Free Republic

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Amtrak wants to know how one of its trains took a wrong turn and got lost in the Philadelphia suburbs. Worried and baffled were most travelers at 30th Street Station Tuesday night. Mike Roberts of Coatesville said, “Wow, that’s crazy. That’s not professional at all. How could that happen?” It sounds wild, but Amtrak officials confirm it did happen and what they can tell us so far is this: Amtrak Train 644 that left 30th Street Station for New York City accidentally ended up on the SEPTA tracks. The train actually traveled several miles before the mistake...

In a Sunday morning report which tries to put the best possible face on a project which appears to be on track to make the $22 billion "Big Dig" in Massachusetts look like a petty cash disbursement, Juliet Williams at the Associated Press claimed that the $68 billion involved thus far "would span the state." No it wouldn't, unless all of the formerly Golden State north of the San Francisco Bay Area — roughly one-fourth of the state's land mass — were to secede. Williams also wrote: "Voters in 2008 approved $10 billion in bonds to start construction on an...

just six percent (6%) of American Adults use mass transit services such as buses, subways, trains or ferries every day or nearly every day. ... three-out-of-four Americans (74%) say they rarely or never use mass transit

there's no reason to believe the Honolulu's rail project will do anything to improve traffic congestion. In fact, it's likely to divert resources from more-affordable solutions. "The one thing about these projects [is that] they are very inviting politically," says former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano. Along with Cliff Slater of Honolulutraffic.com and University of Hawaii's Roth, Cayetano has filed a federal lawsuit against the rail project that's held up construction. They claim the city misled the public about the total cost of the project and didn't deliver fully on a required review of alternative solutions to a rail line. Panos...

A head on collision involving two commuter trains in Switzerland has resulted in the injury of 44 people. The collision occurred between the cities of Moudon and Payerne at about 6:50 p.m. local time, reports said. It is unclear at this point what caused the collision to occur. "We don't know why this crash happened," Swiss Federal Railways spokesman Reto Schaerli told CNN. "There is currently no train service between these two cities until midnight tonight at least."

Fox is reporting a train has derailed in Connecticut. 20 to 25 injured. Two trains collided.

As the UN digs in its ever-sharper, global-grasping claws, there are less and less desirable places to relocate. The New World Order permeates and invades all. Agenda 21? This is how it is done in Australia. Been going on for years... We know a family who live in Sydney’s Parramatta. The oldest girl, now in her 80’s, lives in the family home which was built in the early 1900’s. She was invited to a meeting with Parramatta Council and she and others were told that the Council “could not tolerate” for much longer that there was only one or two...

<p>A government watchdog says Amtrak's train operators are testing positive for drugs and alcohol more and more frequently over the last six years.</p>

SHANGHAI — At least 11 people have died after two high-speed trains crashed into each other in China's eastern province of Zhejiang on Saturday causing two carriages to fall off a bridge, state news agency Xinhua reported. Another 89 people have been sent to hospital, it added. Each carriage could carry about 100 people, Xinhua said. The accident occurred after the first train was hit by lightning and lost power, and was then rear-ended by another bullet train, Xinhua added, citing provincial television. Pictures on state television's main news channel showed one carriage on the ground under the bridge, with...

The state's plan to build a bullet train has become a monument to the ways poor planning, mismanagement and political interference can screw up major public works. We can do better. California's much-vaunted high-speed rail project is, to put it bluntly, a train wreck. Intended to demonstrate the state's commitment to sustainable, cutting-edge transportation systems, and to show that the U.S. can build rail networks as sophisticated as those in Europe and Asia, it is instead a monument to the ways poor planning, mismanagement and political interference can screw up major public works. For anti-government conservatives, it is also a...

This week kicks off the 40th Anniversary of the money-sucking, inefficient, outmoded national rail system we call Amtrak. Let’s start with money. Amtrak loses bucketloads of money every day. The national rail system operates in the red, generating huge losses and has done so each and every year of its existence. And they are not shy about it. That’s over $1.2 billion in losses for the most recent year, putting the overall tab for this antiquated, bloated and inefficient system around $50 billion dollars of taxpayer money. The embarrassment of Amtrak has even struck a chord with someone who rallied...

In a time of lean state budgets, the Colorado Department of Transportation has launched an $800,000 study of the state’s railroads and created a new department to deal with railway and other transportation issues. It’s a move that could lay the groundwork for long-talked-about plans for high-speed trains from Pueblo through Colorado Springs to Fort Collins

Along with “Where?”, “When?” and “What?!?”, the three most insistent questions on the lips of would-be rail travellers in southern England over the past few days have been “Why, why, why?”. Now The Sunday Telegraph has an answer, of sorts. The almost total disappearance of trains from the network serving the capital from the south and east was due, it seems, to their sophisticated computer systems, which do not agree terribly well with a blend of third-rail electrification and icy conditions. A case of the wrong type of chips, perhaps?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WDTN) - In his first news conference as governor elect, John Kasich de-railed plans for high speed trains connecting Dayton to the rest of the state. In a press conference with reporters from around the state, Kasich outlined his priorities for taking Ohio into the future. "My message today is to get jobs going in this state," said Kasich. Political analysts said the economy is what helped Kasich win the election, now he wants the economy to win for Ohio. "We have to become competitive. We've got to show the people of this state that we can manage...

French commuters squeezed onto limited trains or fought for rare parking spots Thursday as a second round of strikes against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62 hobbled trains, planes and schools across the country. Fewer than half of the Paris Metro's lines were working normally, according to the RATP public transit network, and about half of France's long-distance trains were being canceled, according to the SNCF state-run rail system. The strikes are seen as a test for the conservative Sarkozy and are being watched elsewhere in Europe, as governments struggle to rein in costs with...

Commuters who ride PATCO trains between southern New Jersey and Philadelphia should expect random searches of their clothing, pockets, bags and vehicles on their morning trip to work.

Eurostar has set a record on its inaugural journey from Paris to London via a new high-speed line in Britain. The train, carrying journalists and VIPs, arrived at St Pancras, instead of Waterloo, for the first time. It took two hours, three minutes, 39 seconds.

Report says that more than $45 billion of the estimate is either in error or undocumented. The State Auditor's Office this morning released a report challenging the validity of almost half of a purported $86 billion shortfall in Texas transportation funding over the next generation, and cautioning that the gap estimate "may not be reliable for making policy or funding decisions." That $86 billion figure has been cited repeatedly by Texas Department of Transportation officials and some legislators as a major reason for the state's increasing need for new toll roads. The number is a compilation of estimates from local...