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In case you're a little like me and the prospect of bike commuting in a densely urban environment seems slightly intimidating, you might be in luck. In the future, you'll be able to slide into a human-sized plastic tube, recline and pedal yourself to work along a monorail system. Yes. Really. The idea for a human monorail stemmed, unsurprisingly from a recreational setup in Rotorua, New Zealand. There, visitors could get into a velodrome racetrack consisting of clear plastic pods that move forward with recumbent cycling. Participants can pedal madly against each other, trying to win the adventure ride. Now...

It's the ARC tunnel or nothing at all. WHY ARE we so intent on making the perfect the enemy of the good? The Access to the Region's Core tunnel project has been subject to a lot of criticism lately — most of it directed at particular elements of the project that detractors see as falling somewhere short of perfection. Yet considering the extremely difficult physical constraints an infrastructure project of this magnitude has to overcome in an already intensely developed region, the ARC tunnel has emerged from 20 years of exhaustive study as the best possible solution for meeting the...

County executive says using existing rail lines would be more than $3 billion cheaper than adding lanes to I-70Blue Springs, MO — Proponents of a metro commuter rail system offered some new details Thursday and again stressed that such a system is needed for Kansas City to keep up economically with cities from Denver to Indianapolis to Omaha. “It’s a major issue if we’re to begin to think about how to compete the next 10, 15, 20 years,” Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders said at the monthly Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Sanders has been rolling out his Kansas...

Few elected officials have ever inherited a public works project that promised as many benefits as the proposed Hudson River commuter train tunnel is supposed to deliver to the constituents of Gov. Chris Christie. Advocates for the project, which would add a second pair of tracks between New Jersey and Manhattan, say it will reduce traffic congestion and pollution, shorten commuting times, increase suburban property values and create 6,000 construction jobs. Before Mr. Christie became New Jersey’s governor in January, the state’s elected officials had already lined up $6 billion for the project from agencies outside the state. Despite everything...

Weekend test run from Niles could become permanent.NILES — Need to be in Chicago early — say, 7:30 a.m. — and don't want to drive? At least this weekend, Amtrak is making it possible for people who live in southwestern Michigan. Rick Harnish, of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, announced Tuesday that Amtrak, over Labor Day weekend, will add, on a test run basis, a fifth train on its Chicago-Detroit corridor that will provide service between Chicago and Kalamazoo. Among the stops will be Niles and the beachfront station in New Buffalo. According to Harnish, if enough riders respond...

The city of Ramsey needs congressional help to get $3.5 million in federal funds to help build a new passenger rail station for the Northstar Commuter Rail service, a necessary component of a 400-acre transit-oriented commercial development. To finance the rail station, the city first applied unsuccessfully for $1.4 million in federal transit funds. Officials said the $1.4 million funding request was not in Sixth District Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann’s final list of appropriations. They are soliciting her support for this latest request of $3.5 million they hope will be part of the next authorization bill. “She was more than happy...

Some New Yorkers who take the railroad to the city may soon enjoy an amenity more common to Paris than Ossining: the double-decker ride. The Metro-North Railroad is seriously considering buying double-decker coaches for its Harlem and Hudson commuter lines, in a move to ease overcrowding on a rail network that routinely runs standing-room-only trains during rush hour. Two-level trains cost the same as their single-story counterparts, and can carry a third more passengers. And railroad officials insist that size would not be a problem: the taller trains could be designed to fit the narrow clearance of the tunnel to...

Americans are now getting our of their cars and taking to light rail services in growing numbers. When Judy Garland sang: “Ring, ring, ring, went the trolley / Ding, ding, ding, went the bell” in the Trolley Song in 1944’s movie Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), she was celebrating the trolley car, the all-American streetcar that summed up down town US cities from the 1900s to the 1940s. No city worth its name would have failed to build a streetcar system as a form of civic pride.In the 1940s, a mix of vested interest and the growing levels of...

