Railroads

(Newser) - The country's deadliest train crash in decades has focused attention on mass transit carrier Metrolink, which operates on a shoestring budget and has many wondering whether it's up to the job, the Los Angeles Times reports. Five Southern California counties chip in to run the system, set up with relatively few employees to be light on expenses and low on bureaucracy. That means its board must grapple with managing a maze of subcontracts as well as the challenges of running the sprawling system. More »

(Newser) - Forget alternative fuels and dump rusting gas guzzlers altogether for the driverless podcar, which offers "the convenience of an auto without the negatives," Catherine G. Burke writes in the Los Angeles Times . The sleek, electric-powered compartments seat four and use monorail-esque "guideways" to reach select destinations. It sounds futuristic, but England, Sweden, and the UAE are already investing in it. More »

(Newser) - Most American cities dismantled their streetcar lines over 50 years ago but a major comeback is gathering speed, the New York Times reports. Cincinnati, Houston, Denver, Salt Lake City and Charlotte have streetcar systems in the works to revive sagging downtown areas. A dozen cities already have streetcars and at least 40 more are exploring the option. More »

(Newser) - With fuel prices soaring, travelers are increasingly turning to Amtrak, which posted a record for passengers in May—not usually a big travel month, reports the New York Times . But the struggling rail service has shrunk so drastically since it was created in the '70s that it won't be able to respond to the passenger surge very quickly. “We’re starting to bump up against our own capacity constraints,” says an Amtrak rep. More »

(Newser) - For the second time this week, confidential British government documents on fighting terrorism were left on a train and passed to the media. The papers blast countries like Iran for financial policies that can be used to terrorists’ advantage, reports the Independent , which released no other details about the documents. Earlier this week, a top intelligence official left secret files on a train which were handed to the BBC. More »

(Newser) - Often maligned as noxious-fume-spewing bad citizens, railroad companies are hopping the green train, the Wall Street Journal reports. Campaigns by Norfolk Southern and CSX tout clean-burning diesel engines that "can move a ton of freight 423 miles on a single gallon," and Union Pacific claims diverting 25% of truck freight to trains would prevent 800,000 tons of pollution by 2025. More »

(Newser) - A commuter train slammed into the rear of another during rush hour near Boston today, killing the operator of one of the trains, the Boston Globe reports. The victim, a 24-year-old woman, had been on the job less than a year. The cause remains unclear, and one person is still hospitalized. The accident follows a derailment this morning in Chicago that injured 14 and was blamed on human error—a motorman went through a stop signal. More »

(Newser) - An elderly American tourist drugged by a thief was killed by a train as he wandered along the tracks in a daze, the Los Angeles Times reports. The 76-year-old traveler and his wife were befriended by a man who gave them drug-laced cappuccinos in a Rome train station and then robbed them as they slept. A 54-year-old suspect has been arrested. More »

(Newser) - The soaring price of gas is driving people across America out of their cars and onto mass transit, the New York Times reports. Buses and trains are up 5% or more in cities like Boston and New York, where mass transit is already a popular alternative, but the biggest leap in rider numbers—10-15%— has been in cities in the South and West where car culture is strongest. More »

(Newser) - Canadian authorities are set to lift the quarantine on a train en route from Vancouver to Toronto after determining that the 60-year-old passenger who died aboard earlier today "most likely did not have an infectious disease," CTV reports. Ten other passengers came down with flu-like symptoms; "we do not believe they're related,” an Ontario police officer told the Globe and Mail. More »

(Newser) - A Monet painting sold at Christie’s tonight for $41.4 million, a record price for the artist, the New York Times reports. Three bidders competed for the 1873 impressionist painting “The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil,” which Christie’s estimated would go for $35 million. The high bid of $37 million pushed the final price, which includes auction house commissions, above $40 million, providing further evidence that the economic downturn has yet to dent the art world. More »

(Newser) - At least 70 people were killed early today when a high-speed passenger train traveling from Beijing jumped the tracks and slammed into another train, AFP reports. Some 250 injured were pulled from the mangled wreckage in the city of Zibo in Shandong province. Officials discounted terrorism and blamed human error for the crash, the worst in China in a decade, but did not elaborate. Two railroad officials were fired shortly after the accident. More »

(Newser) - All those sacks of different-colored marbles and word problems about pizza slices may not actually teach kids effectively, Reuters reports. Though meant to offer a real-world grounding, story problems just add extra distractions, a new study says, suggesting that students might be better off learning abstract concepts than figuring out which speeding train will reach the station first. More »

(Newser) - President Bush set 2025 as the target date by which the US should stop the growth of greenhouse emissions from coal power plants, the AP reports. The goal is for those plant emissions to peak in 10 to 15 years, then begin declining. Bush called for legislation to introduce incentives for the development of green technology. More »

(Newser) - Eurotunnel is in the black for the first time since the France-England tunnel opened in 1994, the BBC reports. The company says it has turned the corner after many troubled years, helped by a sweeping debt restructuring plan and the opening of a new high-speed rail link on the British side that has cut London-Paris travel time to under two hours. More »

(Newser) - Peru’s government hopes to carve a thick slice out of the world’s luxury travel market,  aided by sumptuous trains with fancy oxygen enrichment systems and high-altitude 5-star hotels, reports Reuters. "It's not that we don't like backpackers," says the country's tourism minister, but with big bucks to be had, Peru is shifting its image away from frugal tourists living off pots of white rice. More »

(Newser) - Amtrak is stepping up security, with random screening of carry-on bags and security teams packing machine guns and leading bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains, reports AP. The new system, beginning this week, echoes stricter security procedures at the nation's airports. Amtrak insists there should be no additional departure delays . More »

(Newser) - A scared black kitten lost in the New York City Subway system more than three weeks ago has been found safe and well. Georgia escaped from a carrying case 25 days ago