• Yesterday, a Northeast Corridor Amtrak train hit and killed two 10th-grade girls in Norwood, just southwest of Philadelphia. More details surrounding the incident haven’t been released yet, though some are speculating it was suicide. (NYTimes & WaPo)
• Chicago architect Helmut Jahn, known for his work on transportation facilities, has sketched out a plan (pictured) for a high-speed rail station in Chicago, involving a “glassy street-level pavilion” that “advertises the romance of travel and offers a view out to the skyline and the Chicago River.” (Blair Kamin)
• Nearly 9 in 10 Americans would consider high-speed rail as an option for their long-distance travel, according to a survey conducted by HTNB Corp., an architecture and engineering firm. Granted, that number is still lower than it was in March 2009, when 94 percent of Americans viewed it as a travel option. (HoustonTomorrow)
• Eurostar officials are saying that full service to and from Brussels will be restored on Monday, two weeks after a commuter-train collision killed 18 people and forced the closure of parts of track outside the city. (NYTimes)
• Want to know what’s going on with your favorite train makers? Here’s the latest from Bombardier, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, AECOM, RailComm, and Ricardo. (Progressive Railroading)
• A new report commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission found that by 2035, California’s proposed HSR system would reduce passenger loads at San Francisco’s airports by as many as 6 million people. (Mercury News)
• The planned HSR line from Milwaukee to Madison is supposed to go right through the small town of Waterloo. But residents there say it will literally divide their community in two. (NewsTalk)
Image: Chicago Tribune
February 27th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
There are 4,000 pedestrian accidents a year, which are not considered news. When a train hits someone it becomes news!
February 27th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Amen to that. It seems we can overlook every “accident” with cars, but with a train or airplane, then it becomes important enough to be on the front page. If we had front page headlines every time a person died in an auto related accident, maybe we would be having more openness to trains and mass transit.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:50 am
The real question is why such an important and fast railway line is not completely grade separated.
March 1st, 2010 at 11:12 am
“The real question is why such an important and fast railway line is not completely grade separated.”
It’s pretty simple and one word can sum it up…funding.