Project has $171M in financing, but much work remainsOnce viewed as a possible relief valve during major reconstruction of Route 28, a commuter rail line proposed for the Allegheny Valley remains a distant dream. With construction of the North Side section of Route 28 set to begin next month and disrupt traffic through the fall of 2014, the rail line to Downtown Pittsburgh, talked about for more than a decade, has yet to advance beyond preliminary studies. Robert Ardolino, a consultant to the Allegheny Valley Railroad, which has been offering to provide commuter service along its line since 1999, said...

COLUMBUS - While passenger trains are still at least two years away from running on a "Three-C" corridor for which Ohio has obtained federal stimulus money, state officials have begun looking at what they hope will be a second phase, which would include two Toledo routes. The Ohio Rail Development Commission has signed a $7.8 million contract with AECOM, a Los Angeles engineering firm, to assess what would need to be done to institute 110-mph passenger trains on four routes, including Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland and Toledo-Columbus. The study also would address a Cleveland-Pittsburgh route and upgrading the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati route, over which trains...

It seems like everything in Washington these days is politically charged — economic recovery, health care and Wall Street reform, to name a few. Unfortunately and often without good reason, transportation becomes one of them. William Lind, a respected figure in right-wing circles, is adamant that public transportation shouldn’t be, explaining why in “Rail Against the Machine,” featured in this month’s American Conservative magazine — part of a special package in American Conservative on public transportation with contributions from a host of special authors. Lind is the co-author with the late Paul Weyrich of a recent book called “Moving Minds:...

National Membership Reaches Record of 33 StatesRhode Island is the newest member of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition (www.s4prc.org), bringing the coalition membership to a record 33 states. Rhode Island’s membership also means the entire Northeast is now a member of the coalition. Established in early 2000, the States for Passenger Rail Coalition is an alliance of state departments of transportation that supports intercity passenger rail initiatives and advocates for federal funding. Since its inception, the coalition has successfully advocated for greater and more stable federal funding for intercity passenger rail service. The coalition was instrumental in obtaining the...

Every morning, commuters and tourists board Amtrak's Northeast Regional in Lynchburg, headed for cities including Charlottesville, Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Richard White is a health care industry consultant who lives in Southwest Roanoke County and spends about half of each week in Washington, D.C.Radford resident Peggy Lester owns and runs laundromats and a car wash with her husband. She takes an annual trip with her girlfriend, Sandy Davis.Jim and Mary Lou Lewis live in Blue Ridge. He's retired from Norfolk Southern Corp. and is a Major League Baseball fan. She likes to listen to music by James Taylor...

My partner and I recently thought it would be fun to take Amtrak from Los Angeles to San Diego and back, about 130 miles each way, for a getaway. But the cost, more than $120 total for two, nixed that plan, and we drove our Prius instead. Our gas tab for the trip was about $20. Why are Amtrak fares that high?In an interview in Los Angeles last week, Joseph Boardman, president and chief executive of the subsidized inter-city passenger train operator, defended his company’s pricing.“The taxpayer expects us to charge what we need to charge,” he said.As it is,...

I just returned from a trip to see a friend in Baltimore, heading north and returning south by way of an Amtrak train. Basically a day’s worth of travel both ways, it was an experience I don’t think I’ll forget. My first impression as we moved from Greensboro east to Rocky Mount was that the world of the train line can be likened to the “innards” of America. It oftentimes passes the unglamorous portions of our society and along its route you’ll see other sometimes defunct and decrepit organs, but those which are nevertheless still vital to the overall existence...

North Station stops, total of 20 trips a day in planCentral Massachusetts commuters may have more rail options in about two years when CSX Corp. completes its expansion project in Worcester and the state is able to add more passenger trains. Rather than ending at South Station in Boston, some of those new trains may end at North Station, by way of Cambridge, “linking the Worcester biotech hub with the MIT-Cambridge biotech hub,” said Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray. State transportation officials are planning to add trains between Worcester and Boston in 2012 so there will be at least 20...

