July 2011. Train station. Clelles, France.

July 2011.

Train station.

Clelles, France.

Sep 13 2012 6 notes

“

Dellinger: Paul Ryan‘s budget opines that ““high-speed rail and other new intercity rail projects should be pursued only if they can be established as self-supporting commercial services.” I assume you disagree that all new rail projects should be done as profitable businesses only?

Dukakis: There’s no profitable— Well, we are making money on the Northeast corridor and the Acela. But were spending $40 billion in public subsidies on highways, $16 billion on air, and a billion and a half on Amtrak. Don’t these guys understand? I mean where are they? I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Every mode of transportation, as you know, is subsidized. And rail and highway’s and air are far more heavily subsidized than rail.

”

—

Michael Dukakis

“I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”

Aug 21 2012
Clelles is a town in the Alps. One famous person was born there. Louis de Saint-Ferréol, né à Clelles le 9 mai 1814, was an Egyptian expert, according to Wikipedia. There is a funny station agent there. She had a good sense of humor considering only a few trains an hour pass by. She recounted the story of the first station master who committed suicide before the completion of the bridges that would connect this station to the rest of the railway.

Clelles is a town in the Alps. One famous person was born there. Louis de Saint-Ferréol, né à Clelles le 9 mai 1814, was an Egyptian expert, according to Wikipedia. There is a funny station agent there. She had a good sense of humor considering only a few trains an hour pass by. She recounted the story of the first station master who committed suicide before the completion of the bridges that would connect this station to the rest of the railway.

Mar 14 2012 5 notes
nrdc: Tell your senators to keep anti-environment amendments off the transportation bill. Senate Republicans are trying to use a transportation bill designed to fund highways and public transit as a vehicle to push through an anti-environment agenda. Tell your senators not to hold the transportation bill hostage to unrelated anti-environment amendments. If you’re a U.S. resident, please send this message to your senators now. photo: U.S. DOT

nrdc:

Tell your senators to keep anti-environment amendments off the transportation bill.

Senate Republicans are trying to use a transportation bill designed to fund highways and public transit as a vehicle to push through an anti-environment agenda. Tell your senators not to hold the transportation bill hostage to unrelated anti-environment amendments.

If you’re a U.S. resident, please send this message to your senators now.

photo: U.S. DOT

Mar 6 2012 117 notes

China tests 500 kilometers per hour train

(PhysOrg.com) — China tested a 500 kilometers per hour (311 mph) train over the weekend. Government officials call the record-breaking speedster a “useful reference” for China’s current high speed railway operations. The test train’s speed, according to a Monday report in China Daily, exceeds the world speed record of 300 kilometers per hour held by the Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway. China’s latest high-speed train has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts, compared with the 9,600 kilowatts for China Railways High-Speed (CRH) trains in service on the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed line.

The Chinese are racing past us.

The comments are great too:

@James_Kent Trains hold a great fascination for centralized governments. Mussolini “made the trains run on time”. Plus you keep the people captive to govt franchised transport

You’re retarded. Here the Moscow Metro has 185 stations which takes you anywhere in Moscow in 40 minutes for 28 roubles (one of your bucks). Conversely the city “free enterprise” roadway is jammed and can take three hours for the same trip. We move 10million people every day without incident, apart from Chechen suicide bombers. In Los Angeles your public transport and freeways can’t move 3million without coming to a standstill. Public transport in LA is six times more expensive and six times slower, and is solely used by the lowest classes.

Dec 28 2011 18 notes

interestingsnippets:

Street View hops on the train to capture the Swiss Alps (by Google)  …  I love how it is just the normal streetview trike strapped to an open railway car, and how there’s a guy going along with it for the ride :)

Nov 8 2011 12 notes

“European and Japanese rail operators believe the best way to survive a train accident is to simply not have one in the first place. Their design philosophy is to rely on modern signaling and proper maintenance to prevent collisions and derailments.”

—

How the FRA is Regulating Passenger Rail Out of Existence


Oct 1 2011 20 notes

“Last year, we spent more than $40 billion on highways,” [Lautenberg] told the panel. “Over Amtrak’s entire 40-year history, we’ve spent just under $38 billion total. That’s worth repeating: Amtrak has received less federal money in its history than highways get in a single year.”

— Keith Laing at The Hill, “NJ Dem: Amtrak ‘makes our region work’” (via alexbaca)

Sep 6 2011 76 notes

Japan to build fastest train

justin-herrera:

http://inhabitat.com/japan-announces-plans-to-build-worlds-fastest-train/

310mph…can’t even imagine, and it only costs $64 billion? oh wait thats a lot….

I mainly like the fact that they are using magnetic levitation to give the train an extra boost.

I want in the USA!

Feb 22 2011 19 notes