USA - railways, public transport, services and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Lee]

From YouTube - with an interesting comment that Americans love trains when they come to Europe, but have so few of them that when it comes to local votes they don't know enough about them to vote for appropriate rail projects.

it is interesting...I remember my fondness for the French way of life being fed when I started visiting as a young man and travelling on a public transport system that joined together so much better than back in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and already had ultra-modern to us but well-established to them elements such as high-speed rail that we could only dream of back then, and still only have largely as a link to their system even now. Now that I live in France and work in that public transport system, it only makes me appreciate it even more.

By contrast, Americans visiting the UK probably think that locals are living in a real-life version of one of those "quaint" classic British comedies, somewhere between The Titfield Thunderbolt and Oh, Doctor Beeching!...

[Electric train]

You have to think of the scale of the country and the fragmented federal system where each state has so much autonomy that investing in 200 mph high speed national rail is almost impossible.

A few years ago I was travelling on a train from Venice to Rome with a group that included a few Americans, they though that the 80 / 100 kph was fast as we travelled away from Venice when the train got on the the high speed line and was running over 300 kph their expression was wow

[broadgage]

I met an American family who felt that 25MPH on the West Somerset Railway was "too fast" for a "museum line" They seemed rather shocked when I told them that very similar rolling stock was still used at several times that speed on the main line.

The risk of colliding with another train distressed them and they seemed unconvinced by my explanations regarding interlocked signals making this almost impossible.
They seemed convinced that where two trains cross at a station with two platforms, that only the timetable prevented accidents on the adjacent single line.
I got the impression that most preserved lines in the USA have no signaling and are worked with only a single train.

[grahame]

I met an American family who felt that 25MPH on the West Somerset Railway was "too fast" for a "museum line" They seemed rather shocked when I told them that very similar rolling stock was still used at several times that speed on the main line.

I hope you re-assured them that their train was only running as far as Bishops Lydeard, and not onto the section from there into Taunton where there have been three accidents with significant loss of life.   Thank goodness lessons were learned in each case, and the close proximity of all three accidents was purely co-incidental.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

San Jose shooting: Eight killed in California rail yard shooting



A gunman has killed eight people at a commuter train yard in California, police say.

The shooting took place at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in San Jose on Wednesday.

Officials say the victims include transit employees and the suspect, a former employee, is also dead.

The shooting broke out at 06:45 local time (14:45GMT), transit officials say. Authorities say they are checking the scene for explosive devices.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo told reporters "this is a horrific day for our city. My attention will turn to ensuring this never happens again to our city."

He added that one person succumbed to their injuries while being transported to hospital.

A local CBS station reports that the shots broke out during an employee meeting for rail workers. Just before the shooting, a fire broke out at a home belonging to a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) employee, CBS reports.

According to the LA Times, the suspect may have set his home on fire before embarking on the rampage, which authorities are looking into but have not confirmed. The suspect's age was not provided by authorities.

The shooting shut down traffic on nearby streets during the morning commute. Trains will halt service at noon local time.

Authorities said that a bomb squad is at the scene and searching for explosive devices but that there is no active threat to the public. They would not specify how many explosive devices had been found.

San Jose Sherriff's Deputy Russell Davis emphasised that the investigation was active and ongoing. Authorities will give another update at 13:30 local time (21:30GMT).

Railway president Glenn Hendricks told reporters that the attack "'happened on the yard but it did not happen in the operations control centre".

California Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted: "We are in close contact with local law enforcement and monitoring this situation closely."

Federal agents, including the FBI, are assisting in the investigation. Mayor Liccardo said he has spoken on the phone with Vice-president Kamala Harris - a Californian herself - and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Across the US, there have been 230 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

A mass shooting is defined by the group as a crime in which four or more people are fatally shot.

The Santa Clara VTA operates three train lines, making up over 40 miles (65km) of rail. They also operate about 70 bus lines in the city.

[broadgage]

A forest fire being fought from atop a slowly moving train. A train of tank wagons can carry a vast amount of water if compared to aircraft or land vehicles.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-57922181

[broadgage]

And another one,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q218-5TWHXk

[TaplowGreen]

A forest fire being fought from atop a slowly moving train. A train of tank wagons can carry a vast amount of water if compared to aircraft or land vehicles.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-57922181

......could be another use for your sleeper shower carriages if they carry enough water Broadgage? 

[broadgage]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWuKt2mI3I

Metro largely closed, which is not surprising looking at above video.
At least 9 lives lost, though this is due to the flooding in general, not metro related.

[broadgage]

Various reports state, that the "Empire builder", a prestigious long distance train has derailed with the loss of three lives and dozens injured.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58696143

[infoman]

Sky news are showing footage of a person being pulled from a light plane that made, I presume, an emergency landing on a road/level crossing area.

Person rescued just before a train smashed into the plane that had ended up on the railway level crossing.

[Bmblbzzz]

I was going to say, level crossing collisions are ten a penny in the USA – I read recently there's one every four hours – but a level crossing collision involving a plane is a bit unusual!

[broadgage]

Dramatic video of this was shown on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) TV news at about 22-25 this evening.
The pilot was dragged clear with only about one second to spare, the plane was damaged by the forced landing, and then totally destroyed by the train.

Pilot injured but no other injuries reported.

[JayMac]

Link to the police bodycam video on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59946362

Also, Air Traffic Control communication during the incident:



There's also video circulating from an eyewitness. A very lucky eyewitness, who narrowly avoided serious injury from flying debris, following the collision between train and Cessna.

[broadgage]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60177979

Looks rather alarming ! And also far from efficient as most of the heat looks to be wasted in large luminous gas flames that heat the sky.
The light output looks distracting to the train driver at night.
Possibly a fire risk to any train that stops with flames underneath. Risk of igniting waste paper or leaves caught on the underframe ? Damage to rubber hoses or plastic insulated wires ?

We used to use gas heating of points in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and few installations may remain in use. These however used non luminous blue flames, carefully directed to the parts needing heating.
Generally burning propane, but mains gas was used in a few places including Waterloo station.

Electric heating of points is now the norm.