The accident occurred in West Bengal province. The engine of the Guwahati-Bangalore express derailed as it collided with a local train. The two engines then caught fire.

After the initial collision, additional train carriages reportedly derailed. Rescue officials have been rushed to the scene.

Sunday’s crash comes three weeks after two passenger trains derailed in separate incidents on the same day, leaving at least 67 people dead and about 200 others injured. All of the fatalities occurred in a derailment in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

– Voice of America

“We are having a very strong year because people around the country are choosing the convenience, efficiency and hassle-free environment of Amtrak to meet their travel needs,” said President and CEO Joe Boardman. “Amtrak has wisely invested the federal funding we have received to improve infrastructure and equipment. Continued investment in Amtrak and passenger rail will support the further growth of this increasingly vital transportation option.”

Amtrak is basing its projection of more than 30 million passengers on strong June ridership numbers and expected ticket sales for July, August and September. June 2011 was the best June on record with more than 2.6 million passengers for the month and marked 20 consecutive months of year-over-year ridership growth, a streak that began in November 2009.

After an unusually rough start in the first three months of this year, ridership for April, May and June recorded the highest second quarter totals since 1994, with 231,194 passengers. Compared to the second quarter of 2010, this is an increase of nearly eight percent, or more than 16,550 new passengers. The month of June had the highest increase of nearly 10 percent and 78,839 passengers.

Ridership on Amtrak Cascades was down 10 percent after the first quarter of 2011. The unusually high number of mudslides that cancelled many trains contributed significantly to the decrease, as well as the absence of the tourism created last year by the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. Total ridership on Amtrak Cascades year to date is 398,207 through June 30. Total ridership through June of 2010 was 398,414.

In 2010, total ridership on Amtrak Cascades finished with a 16-year high of 838,251 passengers and exceeded 2009 by 76,641 for a 10 percent increase. The final ridership total capped a year of record breaking numbers where eight of the 12 months set new benchmarks.

Caught on microblog

For the past week, the Chinese microblog, China’s version of Twitter, Sina Weibo has been a steady source of information, assistance and nonstop criticism of the government’s handling of the rail crash.

Just minutes before the accident occurred one Weibo user in Wenzhou posted a note and picture – commenting on how a high-speed train was moving slowly along the tracks like a snail, adding “I hope nothing happens to it.”

Moments after the accident, user Yangjuan Quanyang posted a message calling for help. It said “The train is full of the sound of crying children! We cannot find any of the train’s crew! Please help us!”

Public outcry

When the government blamed lightning for the accident, there was a massive outcry online and postings of disbelief. When the Ministry of Railways expressed its sorrow for the accident, netizens mocked the government.

Jeremy Goldkorn, a Chinese online media analyst and founder of Danwei.org, says state media found it difficult to ignore the amount of online criticism.

“By Monday morning there had been such a huge outcry in the Chinese internet and particularly on Sina Weibo about it that as the work week started on Monday the media was, the news media was playing catch up with the citizens reports on the Internet,” said Goldkorn.

Seemingly, there is little the government can do to put a lid on [quiet] the outcry. Even its directives to state media outlets to limit coverage and to not investigate or comment on the cause of the accident have been leaked online, and are not being followed entirely.

State media have published strong editorials demanding a thorough investigation.

Mistrust

Much of the criticism has focused on the embattled railway ministry.

In one Weibo survey about the ministry, the choice receiving the most votes was: it is a blackhearted, corrupt ministry that uses the blood of the public for experiments. The second most popular choice: continue to uncover corruption at the ministry and carry out an internal overhaul.

In another survey about why the government buried a locomotive after the accident occurred, the majority of respondants said it was trying to destroy evidence. In an editorial Friday, the China Daily said public opinion led the government to dig it back up.

Hu Xingdou, a professor economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, says it is difficult for the public to trust the government.

Hu says some government departments and local governments have been telling lies for a long time. They deal with things under the table and refuse to make their administrations transparent to citizens. He says it is extremely difficult for the general public to pursue the truth, and as it continues this way, the government loses almost all of its credibility.

