Free Republic

All aboard! Don't miss your chance to see Big Boy No. 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, as it rolls into the Chicago area this week. Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 will stop Wednesday in West Chicago at the Union Pacific Training Center as part of the one-million pound train's first-ever northeast tour. "As the world’s largest operating steam locomotive—and the only one of the eight remaining Big Boys still in operation—this is a rare opportunity to see railroading history up close," Union Pacific said. The train will be on display from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) Board of Directors today approved the launch of the initial phase of the nation’s largest track and systems installation efforts. An American-led consortium of Kiewit, Stacey Witbeck, and Herzog will install the track, overhead contact system, train control and communications infrastructure needed to transform the 119 miles of guideway completed in the Central Valley into an electrified high-speed rail system capable of speeds up to 220 mph.

The Atlanta train passenger who was slaughtered in a shocking daylight weekend attack was reportedly stabbed nearly two dozen times in what cops are calling a horrific random assault. John Elijah Matthews, 25, was caught on chilling surveillance footage boarding a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA) Saturday morning and hovering over 66-year-old Margaret Swan before allegedly pulling out a knife and slitting her throat, according to a warrant obtained by 11Alive. The unwitting passenger, sitting alone, began screaming and trying to escape as the violent brute allegedly held her down and stabbed her 18 to 20 times in an...

A popular graffiti artist was fatally struck by a Brightline train in Florida, local officials say. On May 13, Eric Alan Hirt, 47, was struck and killed at 12:26 a.m. local time while walking on the tracks in Biscayne Park, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office (MDSO) Detective Joseph Peguero said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. Eric was hit by an oncoming Brightline train, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office confirmed, according to The Miami Herald. The Brightline train is one of two high-speed trains in the U.S., traveling as fast as 125 miles per hour. The train began test runs in 2017....

If you believe the governor of California, the state is laying track that it hasn’t bought yet. ================================================================== It was an induced hallucination, happily shared by a crowd of professional journalists, and a useful reminder of Gavin Newsom’s tendency to swagger like a winner on the lightest of pretexts. Back in February, the California governor spoke to the media in a crowded railyard, posing in front of a long line of freight cars and the piles of construction materials they had just delivered while he bragged about the extraordinary new progress the state was making toward a functioning high-speed rail...

A strike by thousands of Long Island Rail Road employees brought the nation’s busiest commuter railroad to a standstill early Saturday, disrupting travel across the New York metropolitan area and setting up a major labor standoff between transit officials and union leaders. Train service was halted shortly after midnight when five labor unions representing nearly half of the railroad’s workforce launched a walkout after contract negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority collapsed. It marks the first rail strike on the system in roughly 30 years. The shutdown immediately affected commuters traveling between New York City and Long Island, with officials...

LAREDO, Texas - Multiple people have been found dead inside a Union Pacific cargo train at a railyard in Laredo. According to the Laredo Police Department, the train was found just after 2:30 p.m. near mile marker 13, near 12100 Jim Young Way. The exact number of people deceased is not yet known. Temperatures in Laredo were in the upper 90's on Sunday when the discovery was made.

Union Pacific's famed Big Boy No. 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, will journey to the East Coast this summer for the first time as part of a historic coast-to-coast tour to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. The tour includes a Fourth of July celebration in Philadelphia, major display events in eight cities and more than 50 whistle-stops in 10 states, including stops for the first time in Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

Nothing about California's high speed rail is moving fast, except the price. Just a few weeks ago, the estimated price of the long-delayed project was said to be $126 billion. This figure wasn't hidden in a spreadsheet somewhere, it was stated on a national news program. This week, we're hearing a new number and it's more than a $100 billion higher.California’s long-delayed high-speed rail project is now facing renewed scrutiny after state leaders revealed a dramatically higher price tag, now estimated at roughly $231 billion, nearly seven times the original $33 billion projection approved by voters in 2008.The revised figures...

The gunman who opened fire outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner called himself the 'Friendly Federal Assassin' in a chilling manifesto he wrote before the attack. Cole Allen, 31, sent the eerie anti-Trump writing to his family members just 10 minutes before he fired shots at the hotel in Washington, where the ritzy press gala was taking place on Saturday night. The harrowing writing was given to police by a relative, a US official said. According to the New York Post, Allen's manifesto read: 'Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I'm not the person raped...