CANAAN — The only time "All Aboard" and "Tickets, please" have been heard in this part of the world since 1971 is when special summer train excursions are organized by railroad museums. The Housatonic Railroad Co. now says it wants to bring back passenger service permanently on its line between Danbury and Pittsfield, Mass. "We're going ahead with our own study to determine whether passenger service is viable," John Hanlon, company president, said Friday. "We believe that the potential exists for a successful service, but we need sound ridership and market data to see if that's true." Hanlon said his...

There’s no better way to travel than by train. It beats the heck out of driving. The seats are more comfortable and spacious than in a car (or an airplane, for that matter) plus you have the freedom to get up and move around whenever you feel like it. There are dining and café cars and, perhaps most importantly, bathrooms. It’s also a lot less hassle than air travel, and cheaper, too. To ride the rails from Lynchburg, all you have to do is buy your ticket, show up at the station and hop on. Our roundtrip tickets ran us...

LYNCHBURG - Riding the rails from Lynchburg to Washington D.C. and beyond beats expectations so far. The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) says the latest ridership data for March shows the Lynchburg train exceeded the annual ridership goal of 51,000, with 55,025 passengers during the first six months of operation. The train also beat on the money front, bringing in more than $2.8 million. The original goal was just under $2.6 million. The DRPT says the number of riders increased from 8,585 in october of 2009, to 11,365 in March. The March total was also the highest...

<p>It was a cheeky and unexpected sight that greeted commuters as they boarded a Tube into work. But the four naked men and women certainly livened up the usually dull journey for many people – attracting gasps from stunned workers. Carrying handbags or briefcases to cover their modesty – and wearing shoes – the nudes travelled on escalators and rode in the carriages as though their lack of suitable attire was completely normal.</p>

STAMFORD -- On Thursday afternoon, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that plans are in the works to more than double the number of parking spaces at the city train station at South State Street and Washington Boulevard. Currently 1,200 spaces are available in the parking structure south of the train platform -- which serves Metropolitan Transit Authority and Amtrak routes -- and the multi-phase project could increase that number to close to 3,200 spots. "We are standing here in one the busiest commuter rail stations -- outside of Grand Central Station (in New York City), along one of the busiest...

Custom web design and development company Magnetic awards winners of the Transportation Conversation Contest at the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Community Conversation Breakfast. The Grand Prize, a $10,000 website upgrade, goes to law firm Andrews & Manno, LLC. Tampa, FL (Vocus/PRWEB ) March 9, 2010 -- Tampa based web design and development firm Magnetic awarded the winners of the “Transportation Conversation” video contest today during the Tampa Bay Business Journal's Community Conversation Breakfast, which was held this morning at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. “Our goal with this contest was to demonstrate how social media and traditional media can be...

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi officials say foreign firms will be invited to take part in a tender to build an elevated monorail and subway lines in Baghdad to help reduce traffic in the congested capital, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reports. Baghdad Mayor Salih Abdel Razzak said the monorail in particular will help unsnarl a city notorious for its traffic jams. Iraqi railways Director Rafil Yussef Abbas told RFI that the planned monorail line, whose cost is estimated at $3 billion, should be 36 kilometers long and have 13 stations in Baghdad. He said it should be able to carry 23 million...

Amtrak's promise last year of putting Internet service in Acela trains happened quite quickly: For a chronically underfunded government-like operation, Amtrak managed to get Wi-Fi installed fast in its Northeast high-speed Acela line after it said it planned to do so. The service, free for the interim, is in all 20 Acela trains. Amtrak has also made Wi-Fi service free in the six stations that serve Acela, and in Acela lounges. (The Wilmington Station will get unwired when renovations are completed in early 2011.) Amtrak may wind up using Wi-Fi as yet another tool to bring passengers out of the...

