Suit in fatal NV Amtrak crash says door locked San Jose Mercury News – Sept 15, 2011 Another lawsuit filed against Amtrak in the fatal crash with a truck in Nevada this summer blames a locked door on the train for making the disaster worse … September 19, 2011 The above copy of this enewletter…

There are now just 6 more grade crossings left between Los Angeles and Fullerton. Last week the final funding was approved to finish triple tracking between Los Angeles and Fullerton. These project don’t just help passenger rail service. They insure that freight service isn’t effected by passenger trains, they eliminate traffic back up at crossings,…

Prop 1A which approved up to almost 10 billion dollars in state bonds for High Speed Rail also had a provision for a Peer Review Group to oversee the project to see that it was well managed and money not wasted… This group, none of whom are paid for their services is under the leadership…

…What is the history of rail during  major earthquakes? During the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 many buildings and several roads suffered damage. The Bay Bridge had to be shut down and a large section of viaduct for the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland was destroyed. Caltrain ran on the night of the earthquake. BART was…

I led a student Rail Study Trip to China last March and we covered most of the new CRH lines; we rode part of the new Shanghai-Beijing line (not then fully opened), and the entire Wuhan-Guangzhou line at 350 kph.  Most impressive.  We also rode the new coastal line from Fuzhou to Shanghai. The recent…

Mr. Fenton, CEO of Metrolink is working to expand the market for Rail Passenger service and is talking about better connections and faster service on Metrolink trains with speeds over 100 miles per hour. One of the markets he talks about for faster speed is the Antelope Valley where Palmdale is. Much is being looked…

We could see in the next 3 years 3 more round trips between Fullerton and Laguna Niguel/ Mission Viejo, 3 more round trips between Oceanside and San Diego, and an additional round trip between Los Angeles and San Diego. There will be additional double tracking in San Diego County, more triple tracking between Fullerton and…

We got your email on what our readers thinks should be done with the California High Speed Rail Project. The questions were: Cancel the project, give back the Federal money and what would be your alternative ? Keep the project the way it is ? Where would you build first outside of the San Joaquin…

This graphic from March 2011 shows the current planning between Sylmar in the north San Fernando Valley and Palmdale, a distance of about 50 miles. Original planning assumed 13 miles of tunneling on this segment. Recent engineering work has raised this now to a possible 28 miles of tunneling. It is largely due to the…

Central Valley Business Times – ?Jul 14, 2011? “Even before the full California High-Speed Rail system were built, enough could be completed to run trains in a “cash-positive” operation, the Authority’s board says. The segments represent lengths of track that connect significant populations and may …”July 18, 2011