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill bashed the “inherited” World Cup host agreement in which FIFA is absolved of paying for transportation to the matches at MetLife Stadium — and insisted she won’t stand for its planned price gouging. NJ Transit plans to raise prices to a staggering $100 for fans traveling from New York Penn Station to MetLife Stadium for the eight FIFA World Cup games hosted at the Garden State arena. The average ticket goes for $12.90, marking an egregious 775% premium for all. While the rumored hike has “not been finalized,” according to a NJT spokesperson, locals are...

A new state bill aims to shield certain information about California’s High-Speed Rail project from the public. Supporters say it’s about protecting sensitive records, but critics think it puts the brakes on transparency. ... [O]pponents...say the project is too costly. They note the state has already spent about $15 billion on it over the last decade and a half, while the total cost projections for the full project have ballooned from the original $45 billion estimate presented to voters in 2008 to anywhere between $88 billion-$128 billion today. Inside California Politics Correspondent Eytan Wallace reports a new state bill would...

In the dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell wrote, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” The true meaning of that line was never more clear than watching the truly bizarre photo op of California governor Gavin Newsom heralding the success of the greatest boondoggle in history: his high-speed train to nowhere. Without laying a single yard of track after burning $12 billion, Newsom showed a diesel freight train on a conventional track to create the appearance of a working railroad.I have been writing about this boondoggle for...

Do you remember that high-speed rail project in California that was supposed to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and be completed in 2020? Well, it's finally ready to begin laying track on a much shorter section on a ludicrously bigger budget. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) proudly announced that the high-speed rail has entered the track-laying phase. In his words, “We are now in the process of starting to lay track.” (Emphasis added). This is not for the full Los Angeles-San Francisco line that was supposed to be done six years ago, but for a 119-mile stretch from Madera County...

Under Trump, the media elites treat the executive branch as an evil empire, but under Biden, journalists were so eager to help promote the Democrats that they sometimes offered their sources the ability to edit their articles to their liking. New documents shared exclusively with MRC Business just exposed the latest example of elitist media hacks violating every modicum of journalistic integrity to genuflect to the Biden administration’s whims and wishes. Forbes contributor Rhett Buttle and his associate Abdullah Kahn offered to delay a story schmoozing President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on his “environmental justice” focus...

A woman was slashed with a razor during the Tuesday evening rush hour on a Bronx subway train, the latest in a series of violent incidents across New York City’s transit system, according to police, as reported by The New York Post. The attack occurred around 5:30 p.m. aboard a northbound 2 train as it passed through the Pelham Parkway station. Authorities said the victim was speaking with someone when an unknown woman inserted herself into the conversation, sparking an argument. Would-be chain thief slashes woman with razor on NYC train in latest transit chaos: cops https://t.co/7NvBNzo3NO pic.twitter.com/nukz0Tr5rv— New York...

A man with a lengthy criminal history is facing a federal terrorism charge after authorities said he set a woman on fire in an unprovoked attack on a CTA Blue Line train Monday night. A 13-page federal criminal complaint was filed Wednesday, charging Lawrence Reed, 50, with a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation system, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of life in federal prison, if convicted.

Inside Tehran’s newest metro station, Iranians who can be imprisoned for owning bibles will soon walk past a plaque that declares, “the message of Jesus Christ was the salvation of humans from darkness, ignorance, corruption, depravity and discrimination.”Elsewhere in the Maryam-e Moqaddas station, or Holy Mary station, a relief of Christ walking on water decorates a vestibule, and his mother Mary is depicted, larger than life, praying among flowers. Estimates of Iran’s Christian population varies widely but a 2020 survey from the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) reported 1.5 percent of respondents identified as Christian. That...

A person was in custody Tuesday after a woman was set on fire while riding a CTA Blue Line in Chicago's Loop the night before. The woman remained in the hospital late Tuesday afternoon. According to Chicago police, the 26-year-old woman got into a quarrel with a 45-year-old man while on a train at the Clark/Lake subway station around 9:25 p.m. Police said the fight escalated when the man poured a liquid on the woman and set her on fire. Sources said the liquid the man poured was gasoline. Police said the woman ran off the train and collapsed on...

Peterborough barber shop with a knife - minutes after allegedly stabbing a 14-year-old boy. Anthony Williams, 32, of Peterborough, appeared at Peterborough Magistrates' Court today charged with 11 counts of attempted murder in connection with a knife attack on board an LNER train and another in east London on November 1. Police have today launched a probe to establish whether three other incidents in Peterborough on the night before and morning of the alleged rampage are linked - but are facing accusations of failing to thwart it. CCTV footage exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail allegedly shows a man believed...