Ask a hundred Amtrak passengers what’s the biggest problem with long-distance train travel and I’ll bet you a box of donuts that the most frequent answer will be that trains often run late. I’ll also wager that most of those people don’t know – and probably don’t care – that Amtrak doesn’t actually own the…
In my June 11th post, I wrote about the proposal to increase Amtrak service between Los Angeles and New Orleans from three days a week to a daily train in each direction. (Doing so will involve two trains and probably creating a new one in a complicated arrangement. For details, scroll down to that earlier…
It’s been around a while, but I just came across this recently. It’s a startling bit of video that graphically demonstrates what can happen when a tornado intersects with a moving train. It was taken from a rear-facing camera mounted on a locomotive hauling a Union Pacific freight near Harvard, Illinois, in January of 2008….
Earlier today, the web site for Houston television station KHOU reported a runaway train traveling through that city’s downtown area. Here’s their report: RUNAWAY TRAIN TRAVELS THROUGH DOWNTOWN HOUSTON HOUSTON — Officials are trying to find out what went wrong after a Union Pacific train started moving Sunday morning with no one at the controls….