest camps, arresting 10 people and clearing the way for trains to resume service. But the protesters werenÂ’t done. Later that night they began throwing burning tires onto the tracks: This was the scene Monday night on the rail lines near Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. Police arrested 10 people earlier in the day and cleared out the camp that was set up Feb....

The Old Dominion is trending in an ominous direction, and it’s a problem for the whole country. On Monday, the Virginia General Assembly ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Advocates of the ERA have argued that Virginia is the 38th and final state needed to add it to the Constitution, though the legal argument for that is dubious. Nevertheless, if the ERA were to become law, it would almost certainly provide the legal basis to enshrine left-wing social dogmas nationwide, among other negative consequences. Other states should take note: No matter how conservative your state has been in the past, you’re...

One of the last sentences said by the 44-year-old man struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Longwood Friday was shouted to a friend as the two walked to a neighborhood pub: “Let’s race the train!” Alexander Javier, the 24-year-old friend, made it across the tracks. Todd Keller did not. The Longwood Police Department released details about Keller’s death Wednesday afternoon. According to the incident report, Keller and Javier had been drinking at Connolly’s Pub earlier in the night and had gone to Javier’s apartment for awhile before deciding to head back to the pub. The men were walking...

last year Buffett donated $169 million to the NoVo Foundation, a charity run by his youngest son, Peter, and Peter’s wife, Jennifer. ... Some of the foundation’s resources are directed towards radical activism that clearly benefits Buffett’s bottom line. In fact, money Buffett donated to the NoVo Foundation has been used to attack companies that compete with Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiaries and holdings. ... In 2017, NoVo donated $3.5 million to the “Clean Clothes Campaign” managed by the liberal Tides Foundation.. ... Why would the NoVo Foundation fund a series of crusades focused on ferociously targeting Walmart and Sam’s Club? It...

n a quiet, nondescript building off an interstate in Wilmington, Delaware, the future of America’s high-speed rail is taking shape. Amtrak gave select journalists, including TPG, a chance to tour full-scale mock-ups of the interior of its new high-speed Acela train cars, giving a sneak peek at what passengers will experience when the first cars are rolled out in spring 2021. American’s primary passenger train operator launched the Acela trains in 2000, and this is the first time since then that they are getting a new look and feel. While Amtrak’s Acela fleet currently lags behind high-speed trains in Europe...

Assembly Democrats see greater public value in improving passenger rail from Burbank to Anaheim, relieving congestion on the busy Interstate 5 corridor before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and putting additional money into San Francisco commuter rail. The proposal has been taken more seriously in recent weeks, and supporters think it will meet the tricky legal requirements of the high-speed rail project. “I like the concept,” said Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood). “Any project that doesn’t have a significant amount of service to the largest areas in the state doesn’t make much sense.”

For the second time, a judge threw out all charges Tuesday against an Amtrak engineer for his role in a high-speed derailment in Philadelphia that killed 8 people, saying: "The law recognizes we're all human."