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Soaring gas prices and higher airfares are causing Ameri cans to take a closer look at their rail system ___ The storybook plight of the Little Engine That Could, struggling to make it up a mountain, is a pretty apt metaphor for America's rail system. Limited access, outdated equipment and high ticket prices have been the sorry story of Amtrak, the nation's principal rail carrier, from its beginning—pushing most would-be riders to other ways of getting around. But $4-a-gallon gas and chaotic airways are working in Amtrak's favor. In an era when green is hip and mileage matters, trains can't...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed his support behind a costly high-speed rail system in California. Schwarzenegger told NBC11 he wants California to lead the way in transporting commuters across the state at near-record speeds while reducing global warming at the same time. Critics have said the state's proposed high-speed rail system is too costly and too good to be true, NBC11's Mike Luery reported. On the very spot where the Transcontinental Railroad was established nearly 140 years ago, Schwarzenegger told Luery that a less-than-three-hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles represents the type of progress that...

Record prices for gasoline and jet fuel should be good news for Amtrak, as travelers look for alternatives to cut the cost of driving and flying. And they are good news, up to a point. Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month. But the railroad, and its suppliers, have shrunk so much, largely because of financial constraints, that they would have difficulty growing quickly to meet the demand. Many of the long-distance trains are already sold...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Plans for a levitating train from Las Vegas to Disneyland can move forward under a transportation bill signed by President Bush on Friday that frees up $45 million for the futuristic project. Derided by critics as pie in the sky, the train would use magnetic levitation technology to carry passengers from Disneyland to Las Vegas in well under two hours, traveling at speeds of up to 300 mph. It would be the first MagLev system in the U.S. The money is the largest cash infusion in the project's nearly 20-year history. It will pay for environmental studies...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Plans for a levitating train from Las Vegas to Disneyland can move forward under a transportation bill signed by President Bush on Friday that frees up $45 million for the futuristic project. Derided by critics as pie in the sky, the train would use magnetic levitation technology to carry passengers from Disneyland to Las Vegas in well under two hours, traveling at speeds of up to 300 mph. It would be the first MagLev system in the U.S. The money is the largest cash infusion in the project's nearly 20-year history. It will pay for environmental studies...

BARRINGTON, Ill. -- Mayor Karen Darch's phone started ringing minutes after one of North America's largest railroads announced plans to more than quadruple the number of freight trains rumbling daily through this upscale Chicago suburb. The protest has since grown to a roar. The number of trains would jump from just a few to about 20 a day, with some stretching more than a mile and blocking every through road in this 140-year-old village of 10,000 people. The mayor said she fears the trains will further snarl roads already prone to backing up, and that visitors to Barrington's boutiques and...

As the airline industry has run into turbulence prompted by high fuel costs, Amtrak and its Northeast Corridor service that connects Providence, Boston, New York and Washington have kept chugging along. Amtrak said increases in ridership and ticket revenues resulted from increasing gasoline prices, competitive advantages over the airlines and improved service on trains. Recently released figures for the month of March show the national passenger railroad had an overall 12.9-percent increase in ticket revenues over last year, beating the company’s budget by 10.5 percent. Ticket revenues totaled $143 million in March. The Northeast Corridor’s gains for the same period...

The unsolicited interest shown by the global investment bank, Goldman Sachs, in a Humboldt Bay container port and North Coast railroad revival shakes up the conventional wisdom of many that there would be ice cubes in hell before anyone would cough up millions of dollars for those projects. Goldman Sachs has its fingers in major deals around the world as adviser to large corporations, governments and wealthy families and individuals. They're a top dealer in federal securities, guide giant mergers, and put together some of the biggest private equity deals. Its vice-president for public sector banking, Jeffrey Holt, wrote a...

Maryland transit officials have determined that riders on a light rail Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton would make up to 68,000 trips daily, a number that supporters said yesterday would only grow as gas prices soar. This compares with about 260,000 daily trips for Metro's Red Line and 175,000 daily trips for the Orange Line. Dulles Metrorail is projected to have about 85,700 daily boardings in the first phase. The state's more detailed estimates also show that a 16-mile east-west Purple Line would reduce travel times, particularly for people stuck on slow and unreliable buses to get to...

Absolutely chuffed! What happened when 30 grown men gave up 18 years to build a steam train Last updated at 9:59 PM on 30th May 2008 Ask any child to draw a picture of a train and you will invariably get the same result: a cylindrical boiler shape, with some big wheels underneath, a cab and a chimney belching steam and smoke at the front. In other words, the classic railway locomotive. Nobody draws a picture of a diesel or an electric train. To a child there is only one noise a train can make: 'choo choo'. Plenty of enthusiasts...

