On Tuesday of this past week, Amtrak’s southbound Coast Starlight finally reached Los Angeles a staggering nine hours late. The reason? Believe it or not, we can blame it on the solar eclipse. Yes, we can. Seriously. As I’m sure we all know, there was a total eclipse of the sun and a swath…
Ask almost anyone into transportation issues which City in the country is the most enlightened and progressive when it comes to transportation infrastructure and I’ll bet that 90 percent would say Portland, Oregon. When it comes to getting around a fairly large city without a car, Portland has it figured out. There’s a light rail…
(The following is Part 2 of an account of one of my several trips on the Cardinal. It was originally published in the Columbus Dispatch.) At dinner, I’m seated with a husband and wife from Philadelphia on their way to visit a daughter in Portland, Oregon. They’ll be connecting with the Empire Builder tomorrow in…
At the rate of about one-a-day, collisions occur between cars and trains somewhere across the U.S. There are two absolutes when it comes to these incidents: (1) every one if them is avoidable, and (2) the train always wins. In addition, there are a tragic number of injuries and deaths when people walking on train…