Cheap speed in all weather, Fazio says; build 'em here, tooA well-known Long Island business advocate pitched the benefits of superconducting magnetic-levitation trains for the local economy to Suffolk lawmakers Friday. Maglev trains, as they are known, hover above magnetized tracks along which they are propelled at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour. The latest maglev technology can accelerate a train from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 11 seconds, and stop it faster than conventional trains through instant reversal of the magnetic pulses pushing the vehicle, according to Long Island Metro Business Action President Ernie Fazio,...

Authorities on Tuesday closed a major bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland after a cable on its upper deck snapped during the evening commute.

No, it wasn't your imagination. Pants were in short supply along four lines of the New York City subway system on Saturday. The No Pants! Subway Ride, organized by Improv Everywhere each January, is a chance for New Yorkers to ride the rails unencumbered by the burden of jeans, slacks or trousers. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/Undeground-Pants-Down.html

They are the "6:01ers," commuters who have found their own trick to beating the Washington area's traffic gridlock. They lie in wait in strip mall parking lots and park illegally on the side of the road near high-occupancy vehicle ramps, waiting for the clock to strike 6:01 p.m. -- when the carpool lanes on Interstate 95/395 open up to all vehicles, not just those with three or more occupants. If drivers can hit the lanes as soon as they open to all traffic, their reward is a rocket ride from the Pentagon home -- without the need to pick up...

Heated comments flew around the room as more than 175 citizens gathered to voice their opinions at the TxDOT open house and public hearing on the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor held at the Humble Civic Center on Feb. 28, 2008. Congress designated I-69 as a high priority corridor in 1991 and again in 1998. In 2002, TxDOT unveiled the Trans-Texas Corridor project to accommodate Texas' future transportation needs. The TTC is a part of a 4,000-mile system of rail lines, truck and car lanes and concentrated utility routes to improve international and intrastate movement of goods and people from Canada to the...

For most of us facing gridlocked roads and packed trains, the Monday morning commute is a more pressing concern than climate change. Staggering rush hours could tackle climate change But there may be a single solution to both, according to business leaders. The Institute of Directors is calling for flexible hours and more home working to help tackle global warming. Miles Templeman, the institute's director-general, said offering employees greater flexibility would ease pressure on transport networks and cut rush-hour power demand - thereby reducing emissions. Mr Templeman urged ministers not to rush into policies that risked harming the economy, such...

Americans commute earlier and longer: studyTue Oct 17, 2006 8:33 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans are leaving home earlier to get work, fewer are walking, and more are driving alone, according to a study of commuting trends released on Monday.The study, published by the Transportation Research Board, found people are also taking longer to reach their workplaces, with the number of people with commutes lasting more than 60 minutes growing by almost 50 percent between 1990 and 2000.Alan Pisarski, author of the study 'Commuting in America III,' said the average national travel times among the nation's 128 million...

I remember when I first drove through Collin County several years ago and thought, "Why do all these people live so far away?" It took me a while to realize that these crazy people out in the sticks didn't live far away – not far away from the things that mattered to them: their churches, their shopping centers, their favorite restaurants and even their jobs. Now that I live in East Dallas and work downtown, I run into the very kind of naïve, shallow thinking I was guilty of when I first experienced Collin County. Can you believe they are...

Gunmen kill 21 commuters near BaghdadBy QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 11 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen dragged passengers off a buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21 people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared four Sunni Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent weeks. Serwan Shokir, the mayor of Qara Tappah, said one other person was wounded in the early morning attack. He said there were 26 people on three mini headed from his town to Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The 12 slain students were apparently headed for Baqouba...

So maybe it does pay to drive a lot. Back in January, we told you about a Midas contest to see who has the longest commute. Dave Givens of Mariposa, Calif., won the grand prize of $10,000 in gas money for driving 186 miles every day to work. Rick Dow, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Midas, said in a news release that all that gas money sure will come in handy. "Let's face it, he needs all the help he can get," Dow said. Givens, an electrical engineer in San Jose, Calif., drives 372 miles round trip,...

