Hey.....enjoy the ride....
Posted on 02/15/2010 3:11:37 AM PST by James C. Bennett
BRUSSELS: Packed commuter trains collided head-on during rush hour outside Brussels on Monday killing at least 20 people, the mayor of the suburban town of Halle told Belgian media.
"There are at least 20 dead," said the local official, cited by Flemish public television VRT and national press agency Belga.
Neither the national railways company SNCB nor the track operator Infrabel were able to confirm the toll.
However, "police would place the probable toll from the accident at at least a dozen dead," Infrabel spokeswoman Fanny Charpentier said, spelling out that two trains initially collided head-on.
"The collision was brutal, the train didn't brake," an unnamed passenger was quoted by RTL TV news website as saying. "Wagons have been turned over, lots of people are in shock."
The accident, which sucked in a third train and has caused major rail traffic disruption, came at the height of the rush hour, with Anne Woygnet of SNCB also listing "serious" injuries.
Both Thalys and Eurostar high-speed train services in and out of Brussels are seriously disrupted, the two operators said.
Thalys said three trains were involved, and advised passengers to change their travel plans.
Eurostar warned that "it is possible that services remain suspended all day."
Packed commuter trains collided head-on during rush hour outside Brussels on Monday killing at least 20 people
^
Another good reason not to invest trillions...
That is why we need more trains like the Europeans so we could suspend service for a day. I will change my travel plans and not go to Europe at all. And we are supposed to waste our tax Dollars on this!
barbra ann
I’d still venture to say that commuter trains are MUCH safer than automobiles.
Hey.....enjoy the ride....
“Never let a crisis go to waste.”
and exactly HOW is that sentiment different from a car? Trains have the mass advantage, far and away.
I will take my PERSONAL space thank you...I would rather be paused on a crowded highway with my heat or AC at my level and my radio tuned to whatever...and the stench of human Body Odor being my own....Thank you very much.
To be rather honest, distances here are short enough not to cause much of a difference.
And the smell/look of women here is oft enough to change even the most stubborn of minds (i.e. mine.)
and I have driven my own car.
I will take a car every time.
“I’d still venture to say that commuter trains are MUCH safer than automobiles.”
I’m with you. So much emphasis is placed on airplane accidents and train mishaps. I don’t think most people know that we have approximately 46,000 deaths on our highways in the USA each year!
Just last week my daughter told me she was going to drive to visit friends who live 300 miles away. My first reaction was to tell her to either fly or take the train.
“I will change my travel plans and not go to Europe at all.”
Are you serious?
“Trains have the mass advantage, far and away.”
You can say that because you people living in Europe are are lucky to have your train system. It’s amazing, affordable, and oh so convenient!
YES! here in Stockholm I take the trains all the time, I find it to be a de-individualizing and humiliating experience. Probably the very reasons the socialists LOVE them. I swear they purposely design them with seats facing each other for those purposes also. When I get home in June, I vow to never ride another public transportation venue again.
You wanna know what’s even funnier? They aren’t cheap. It costs us more to buy 30 day subway cards than it cost to gas up a truck AND an SUV back in the states and drive them to our hearts content all over Phoenix for a month. Sometimes with the air conditioner running.
Get a grip
pay no attention to frankiep. You’re absolutely right about trains.
Lot of muzzies on those Stockholm trains?
Why? Public transportation is miserable. I have the same situation here in San Francisco. I have vowed to not ride public transportation ever again. The buses are a nightmare! Either I walk, or I take a taxi. And I hardly ever take a taxi.
I'm planning to buy a pedometer to find out how much I actually walk. I just read that one should walk 10,000 steps a day.
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