About every three hours, a person or vehicle is hit by a train. Since 1997, more than 7200 pedestrians have been killed, and 6400 injured by trains in the United States. It is now the leading cause of railway death in the county. Now, bear in mind that these individuals are ‘trespassing’ on railroad property.…
In America 75 mph passes for high speed rail. That’s the average speed for the Acela, the only high speed rail line in the United States. The Acela does have a maximum speed of 150 mp, but is rarely able to approach it on the creaky, old tracks of the Northeast corridor. Despite much ado…
Once upon a time, not so long ago, both the bald eagle and American passenger rail were endangered. Both have recovered, but an Amtrak train hit an unfortunate eagle near Aberdeen, Maryland recently. The bird was feeding on a deer carcass when it was struck and killed by the train. Several hours later it was removed from the front of the train where it “stuck to the locomotive like an emblem.”
Amtrak released a concept plan entitled A Vision for High Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor. The plan proposes that new dedicated tracks be built parallel to the existing ones for high speed rail between Boston, New York, and Washington. The existing tracks would be kept for slower trains and freight.
Metro North’s service out of Manhattan may be severely disrupted this evening, as a fire on the 138th Street Lift Bridge may shut the entire line to Grand Central Station down. It is too early to report what the extent of the damage will be, but worst-case scenario, the service will be shut down on the entire line.
A while back, we spotlighted the TARC Bike Rack Rap. Now, in our own backyard, the Long Island Railroad has come out with The Gap Rap, performed by Dr. John Clarke, their Medical Director.
The Auto Train is non-stop 855 mile trip between Sanford, Florida and Lorton, Virginia. The Auto Train is so named because it is the only Amtrak train that transports both passengers and their cars, vans, motorcycles, boats, etc. The train is scheduled at 17.5 hours, and operates at an end-to-end average speed of 49mph, but often arrives early. This year, it was ontime 88% of the time. The north and southbound trains both leave at 4PM, and are scheduled to arrive at 9:30AM the following morning
There can be no doubt that James McCommons is a man who loves trains. While he may not be a foamer(the term for a railfan who could be called excessively enthusiastic), McCommons spent a year riding intercity passenger trains around the country and meeting with every important player in the passenger rail industry.
For those of you who do not know, intermodal transportation is transportation that covers multiple modes of transport…bus, train, plane.
It is a significantly overlooked part of the bigger transportation picture. Why can’t plane connect to train or connect to bus? Most cities don’t look at these things…
The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which operates Boston metro area commuter rail, is set to vote on extending commuter service to T.F. Green Airport. Tentative schedules show a travel time from Boston’s South Station to the airport of one hour and fifteen minutes, which is dependent on skipping some local stops on the route.