LEBANON, Maine—Authorities say two teenage girls apparently sunbathing on a railroad trestle were struck and seriously injured by a freight train in Lebanon, Maine, on the New Hampshire border. more stories like this Police Chief Mark McGowan in Milton, N.H., says the engineer sounded the horn and tried to stop but the train struck the 13- and 14-year-old girls late Wednesday morning. McGowan tells Foster's Daily Democrat the girls were sunning themselves on the tracks and may have fallen asleep. Lebanon Fire Chief Skip Wood says both girls suffered amuptation injuries. The newspaper says one of the girls lost a...

What initially looked to be a frightening infectious disease outbreak that led to the death of one woman aboard a Via Rail train turned out to be a remarkable series of unconnected coincidences, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, explained during a Friday afternoon press conference. The elderly woman died during the train ride from Vancouver to Toronto, but health officials say she likely didn't have an infectious disease. Six other passengers also fell ill, with the most serious being rushed to hospital with a respiratory illness of some sort. Officials, however, believe that passenger was suffering...

A Via Rail train, carrying more than 260 passengers to Toronto, has been quarantined in Foleyet, Ont. after one person died and several people fell ill. "Currently there are a few people who are seriously ill on the train and one person is being airlifted right now," OPP Sgt. Laura Nichols told CTV.ca from the North Bay Communications Centre. The train was quarantined at the train depot in Foleyet, a community near Sudbury, Ont., after officials notified police that someone was feeling ill. More than 260 people were aboard the train when it stopped in Foleyet. Police believe there are...

Federal transportation officials today told Congress and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) that they have approved the proposed 23-mile extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, reversing their announcement in January that the project was unfit for federal funding. In a letter to Kaine and in a 10 a.m. conference call with the governor and Virginia congressional leaders, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the $5 billion project had finally met the Federal Transit Administration's standards for cost efficiency, construction and expected ridership. The project will now move into the final design phase, a major step toward receiving $900...

A tractor-trailer careened into a busy local train station here during the evening rush hour on Friday, killing two people and injuring nearly two dozen others just south of downtown in Chinatown. Witnesses described hearing a deafening screech then the tremendous roar of the truck slamming into the street-level waiting area of the elevated train station, a bustling stop on the Red Line which runs a north-south route through the downtown Loop. The truck crashed through the glass front of the station, Cermak-Chinatown, and caused the escalators to collapse. Eleven people, four of them children, were in critical condition...

Want to invest in a green industry that employs the latest technology, reduces U.S. oil consumption and is priced very attractively? Look no further than the railroads. Laggards for decades after the 19th-century boom ended, they're hot again. "There was steady traffic growth until last year, and the trend looks good once the economy gets back up to speed," says Kenneth Kremar, an economist who follows the railroad industry for consulting firm Global Insight. Perhaps that's why railroad stocks have largely escaped the battering that other sectors have taken so far this year. Of course, their business could still be...

Cars have been a huge part of our lives. We use them to get around anywhere. It might have been the best invention mankind came up with, but we all hate several common things about cars, such as the cost of gas prices and traffic. We think sometimes in our imagination how awesome it would be if cars had wings, so maybe one day we will fly through terrific! We also despise accidents, high insurance and drunk driving. Sometimes, I feel that we need other alternative means of transportation, such as a subway system in the state of Texas; maybe...

Zipping through California on a 220-mph bullet train – in just 2 1/2 hours from Los Angeles to San Francisco, it's being said – is certainly a romantic concept. They do it in Europe and in Japan, bullet train devotees say, so why not do it in California and relieve highway and airport congestion? California voters may get a chance to answer the question in November. An often-postponed $10 billion bond issue to provide initial financing for the system that would link the state's northern and southern regions through the San Joaquin Valley is finally likely to make the ballot....

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

Allegedly he was causing a disturbance on the train and the conductor attempted to move him to another part of the train, that’s when he said he had a bomb and the bomb was in his bag” says Emporia Police Chief Bernard Richardson. Around 2am the bomb squad determined the threat was a hoax. The Yemeni man was taken into custody by the FBI and is facing a felony charge of making a threat on a public conveyance. The hundreds of passengers were finally able to continue on their way.

SOFIA - A fire on a Bulgarian train that killed nine people last week was a terrorist attack, an expert said Friday, heightening speculation over the deaths. ‘The train was intentionally torched and not just by one, but by several terrorists,’ Christo Smolenov, who was in charge of training defence ministry special forces in the 1990s, told the Trud daily in an interview published Friday. ‘If it was a terrorist act, it would represent a signal that must be recognised. If we close our eyes, the terrorists will be tempted to do it again,’ he also told national television. Smolenov...

