Opinion: How much safety are rails willing to pay for?

When a train derails and people die, as happened Dec. 1 in New York, there are going to be lots of questions. Eventually, there will be answers to most. But will anyone be able to answer this question: How much are the lives of train passengers worth? On Dec. 2, as investigat [...]

N.Y. rep. proposes action to prevent railway accidents

WASHINGTON — A New York congressman is proposing legislation aimed at preventing another accident like Sunday’s fatal Metro-North derailment in the Bronx. The proposal from Democratic Rep. Sean Maloney of Cold Spring would help Metro-North and other commuter rail systems appl [...]

Train derailment airs queries about technology

YONKERS, N.Y. – The revelation that a New York City commuter train derailed while barreling into a sharp curve at nearly three times the speed limit is fueling questions about whether automated crash-avoidance technology could have prevented the carnage. Safety officials have [...]

Speed eyed in Metro-North train crash

Investigators are looking at speed as a contributing factor to what may have caused a Grand Central-bound Metro-North train to derail while rounding a curve in the Bronx on Sunday, Dec. 1, sending train cars down a slope toward the Harlem River and throwing passengers out win [...]

Seven dead in two separate railroad accidents

Seven people were killed in separate railroad accidents Sunday, Dec. 1, in New York and New Mexico. Three employees of the Southwest Railroad in New Mexico died when when the train’s locomotive plunged 40 feet into a ravine. In suburban New York City, a Metro-North comm [...]

Transportation budget bill spares SEPTA

SEPTA expects to receive $350 million of the bill’s $475 million earmarked for public transportation. The Pennsylvania state government passed a $2.3 billion transportation package that will allow SEPTA to dodge a doomsday budget that would have cut transit services throughou [...]

Judge blocks sale of Calif. high-speed rail bonds

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A judge on Nov. 25 tore up California’s funding plans for what would be the nation’s first bullet train, issuing separate orders that could force the state to spend months or years redrawing its plans for the $68 billion rail line and could ch [...]

FRA celebrates opening of new Mo. railroad bridge

OSAGE CITY, Mo. – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo Nov. 25 participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new railroad bridge that will eliminate the last chokepoint along the line between Jefferson City and St. Louis. [...]

Blumenauer to introduce transit infrastructure bills

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) will introduce Dec. 4 legislation to fund U.S. transportation infrastructure in the nation now and into the future. The two bills will establish a series of pilot projects to further study the application of a vehicle-miles-traveled fee and [...]