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NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation maintenance shed will be considered for recognition as a historic place, an honor that would make it harder for PennDOT to widen a busy highway in suburban Philadelphia. The one-story brown brick garage, one of 67 county facilities built in 1936 as part of Gov. Gifford Pinchot's campaign to pave 20,000 miles of rural roads, will be the subject of a $10,000 study to determine if it belongs on the National Register of Historic Places. PennDOT will fund the study, which was ordered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

Unnoticed by most people outside the maritime industry, major new security measures came into effect last week for ships and seaports worldwide as part of the War on Terror. While airports and airlines have undergone extensive changes in security in response to 9/11, the world's 20,000 harbors and 55,000 ships had until July 1 to implement the new International Ship and Port Facility code. Designed by the International Maritime Organization at the urging of the United States, the ISPFS is meant to protect maritime facilities from terrorist attacks and from use as terrorist weapons. About 150 countries have signed on...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.WASHINGTON - Congressman Zach Wamp (R-TN), the Co-Chairman of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) Caucus, announced Thursday that the 2004 Treasury-Transportation spending bill includes $1 million for Advanced Transportation Technology Institute (ATTI) in Chattanooga. He said it will begin the implementation of the East Tennessee Clean Transportation Initiative. According to Wamp, this funding will support the development of electric, hybrid-electric and other clean-fuel transportations to reduce pollution in the region and to improve air quality in places like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. "As the Co-Chairman of the REEE,...

Two years ago the city of Portland and Metro joined forces on a program which would match-up people who wanted to carpool. Mark Adams, who lives in the Vancouver area, used it to hook up with someone in his neighborhood who works within blocks of him, but he is the exception. Of the nearly 16-hundred commuters who have registered for the service, only about a dozen carpools have been formed. For a program that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that amounts to a cost of about 29-thousand per carpool. Portland City Commissioner Jim Francesconi is concerned about the cost...

U.S. lawmakers say Bush transport plan too small Reuters, 05.15.03, 5:52 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers pushing for billions of dollars in highway and transit funding this year on Thursday told Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta that a White House proposal fell far short of the nation's needs. Mineta earlier this week unveiled President Bush's $247 billion, six-year plan, calling it the largest transport funding proposal in U.S. history. A similar program dubbed "TEA-21" that expires this September provided $218 billion over six years. "Dollar-wise it looks great, but if you look at what you can do with the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Some simplifying force in human nature loves to set up false dichotomies. You know what we're talking about. As in: You're a cat person, I'm a dog person. You're a wine person, I'm a beer person. You're a bus person, I'm a car person. Some of the criticism of two new light-rail extensions, planned for Clackamas County, stems from this kind of black-and-white thinking, carried over into the realm of public policy. Exaggerate the "transit vs. car" quarrel via a talk show or two, and before you know it, a thick...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Gov. Ed Rendell said yesterday that the federal government should fund two magnetic levitation train projects, including one proposed for the Pittsburgh area.</p> <p>Rendell, in Washington to testify on state transportation needs, told reporters that Congress "shouldn't have to choose between competing projects."</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.Construction is expected to begin this fall of a track in Lawrence and Beaver counties to test an updated maglev train. Power Superconductor Applications Corp., of New Castle, is announcing Friday that it and the Lawrence County Maglev Consortium have obtained exclusive use of the U.S. government's high-speed maglev test vehicle. Construction of a 7.5 mile test track in the counties will begin in October, according to Power Superconductor. The company will retrofit the government's maglev trainset with highly efficient cryogenic magnets and a newer levitation and propulsion system. This system has...

<p>The federal government has given the Port Authority permission to draft the final design of the $390 million project to extend the subway to the North Side by burrowing beneath the Allegheny River. Approval of the so-called North Shore Connector was delayed slightly by a paperwork glitch.</p>

Passenger Rail: Learning From the BritishIn the wake of the September 11 attacks, and with the continuing and alarming decline on the domestic air transport industry that preceded and followed the attacks, much discussion of alternatives to long-distance air travel has occurred. Such discussions generally center on domestic passenger rail service, and the same questions are generally asked: Why is American passenger rail service -- Amtrak -- so bad compared to that enjoyed by the Europeans and Japanese? Why can't Amtrak seem to run its lines profitably? And what business has the federal government running a rail passenger service in...