Corruption

The Ministry of Railways was a target even before the accident. In February, the minister was forced to resign because of allegations that millions of dollars were embezzled from the high-speed rail program.

Then there were problems with the high-speed system.

“Just about three weeks ago, at the beginning of the month, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway opened and … and in some of the first few journeys through Beijing to Shanghai, some of the trains were delayed,” noted Jeremy Goldkorn, “what should have been a five-hour journey ended up taking much, much longer, and people got stuck on cars where the air conditioning had broken down and they weren’t given an explanation, and this became something like a little micro-scandal on the Internet, because people were posting photographs and complaints about that.”

However, Goldkorn says it is hard to say if the public anger will prompt a re-assessment of the high-speed rail system. He notes that after a milk safety scandal hit China in 2008, there was also plenty of similar commentary online. In the end, he says, it did not seem to change monitoring of the dairy industry and food scandals continue to happen.

– Voice of America

The apology from Wang Yongping, the spokesman of China’s Ministry of Railways, came Sunday in an interview with the state-run CCTV news network, not long after the incident occurred.

Wang says the Ministry of Railways is deeply sorry to all passengers for the occurrence of the accident and grieves bitterly for those who were killed. He says the ministry sends its deepest condolences to the families of those who have died and those who were injured.

He also offered up a possible reason why one of the trains had become disabled and another smashed into it while it was on a bridge, sending two cars hurtling to the ground below.

Wang says the initial results of an investigation into the accident suggests a lightning strike caused the train’s systems to malfunction, and that more details are being analyzed as the investigation continues.

Online and in public, there was an immediate outpouring of concern and emotion for those who were injured and killed. At hospitals and bloodbanks near the accident, people lined up to donate blood.

There was skepticism online from some, however, about the rail ministry’s apology.

One comment by Yun Yun, posted on a Twitter-like microblog run by Sina-dot-com, said the accident was unforgivable. It said that even if the train’s signals were not working. The trains could have been reached by cell-phone.

Another posting asked, “how can you say lightning bears all the responsibility? Can lightning cause two trains to crash into each other. What in the world were you guys doing?”

China has spent billions of dollars to connect its cities with high-speed rail, and Saturday’s accident is not the first in recent weeks to be blamed on bad weather and lightning.

Earlier this month, a storm-induced power failure caused a 90-minute delay on China’s new Beijing-to-Shanghai line. The new train, which runs at a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour, experienced several power outages after it began commercial operations on June 30. The trains that collided on Saturday were older high-speed trains.

After the series of incidents occurred on the Shanghai – Beijing line, Wang also issued an apology as well.

Speaking in an online chat that was posted on the ministry’s website, Wang said summer thunderstorms and wind caused some of the problems. He also said that while the malfunctions on the Shanghai – Beijing line did not pose any safety risks, they did affect the railway’s operations.

– Voice of America

To celebrate the news, Owney, a resident of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, is back with a makeover for the opening of a new exhibit that chronicles his adventures. The museum also is announcing an Owney photo look-alike contest. Postal Service Owney related activities will take place at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis and at the visitors’ center in Albany, N.Y. Events will also take place in Toledo, Ohio; and Tucson, Ariz.

“With his new stamp and through the efforts of the National Postal Museum, Owney’s legacy will transcend time, becoming as much a part of the Postal Service of the 21st century as he was more than 100 years ago,” said Mary Anne Gibbons, Postal Service general counsel and executive vice president. “For almost 10 years, Owney was the much-beloved and well-traveled mascot of the Railway Mail Service.”

Railway clerks believed Owney brought them good luck, since not a single train he rode was in an accident. During his life, Owney traveled by some estimates more than 140,000 miles. He even visited other countries representing the U.S. Post Office.

Joining Gibbons in dedicating the stamp were Allen Kane, director, National Postal Museum; William H. Bond, Owney stamp artist; Dirk Wales, author, and Stephen Kearney, manager, Stamp Services.

