Free Republic

A groundbreaking ceremony has been slated for early next month for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorchester. The ceremony is to be held at the future site of the institute, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a statement from the institute said.

You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties. These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator...

Gov.-elect John Kasich is calling on Gov. Ted Strickland to immediately end two studies of the 3C passenger rail route across Ohio, saying the train plan is as good as dead under a Kasich administration. Strickland and his transportation director, Jolene Molitoris, should sever the 3C contracts right away, said Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Kasich. The governor-elect plans to communicate that in a letter to Strickland, Nichols said. "Given that the train is dead under John, no additional state or taxpayer dollars should be spent on this project," Nichols said. Kasich wants the Ohio Department of Transportation to terminate...

Trains are as American as apple pie and baseball, which, let's face it, have struggled in popularity since the advent of Breyer's ice cream and ACC basketball. Think Petticoat Junction. Think that old lonesome whistle. Think John Henry, steel-driving man. And don't forget "If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone," and Boxcar Willie, hoboes, Saturday morning "Soul Train," "Throw Mama from the Train," "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles," "I been working on the railroad" and, of course, Johnny Cash's "I hear that train a' coming." When I was a little starry-eyed girl, my friend...

The state's largest computer failure ever continues to hamstring key Virginia government agencies trying to handle their core duties this morning. Agencies across the state are wrestling with different types of problems as a result of computer server failures, which hinder their access to IT applications, shared information and stored data.

The high-speed rail line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is on track, but will still be a long time coming. Yesterday Israel Railways awarded the NIS 558 million tender for the second segment of the line to Minrav Engineering and Construction and Russian tunnel excavator Moscow Metrostroy. There are four segments on the new line to Jerusalem, and this is the last tender. The first segment from Modi'in to Latrun was completed last year at a cost of NIS 250 million; the third and fourth segments are already under construction. The cost of the entire project is estimated at NIS...

An article published on Tuesday in The New York Times reported that by official accounts, 2009 was a stellar year for the commuter railroads that serve New York City. Of all the trains that ran last year, the railroad said nearly 96 percent were on time. This was one of the best performances since they began keeping records. According to findings of an examination by The New York Times of more than 685,000 trips last year involving the region's three major commuter railroads, trips to and from Penn Station during rush hours were two-and-a-half times as likely to be late...

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) is in line to receive $150 million for the North and Southeast Corridor light-rail lines as part of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s fiscal-year 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill approved last week. The House version of the FY2011 appropriations bill set aside $152 million for the projects. The full House will vote on the bill later this week. The $150 million proposed by the Senate committee would be in addition to $150 million secured in FY2010, bringing the total amount of federal funds allocated for the two light-rail projects...

We all know the state highway department has been called the Texas Department of Transportation for eons, but admit it -- when you think of TxDOT you think of highways, right? Well that is supposed to be changing, ever so slowly. Under some pressure by the Legislature, TxDOT created a brand-new rail division and appointed its first-ever rail director. That chap, his name is Bill Glavin, has traipsed across the state asking voters what they have in mind, and is now just about finished with the Texas's first official statewide rail plan. Wednesday afternoon, the Texas highway chiefs will gather...

Land is being cleared, leveled for new bypass track in Vancouver Excavators are eating into a slope above BNSF Railway’s main line in the Fruit Valley neighborhood. The work is to prepare the site for a 3.2-mile-long set of bypass tracks designed to help ease a railroad chokepoint in Vancouver. The new line will run along the east side of the BNSF main line from downtown Vancouver all the way to the Fruit Valley Road overpass. Contractors demolished two old houses on the west-facing slope last week. BNSF is contracting to do the earthwork north of the 39th Street overpass,...

Passenger train service is making a comeback, a Centre County woman says.Central Pennsylvania had a thriving passenger service at one time, and now, "the public wants it back," says Susan Hochreiter, of the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society.Its popularity is rising across the United States, she added. The trick is making it happen."The bottom line is, how do you share a track with freight traffic?" she asked."It's not an easy exercise," said Richard Robey, owner of six railroads, five of them managed by the SEDA-Council of Governments Joint Rail Authority, and a railroad equipment leasing company in Central Pennsylvania. Among them...

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― Amtrak says it is buying 130 new single-level rail cars, a contract that will create 575 jobs at a New York plant. The $298 million contract was awarded to CAF USA, which will perform manufacturing and final assembly work at its plant in Elmira, N.Y. The contract is part of a long-term fleet renewal plan. These cars will be used for long-distance train service. Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman says the new cars will be similar to the Viewliner model and include sleeping cars, diners, baggage cars and baggage-dormitory cars.

Most permanent jobs would be based in Victorville, Calif.When the DesertXpress high-speed train is built, there would be up to 700 permanent jobs at an operations and maintenance facility — in Victorville, Calif. Tom Stone, president of DesertXpress Enterprises LLC, told representatives of the Associated General Contractors at a lunch Thursday that building the privately funded, $4 billion traditional high-speed rail system would create 50,000 person-year construction jobs over the four-year design and construction period expected to begin late this year. Translated, 50,000 person-year jobs is the equivalent of 50,000 people working for a full year. The statistic illustrates the...

WHITEFISH, Mont. — When I was 7, my mother took my three siblings and me on a train ride from my hometown of Brainerd to visit my grandmother, who lived in Staples. It was a 30-mile journey that took about 45 minutes. The trip was faster and cheaper by car. (Gas was about 32 cents a gallon back then, and the train tickets were $2 or $3 for each of us). But Mom thought it would be a fun and educational experience. The trip was unremarkable, but the experience — complete with a conductor who hollered "all aboard!" just like...

<p>Amtrak Cascades, which operates trains from Seattle to Portland and Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. has shown double-digit ridership growth and has broken records each month this year, according to the state Department of Transportation.</p> <p>Ridership for April, May, and June showed the highest second quarter totals since 1994, with 214,641 passengers. Compared to the second quarter of 2009, this is an increase of nearly 12 percent, or more than 25,000 new passengers.</p>

Editor's note: The following is a “blow-by-blow political strategy script” memo written by Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman to Republican Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann regarding their opposition to high-speed rail in the state. Memo to GOP Candidates for Governor RE: Political Strategy re High-Speed Rail Phase 1: CampaignContinue relentless condemnation and ridicule of Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail investment. Continue to emphasize that rail transportation is a socialist plot to rob Wisconsin residents of their freedom and sovereignty. Use rail as prop for all the evils of big government. Avoid any talk about the billions of tax dollars spent...

Track improvements will start this September to allow trains to travel at much faster speeds between Chicago and St. Louis. An agreement between the Illinois Department of Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad will allow track upgrades to be made on a 90-mile segment of UP track to prepare it for high-speed rail. The $98 million project is a part of the $1.1 billion awarded in January by the Obama Administration to improve passenger rail service between Chicago and St. Louis. It will allow trains to operate at speeds of up to 110 mph, cutting the travel time between the cities...

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...

Toledo and Pittsburgh are among the next cities that Ohio wants to connect as part of its developing passenger rail project, state transportation officials said Thursday. The state has signed a $7.8 million contract with an engineering firm to study new routes that would branch off from Ohio's marquee federal stimulus project -- a $400 million rail system with 79 mph trains connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati beginning in 2012. The contract with AECOM, a Los Angeles-based company that has worked on California's planned high-speed rail system, will determine routes for a future 110 mph service on four corridors:...

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such...