On Oct. 14, 1980, the fate of American railroads changed. Congress passed the Staggers Act, legislation that deregulated the industry. But a quarter of a century later, the debate over the law rages on.
A Union Pacific coal train derailed June 26 near Glenwood Springs, Colo., and the mishap stranded 200 passengers aboard an Amtrak train using the same tracks. Eighteen cars of the Union Pacific train derailed, but no coal from any of the cars spilled, WLS television in Chicago reported. Amtrak planned on using buses to transport passengers past the derailment. Eleven cars derailed in Jasper County, Texas, on June 24 and caused more than $1 million in damages, KTRE reported. Although the 74 car Watco Co. train had four cars with hazardous materials, none of them derailed, and no injuries or
On March 18, a 15-year-old boy was killed trying to beat a Long Island Rail Road train, Newsday reported. The boy was walking with five friends along Gillette Avenue headed to a barber shop, according to the newspaper. The boy who was killed ignored warning signals — including bells and flashing lights, authorities said. At least 13 people were killed March 13 in a derailment in the Vietnamese province of Thua Thien-Hue, according to Reuters news agency. Two of a train’s 13 cars derailed killing nine people immediately, according to Reuters. The four other people died en route to the
The man charged in a deadly January Metrolink derailment pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of murder, according to various news sources. California authorities initially said Juan Manuel Alvarez parked his SUV on train tracks to commit suicide, but changed his mind and abandoned his vehicle. Eleven people were killed in the wreck and hundreds more injured. One person was killed and at least 50 others injured when an express passenger train derailed Feb. 28 in eastern Bangladesh, The Associated Press reported. According to reports, the Joyantika Express derailed en route Dhaka. The train was traveling from Sylhet, a city
U.S. freight railroads completed a record-breaking year by originating 1,588,950 carloads of freight in December 2004 and an additional 1,029,547 intermodal trailers and containers, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported.
As part of its commitment to preserve green space and improve parks for urban residents, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation today announced it is awarding grants to two organizations involved in making the Atlanta Belt Line – a proposed corridor of transit, parks and trails – a reality.
The year ended with a bang for railroads — for the first time ever, intermodal volume on U.S. railroads has topped 10 million trailers and containers in a single year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said in December.