<p>The trains on Copenhagen's new Metro need no drivers. The cars wake themselves up in the morning to deliver rush-hour commuters and, when their rounds are done, they return themselves to the depot for cleaning.</p> <p>The electronic brains and other equipment for this automatic marvel that opened in October in Denmark's capital were designed in Pittsburgh by one of the city's oldest industrial firms, Union Switch & Signal.</p>

<p>Federal funding has come to an unexpected stop on plans to extend the Port Authority's light-rail network to the North Shore and the new Downtown convention center.</p> <p>The transit agency's chief executive officer, Paul Skoutelas, confirmed yesterday that the Federal Transit Administration has dropped the status of the $400 million project from "recommended" to "not recommended."</p>

Ton milage is up 9.2 percent this year over last years total. This is the BELLWEATHER yardstick as how the economy is progressing. Looks like Bushenomics are starting to respond. Full article is at www.aar.org/

High-tech train 'flies without wings' By Martin FacklerShanghai January 9 2003 You'd barely know you were moving if it weren't for the blurred farm houses and electric poles hurtling past the window. It's not until the digital speedometer of the world's first commercial magnetic-levitation train breaks 400 kph that any vibrations are noticeable. It's just as the voice on the loudspeaker said to passengers as they boarded: "You will be flying without wings." That's how it feels to ride the "maglev," unveiled to the Chinese public recently as Shanghai's newest prestige project, a $A2 billion German-built high-speed airport shuttle that uses...

Controversial new trains make debut By MATT WEISER, Californian staff writer Bakersfield, California Thursday January 09, 2003, 10:57:54 PM Remote-controlled freight trains, a controversial new technology already banned in some cities and blamed for several deaths, made their debut in Bakersfield Thursday amid warnings from local railroad engineers. Union Pacific Railroad delivered two of the special locomotives to Bakersfield Thursday, two weeks after a company spokesman said the system would not be deployed here. "It turns out we are doing it in Bakersfield and it will start on Monday," said Mike Furtney, the railroad's western region spokesman, correcting an...

The little commuter rail line that would Saturday, December 28, 2002 By STEVE STRUNSKY Associated Press GLEN RIDGE - Since its completion in September, NJ Transit's Montclair Connection - first envisioned in 1929 - has allowed more commuters to ride trains directly into Manhattan. But three stations serving nearly 800 commuters were closed in the process, and now a former train conductor and several supporters are battling the agency to let him run his own railroad serving the shuttered stations. Jim Wilson, who also runs a small freight railroad, wants to reopen commuter service on what is known as the...

December 26, 2002 Trans-Siberian goes fully electric     By Anatoly Medetsky At a ceremony in a frozen village of the Russian Far East officials on Wednesday celebrated the end of electrification of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, an upgrade hoped to boost competitiveness of the world's longest rail track. The railroad has been advertising itself as the principal alternative to the sea route across the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal that most businesses now use to ship their containers from Asia to Europe. Russia has been negotiating to extend the route across North Korea to the port of Pusan in...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. As learned from Magnetic Levitation Transportation Development Co. Ltd Dec. 18, 2002 in Shanghai the maiden voyage for the world renowned Shanghai magnetic levitation train has been made definite to be in the morning of Dec. 31, 2002. But what makes it more eye-catching is that the levitation line will have two distinguished guests - Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to be among the first batch of passengers. The two Prime ministers will be the first riders on the maglev train, experiencing the 7 minutes drive along...

Transit Talks Continue Past Midnight Deadline DECEMBER 16TH, 2002 There will be no transit strike - at least not yet. With the morning plans of millions of commuters hanging in the balance, the MTA and New York City's transit workers are negotiating past the midnight hour in a last-ditch effort to avert a mass transit strike that could cripple the city at the height of the holiday season. Ed Watt, the secretary/treasurer of Transit Workers Union Local 100, announced at midnight that negotiators had made sufficient progess to continue their efforts past the midnight deadline. The progress, said Watt, had...