“The National Postal Museum is excited to offer many exciting activities and events in celebration of Owney’s new stamp,” said Kane. “And there’s more to come — as we will soon be launching an Owney iPhone application and an Owney iPad interactive e-book, both of which will bring Owney to life.”

The stamp art features an illustration of Owney by artist Bill Bond of Arlington, Va., under the direction of art director Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Va. The illustration depicts Owney in profile, facing left, with many of his famous tags and medals gleaming in the background.

The Owney stamps — like all Forever stamps will always equal the value of the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.

Owney: The ‘Barkstory’

In the 1880s, during the height of the Railway Mail Service, clerks in the Albany, NY, Post Office took a liking to a mixed terrier named Owney. Fond of riding in postal wagons, Owney followed mailbags onto trains and soon was known as a good-luck charm to Railway Mail Service employees who made him their unofficial mascot. Working in the Railway Mail Service was highly dangerous. According to the National Postal Museum, more than 80 mail clerks were killed in train wrecks and more than 2,000 were injured between 1890 and 1900. However, it was said that no train ever met with trouble while Owney was aboard.

As Owney traveled the country, clerks affixed medals and tags to his collar to document his travels. When John Wanamaker, Postmaster General from 1889 to 1893, heard that Owney was overburdened with tags, he gave him a special harness to display them all.

“We work hard to maintain a high standard of quality and efficiency for our customers,” said Paul Hammes, Union Pacific vice president and general manager-Agricultural Products. “We are honored by this recognition of our efforts from ConAgra Mills and look forward to producing even better results in the coming years.”

ConAgra Mills presented the award as part of its second annual Vendor Partner Awards. Union Pacific’s selection was based upon the quality of service logs, attention to on-time delivery, how aggressively it aided ConAgra Mills in obtaining new business, and external customer surveys.

Revenue and expense results were unfavourably impacted by extensive flooding.

“Throughout the second quarter we experienced difficult operating conditions as a result of widespread and prolonged flooding along our right of way. We had almost 90 separate outages during the quarter and our engineering team worked as swiftly as possible to bring the track back,” stated Fred Green, CP President and Chief Executive Officer. “We rerouted and detoured traffic over other railways and incurred significantly higher operating costs to ensure delivery of our customers’ shipments. Repairs are now complete and service levels are returning to normal.”

Second quarter results compared to a year earlier:

• Total revenues were $1.3 billion, an increase of $30.3 million
• Operating expenses were $1.0 billion, an increase of $73.9 million
• Average fuel price increased 37 per cent to $3.50 U.S. dollars per U.S. gallon
• Operating income was $230.5 million, a decrease of $43.6 million
• Net income was $128.0 million, a decrease of $38.6 million
• Diluted earnings per share were $0.75 per share, a decline of $0.23 per share

Diluted earnings per share were a record $1.56, up 50 percent compared with $1.04 per diluted share earned in the same period last year. These results reflect favorable, non-recurring income tax-related benefits totaling $63 million, or $0.18 per share.

“Norfolk Southern delivered excellent financial results in the second quarter, setting all-time records for net income and earnings per share, as well as second-quarter records for revenues, operating income and operating ratio,” said CEO Wick Moorman. “We’re seeing opportunities in the global economy, and we are moving forward with initiatives to drive business growth, productivity, and efficiency across our company.”

Railway operating revenues increased to $2.9 billion, a second-quarter record, up 18 percent compared with the same period of 2010, primarily as the result of a 14 percent increase in revenue per unit.

General merchandise revenues were $1.4 billion, 12 percent higher compared with second-quarter 2010 results. Coal revenues increased 28 percent to $893 million compared with the same period last year. Intermodal revenues were $540 million, 20 percent higher compared with the second quarter of 2010.

Railway operating expenses for the quarter were $2.0 billion, 17 percent higher compared with the same period of 2010, primarily due to increased fuel expenses and compensation and benefits costs.

Income from railway operations set a second-quarter record, climbing 19 percent to $875 million compared with the same period last year.

The railway operating ratio improved to 69.5 percent, a second-quarter record, compared with 69.8 percent during second-quarter 2010.