PHOENIX-- Gas prices continue to soar to record levels in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the out-of-control costs may force some homebuyers to rethink ... about where to live.While comparatively low home prices on the outskirts of the Valley have encouraged sprawl..., it's also becoming a lot more expensive to live far from where you work....With Valley gas prices approaching $3 per gallon, a 70-mile, round-trip commute in a car getting 20 MPG will run you $10.50 per day. ... A gas-guzzling SUV will cost you even more. Stuart Banks, chief operating officer of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of...

CHICAGO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Commuters cruise down Interstate 95 from New York City to Washington, D.C., bumper to bumper, at a speed of 120 miles per hour -- about a two-hour trip at that speed. Do they worry about collisions? Not at all. They can even check the Dow Jones industrial average or browse new books on Amazon.com while they motor. By Gene Koprowski

ARLINGTON, Va. – Instead of crawling out of bed at 4 a.m. to beat the morning rush, Frank Murphy sleeps late these days. He says he owes it all to his hybrid car – and a law that has some of his fellow commuters upset. Drivers of the environmentally friendly cars are allowed to cruise solo in Virginia's car pool lanes, slicing Murphy's daily two-hour commute in half. And since buying a hybrid 18 months ago, Murphy is leaving his home as much as three hours later. "The quality of life has gone up tremendously," he said. But Murphy's joy...

London commuters showed their determination to return to normal today, boarding trains and buses in their thousands to get to work.Less than 24 hours after the capital came under terrorist attack, and despite continued disruption to the Tube network, many people made clear they would not let their lives be affected. Sonia Crosby, station manager at Reading, Berkshire, said passengers were in "resilient" mood. She said: "People are wanting to get back to normal. It won't stop anyone going back to work and that's what makes Great Britain great really. "Yesterday there was confusion, today there is resilience, and our...

Police reports for the first 25 vehicle accidents involving the Metro light rail reveal only one fact for certain: Aries are the safest drivers. The collisions began Nov. 19 although the light-rail system didn't open to the public until Jan. 1. The list keeps growing -- it hit 31 Monday -- but this roundup focuses on the 25 pioneers, a diverse group. Officers don't ask for drivers' horoscope signs, but a check of birth dates reveals no Aries among the crashers. But it seems Geminis like to drive on the wild side. There are two Marys and a Maria in...

Unless a judge intervenes, the only exit ramp ferrying traffic from the Southwest Freeway into Midtown and downtown will close this week for a three-year reconstruction, leaving drivers across the Houston region scrambling to find alternate routes. U.S. District Judge David Hittner is expected to rule as early as today on a request by area residents to force the Texas Department of Transportation to delay tearing down the inbound lanes of Spur 527. The West Alabama Quality of Life Coalition argues that the neighborhoods surrounding the spur and freeway will suffer "irreparable harm" from the flood of traffic looking to...

Radio host infuriates cyclists By BRUCE SICELOFF, Staff Writer G105 radio host Bob Dumas told listeners last week that he just hated to see bicycle riders on the road. He laughed at stories about running cyclists down, and he talked up the idea of throwing bottles at bikers. It wasn't funny to cycling enthusiasts across the Triangle. This week they are lobbying government officials and local advertisers in a campaign to punish radio station WDCG and its corporate owner, Clear Channel of San Antonio, and to promote bicycle safety."One caller said her dad had purposely hit a biker on the...

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...

The rich would get richer while the poor would pay more. Mayor Bloomberg's plan to hike property taxes, cut city income taxes and make commuters share the pain adds up to a direct hit on the middle class, a study obtained by the Daily News found. And while the proposal just happens to benefit the wealthy mayor, it doesn't take Bloomberg's billions to come out ahead under his plan. The goal of the mayor's approach is to raise $3 billion from suburban commuters by having them pay city income taxes. But a little-noticed aspect of the plan is that two-thirds...

Washington DC; District Appeals to U.S. For Tax on Commuters