Current Events > Transit News > July 2017-December 2017
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Transit News: July 2017-December 2017
Stay updated on the California High-Speed Rail, travel, local transit, strange transit happenings, and more with the Transportation Museum's collection of unique news articles and stories.
On Thursday, December 28, cold weather in Connecticut caused an Amtrak bridge to become stuck, which in turn caused Amtrak trains in the area to be delayed for more than 5 hours. Full The Day Story >
Starting Monday, December 18, Amtrak's Cascades Train will travel along Interstate 5 instead of the Pacific Ocean, which saves 10 minutes but loses the picturesque views. (The train crash occurred on the first day of this new route.) Learn about the route from a News Tribune article >
While an Amtrak engineer's mistake of driving the train much too fast was to blame in the recent Washington state train crash, lack of the Positive Train Control system also contributed to the problem. Read The New York Times Editorial >
The completion of the environmental review, which outlines the precise locations for 500 miles of track throughout the state, is now 3 years delayed, meaning the exact track locations still have not been decided.
How will Southwest's decision to add flights to Hawaii in 2018 affect other U.S. carriers? Will it cause carriers like United and Hawaiian to reduce their prices to better compete with Southweest? Learn More at the Honoloulu Civil Beat >
A stray pit-bull mix snuck on to the BART tracks in Oakland a few weeks ago, but was soon moved to the Oakland Animal Services shelter and named Bart. On October 26, he was adopted by an Oakland family. Read the full NBC Bay Area report >
LOCAL TRANSIT • OCTOBER 17, 2017
Caltrain breaks ground on new South San Francisco station
On Tuesday, October 17, Caltrain broke ground on its $61,000,000 project to move and upgrade the South San Francisco station. The goal of the new platform and underpass is to boost housing and businesses downtown.
On September 1, 1917, the San Francisco Municipal Railway launched its very first bus line. To celebrate this anniversary, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency published a historical article. Read the Article >
An amendment proposed by Alabama representative Mo Brooks to eliminate $1.1 billion in federal subsidies for Amtrak failed on a 128-293 vote. A plan to eliminate Essential Air Service also was rejected. Read Dodge City Daily Globe article >
Amtrak announced recently than the 5 1/2-hour trip aboard the Lincoln Service Amtrak route has now been cut to 4 1/2 hours, with new locomotives capable of achieving speeds of 110 mph. See Chicago Tribune story >
BART cannot afford its practice of handing out free rides to workers, their family, and law enforcement, which in 2016 added up to $3.5 million (17,000 free rides). Now one BART Board Member is asking for this to stop. Read SF Chronicle article >
Amtrak co-CEO Charles "Wick" Moorman announced that trains may begin offering an "economy" seating plan that scrunches seats together, but a little math finds that this plan won't actually increase revenue for Amtrak. Read Newsweek opinion story >