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

n a bulletin released Friday to U.S. law enforcement officials, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning of “continued strong terrorist interest” in targeting mass transit systems in the U.S. The 10-page threat assessment, labeled “Unclassified/For Official Use Only” and obtained by NBC News, cautions that the “U.S. mass transit and passenger rail systems are vulnerable to terrorist attacks because they are accessible to large numbers of the public and are notoriously difficult to secure.” Previous rail attacks in Madrid, London and Mumbai “could inspire terrorists to conduct similar attacks in the United States,” the report adds. However, the authors...

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...

The Nacogdoches County commissioners court voted Tuesday to support numerous community members who have recently turned out in droves opposing the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor by adopting a resolution against the project. The resolution is expected to be sent to the Texas Department of Transportation and to the governor's office. Precinct 4 Commissioner Tom Strickland said that it's apparent most people in Nacogdoches County approved of the original project — a standard Interstate roadway. But now most are opposed to the large TTC structure. 145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox II submitted a map that showed several oil and gas wells...

A handful of Kendleton residents were among several dozen to speak out against the Trans-Texas Corridor at a public hearing Monday night in Rosenberg. “I personally think it's a slap in the face for Texas to take the land for pennies on the dollar, to put a road on it and to make you pay a toll for it,� said Jeremy West, one of the speakers from Kendleton. The Trans-Texas Corridor is a proposal for a network of highways, rail lines and utilities throughout Texas that would be financed by private interests who would seek to profit through tolls and...

HEMPSTEAD -- The Trans Texas Corridor may be the most controversial highway ever built in Texas. That is, if it ever gets built. All month, there have been public hearings throughout the area where people have been showing up in droves to oppose it. People don’t drive very fast on Odis Styers’ family ranch near Hempstead, but TxDOT wants that to change. “It’s quiet, it’s peaceful,” Styers said. “It’s a shame a road is gonna mess it up.” The road is the Trans Texas Corridor. The plans call for it to come through here, and with it: separate lanes for...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Amtrak passengers will be subjected to random screening of their carry-on bags as part of a new security initiative that will include armed officers and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains, an Amtrak spokeswoman said Monday. Details of the new effort, which were first reported by The Associated Press, will be announced Tuesday, the spokeswoman, Tracey Connell, said.

TEXAS CITY — A massive superhighway that Texans have protested at public hearings statewide drew heated opposition among Galveston County residents, who said they feared the toll road would cripple the local shipping industry and do nothing to improve insufficient hurricane evacuation routes. The Trans-Texas Corridor would wind from Laredo to Corpus Christi, wrap around the western edge of Greater Houston, parallel Interstate 59 through East Texas and leave the state in Texarkana. But residents at a public hearing Thursday night in Texas City questioned the real purpose for the road, which would also be part of a national Interstate...

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

LOS ANGELES -- A plan to accelerate transportation in the region with a $26 billion high-speed train system has received initial approval from the Los Angeles City Council as it created a joint-powers agreement with neighboring cities. The move Wednesday marked the first step in negotiations to solidify an Atlanta-based firm's proposal to construct a magnetic-levitation train system that would start at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, run through downtown and eventually reach Ontario Airport, the Daily News reported. Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith said American Maglev Technology would foot the bill for the system and...

To the delight of Judy Twesme and other residents, the piercing sound of train whistles will soon fade from Downtown Madison neighborhoods. The city, which installed $900,000 in gates and flashing lights at 10 crossings in the last two years, has finally won federal approval for three "quiet zones " Downtown beginning Jan. 30."People are really, really excited, " said Twesme, a Bassett neighborhood resident. "People aren 't able to sleep through the night. I 'm one of those people. Sleep depravation is not a good thing. " "The romantic notion of a railroad is not there if there is...

A multi-billion euro showcase project aimed at getting Europe’s trains to run seamlessly from one country to another is unnecessarily complex and has been poorly managed, prompting a series of costly delays, according to leading figures in the sector. The European Rail Traffic Management System has been hampered by the need to accommodate widely differing operating practices from across the Continent into a single system, according to industry figures who now question whether it was wise for Brussels to press ahead with the venture without first integrating rules. The project is the latest in a long line of ambitious, pan-European...

The American Institute of Architects Honolulu Chapter (AIA Honolulu) has taken a position that rejects the Mayor's plan for an elevated rail line. In a letter sent to the Mayor on Friday, the organization says, "AIA Honolulu joins many other community groups in our sentiment that an elevated guideway will create a blight, particularly in our urban environments, and will obstruct otherwise protected mauka/makai view corridors. Not only are elevated alignments the most invasive of the technology options, they are a far more expensive option than at-grade systems. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that of all the fixed...

