Federal railroad regulators endorsed an ambitious and costly plan to rebuild the congested Northeast Corridor over the next 30 years by shoring up crumbling infrastructure, running more trains and building new tracks that would allow speeds of up to 220 mph on a stretch of the Washington-Boston route.
The nation's three busiest commuter railroads - which together serve nearly 1 million riders in the New York City area each day - continue to lag behind their smaller West Coast counterparts in installing sophisticated train-control technology that's seen as an antidote to crashes involving speeding and other human factors, federal regulators said Monday.
Amtrak will pay $265 million to settle claims related to a crash last year that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others when a speeding train derailed on a curve.
This quaint shoreline community, proud of its role as a nursery of American Impressionist art, fears the destruction of its heritage if a federal proposal to someday run an East Coast high-speed rail line through its historic center becomes reality.
An explosion rocked a bustling Manhattan neighborhood Saturday night, and an unexploded pressure cooker device was found blocks away; there was a pipe bomb blast earlier Saturday in Seaside Park; and five explosive devices were found near an Elizabeth, N.J. train station late Sunday.
The discovery of 5 explosive devices in Elizabeth near a train trestle caused the shutdown of NJ Transit and Amtrak service on the Northeast Corridor early Monday.
Amtrak is receiving a $2.45 billion loan from the federal government to buy new trains, upgrade tracks and make platform improvements along the busy Northeast corridor, the largest such loan ever by the Department of Transportation, officials announced Friday.