What the Amtrak 501 Derailment Says About America’s Failure to Prevent Train Crashes
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While the investigation is just beginning, initial reports indicate that the train entered a tight curve at too high a speed.
Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Amtrak
A Car-Free Road Trip on Amtrak’s Blue Water Line Hits a Speed Bump
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The last-minute cancelation of bike-on-board service left us scrambling to make other plans.
“Summer by Rail” Train and Bike Blogger Checks Out Chicago Infrastructure
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National Association of Railroad Passengers intern Elena Studier is taking a 38-day-trip around the country on Amtrak with her bicycle to document the current state of the U.S. passenger rail system and its connectivity with cycling. It’s a timely journey, since we’re now living in an era when an increasing number of Americans are interested […]
Amtrak’s Hiawatha Line to Milwaukee Is Launching Roll-On Bike Service
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It just keeps getting easier to combine bike and train trips in Chicago. Last month, after years of lobbying by advocates (including Streetsblog’s Steven Vance) the South Shore Line, which runs between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana, finally launched a bikes-on-board pilot. Now Amtrak, which already allows unboxed bikes on all routes within Illinois (reservations […]
House Votes to Slash Amtrak Funding Just Hours After Horrible Crash
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Just hours after seven people were killed and hundreds injured in an Amtrak derailment near Philadelphia, the U.S. House voted to cut funding for the passenger rail service. Early reports suggest the derailment was caused by excessive speed — exactly the type of crash that could be avoided with a new safety system that Amtrak is in […]
Union Station Study Will Look at Ways to Increase Capacity, Fight Congestion
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This morning, local politicians heralded $7 million in new funding for a terminal planning study and service development plan that will help increase capacity at Chicago’s 90-year-old Union Station and on the rail lines that lead to it. This comes in addition to the $12 million that Amtrak pledged back in January for rehabbing the […]
Englewood Flyover Now Smoothing Out South Side Metra Rides
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The Englewood Flyover train bridge unofficially opened three weeks ago, carrying test trains along the Metra Rock Island District tracts. The mile-long flyover, near 63rd Street and Wentworth Avenue, is one of the largest projects within CREATE, a larger program to untangle railroad flows around Chicago. The $141 million project could eliminate 7,500 hours of Metra delays each year that […]
Oil-Laden Freight Trains Delaying Amtrak, Commuter Trains Across U.S.
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Oil production is booming across North America, as new technologies make it possible to extract liquid crude oil from sources like the Bakken shale oil field in North Dakota and Montana, or Alberta’s tar sands. The ever-increasing volume of crude oil mined in remote Great Plains locations often finds its way to refineries via “rolling pipelines” – freight […]
Leave Traffic Behind With These 6 Car-Free, Carefree Beach Trips
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If, like me, you optimistically view the summer as lasting until September 22, we’ve got more than five more weeks of beach season left. Still, time is running out for fun in the sun, so you should make a beeline for the shoreline as soon as possible. While people often gripe that Chicago has limited […]
Amtrak to Begin Welcoming Bikes on Long-Distance Routes
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The nation’s intercity passenger rail service just got a lot bike-friendlier. Amtrak announced last week that it is installing new baggage cars — equipped for bike storage — in all trains on its long-distance routes by year’s end. The change will allow Amtrak riders to “roll on” their bikes, rather than disassembling them and transporting them […]
Amtrak’s Boarding Procedure Brings the Stress of Airports to Trains
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While intercity and long-distance train travel is on the rise in the United States, Amtrak could still do a lot more to improve the customer experience and boost ridership further. I’m new to using Amtrak, having only ridden it three times in my life, but I have experience riding European intercity and cross-continent trains. Last […]