The first bullet train designed and manufactured in China with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour rolled off the production line on Saturday morning. The train was the latest model in the country's China Railway High-speed (CRH) Series. "This marks that China has joined an elite world club after Japan, France and Germany to become the fourth country capable of turning out such high speed trains," said Wang Yongping, Ministry of Railways spokesman. Previously, China's fastest self-developed trains ran at a service speed of up to 250 km per hour. Those trains, which debuted on April 18, serve the...

Paju (11 December 2007) - After more than a half century, North and South Korea have restored a rail link. The first freight train passed the heavily-guarded border between the two countries on Tuesday. The first train to North Korea transported curbstones for road building. Freight trains between the two Koreas are to become a daily occurrence; it is hoped that rail traffic will eventually be opened to passengers. Rail links were broken during the Korean War in the early 1950s.

Breaking news: Amtrak passenger train and a freight train collide on Chicago's South Side.

The Alameda County Coroner's office identified a man hit and killed by a train at the Berkeley Amtrak station this morning as Scott Slaughter, 31, of Berkeley. A coroner's office spokeswoman said Slaughter was talking on his cell phone on his way to work at Truitt & White lumber store when he was hit at 8:15 a.m. The lumber yard and an adjoining business share a gate in a fence that runs along the tracks where Slaughter was heading, the spokeswoman said. According to witnesses, Slaughter waited for one train to pass on a first set of tracks. After the...

For true sci-fi fans, any mention of a real-world rail gun will draw an instant, slightly audible gasp. Instead of relying on chemical propellants—such as gunpowder—a rail gun uses magnetic “rails” to launch a solid, nonexplosive projectile at incredible speed. Theoretically, rail guns would be able to precisely strike targets at extreme ranges, and would negate the risks associated with carrying around tons of explosive ammo. More to the point, they’re cool-sounding, just like lasers. Which is why the news that BAE Systems has delivered a functional, 32-megajoule Electro-Magnetic Laboratory Rail Gun (32-MJ LRG) to the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare...

CNN reporting that there has been a train derailment in Washington, DC. 5 cars of a CSX freight train have fallen into the Anacostia River. No reported injuries at the moment.

A train derailed near the Lubrizol Corp. plant in Painesville after striking a gas line shortly after noon today, according to authorities. Several of the cars that derailed are on fire, with flames shooting 20 to 30 feet in the air. Three of the cars that derailed were not burning. Several area fire departments and the local hazardous-materials management team have responded to the blaze and can be seen fighting the fire, which is pouring thick, black smoke into the air toward the southeast. Smoke is visible several miles away. Flames have been reported to be visible at least a...

When the latest model of Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train, was launched on July 1, more than 1300 people showed up at 6 am on a Sunday to pack the seats for the maiden voyage, from Tokyo to Fukuoka. The Series N700 is billed by Japan Railways as the world’s fastest bullet train in service (France’s faster TGV train has been used only to break speed records), with a top speed of 186 mph. It’s the first bullet train to be equipped with an air spring-powered active tilting system, allowing it to whip around corners without slowing down. Special fabric...

Germany has come up with the funds to launch its first magnetic levitation - or maglev - rail service. The state of Bavaria is to build the high-speed railway line from Munich city centre to its airport, making it Europe's first commercial track.

The Interstate 69 corridor, a Mexico-to-Canada concept discussed since 1991, has received government recognition as a "corridor of the future," a designation that immediately means $800,000 in federal money for studies. Local officials say it could mean more trade in South Texas. The corridor -- a 2,680-mile international trade route from Mexico to Canada also known as the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 -- was one of two designated Tuesday as corridors of the future. Interstate 10 from California to Florida also received recognition. Hailed as a route that would facilitate trade resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement, I-69's Texas portion...

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.

These are boom times for Amtrak. The passenger railway is seeing big increases in ridership on the Northeast Corridor and other routes that provide fast, reliable, comfortable service. Medium-distance commuters are finding it's better to ride a train than sit in an airliner for hours on the tarmac or battle urban traffic jams after landing. The Bush administration, meanwhile, continues to press its vision for Amtrak, though in a somewhat desultory manner. The president essentially wants to take the money-losing long-distance routes out of the hands of Congress and let more pragmatic state leaders decide their fate. The worst of...

60 injured, 38 'hospitalized'

MALAYA VISHERA, Russia (Reuters) -- A homemade bomb caused a Russian express train to derail, a railways spokeswoman said on Tuesday. "The cause of the accident, as ascertained by the competent organs, was a rupture of the railway tracks by an improvised explosive device," a spokeswoman for Russian Railways told Reuters. The train heading from Moscow to St Petersburg was derailed late on Monday, overturning carriages and wounding dozens of passengers. Russian Railways said in a statement it was the result of "unauthorized interference in the functioning of the train." One eyewitness said the derailment was preceded by two explosions....