Word: train
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Investigators are still sorting through the wreckage of Monday's crash of two Metro rail cars in Washington, D.C., the deadliest in the system's 33-year history, which killed nine people and injured scores of others. Federal officials said on Tuesday that the train that rear-ended another was an older model that lacked equipment that might have helped avert the collision and, according to the Washington Post, had been overdue for needed brake work...
Even as national public-transit ridership hits levels not seen since the 1950s - the decade when the new interstate-highway system began siphoning travelers off trains - federal funding has not risen in step, leaving the biggest systems struggling to pay for the very capital projects that could improve performance and safety. Meanwhile, the major U.S. cities that are most dependent on public transit - such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington - receive a progressively smaller percentage of the federal funding that is available. The combination of increased ridership - triggered at least in part by higher gas prices, which...
Although public transit is aging, it's worth noting that it is not unsafe - crashes like the one in D.C. are an anomaly, and statistically, riding a train is far safer than driving. Still, failing to shore up transit is an invitation to risk, and while accidents may be infrequent, as the Metro crash may show, they can be deadly...
COCA, Ecuador — Over the canopy to the south, Ivan, a Quichua Indian, has spotted three macaws in flight. Moments later, binoculars train to a pair of white-throated toucans, and my group murmurs in excitement. The next item noted by our guide Oscar, however, is not a rare bird, deep in the Amazon rainforest: “Over there, the government has authorized a new, private highway from the coast to here...
Returning home one spring five years ago from a secret visit to Beijing in his armored, fully wired train car, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il got an unnerving, firsthand demonstration of the potential downside of technology. A huge explosion ripped through the Ryongchon border station, and some officials initially thought it was an assassination attempt triggered by a cell phone. As it turned out, the fireball was more likely the result of two trains' colliding nearby, possibly as a result of miscommunication about changed schedules stemming from Kim's clandestine travels. But regardless of the actual cause, that still...