Right now my mother is on the Amtrak Coast Starlight, paralleling California’s Highway 101 south, on her way to visit me in Santa Barbara. Her train was scheduled to leave Emeryville, California, at 8:25 am. The train left four hours and five minutes late, at 12:30. I just checked Amtrak’s estimated arrival time into Santa Barbara: instead of the normal 6:02 arrival, Amtrak tells me today's train will arrive at 9:18 p.m. Yeah, that isn't going to happen. Mom just texted me from Salinas, California. Which means that the train she is on has traveled 100 miles, at an average speed of 29 ... Read More
High-Speed Rail Will Impact America’s Freight Trains
June 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The recent controversy over high-speed rail in America has obscured one fact about trains that defines — and pretty well explains — the main trend in rail traffic in the U.S. and Europe over the last few decades: Americans move a lot more freight by train than Europeans. That's a good thing. Moving cargo that way keeps trucks off the road. And the European Union's emissions-reduction goals for the year 2020 have forced Europeans to admit to using more commercial trucks than they'd like, in spite of their own high fuel prices. "Europe's dependence on trucks stems from the failure of ... Read More
Terrorist Attacks on Railroads Would Be Difficult
May 11, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
A Polish 14-year-old caused a lot of damage in downtown Lodz three years ago by rigging a TV remote control that let him switch track points on the city's tram system. He derailed four trains and injured dozens of people. "He treated it like any other schoolboy might a giant train set," Miroslaw Micor, a police spokesman in Lodz, said at the time. "But it was lucky nobody was killed." Since the raid on Osama bin Laden's house in Pakistan uncovered some notes about a future vision of derailed American trains, it's worth remembering that the idea isn't terribly new. America's huge rail ... Read More
Start Slow With Bullet Trains
May 2, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The prospect of building new rail corridors in the U.S. must seem expensive and daunting, as it did to Europeans 20 or 30 years ago. Old American track, in many cases, is too rickety or crowded for modern electric trains to vault between major cities at speeds that compete with short-haul passenger flights. To upgrade the U.S. rail system in any significant way, there will have to be at least a few dedicated high-speed lines, on whole new rights-of-way. The cost will be staggering. And what if the people don't come? "No one will ride this train," was a refrain on message boards in Florida ... Read More
Taking High-Speed Trains into the Future
August 16, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
On March 11, 2004, at the height of the morning rush hour in Madrid's stately Atocha train station, 10 improvised explosive devices, like those used in Iraq and Afghanistan, ripped apart four commuter trains, killing 191 people and injuring some 1,800 in the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland in 1988. Today, the Atocha station feels about as removed from that horror as one could imagine. Much of the spacious, high-ceilinged waiting area has been transformed into a walkable, indoor forest, with giant ferns, palms and lily pads; famed ... Read More
Rail’s 150-Year Wait for Safety
October 6, 2009 • By • 4 Comments
When passengers hear the cry of "All aboard!" they rarely give any thought to whether they will arrive safely at their destination. There have been many advances in railway safety, and, when compared with other means of transportation, the railroad safety record is stellar. On Sept. 12, 2008, the 222 passengers who were riding Metrolink No. 111 from downtown Los Angeles to the Ventura County Moorpark train station probably felt that way. After all, the idea that those who were responsible for running the train could abandon all caution and fail to follow basic operating procedures, risking ... Read More
