Tag: rail

Coordinated Sabotage Hits Dutch Rail Network at 20+ Sites, Sparking Chaos as Questions Mount Over Security

The Netherlands woke to transport chaos Tuesday after suspected coordinated sabotage crippled major railway routes, exposing just how easily critical infrastructure can be thrown into disarray while Dutch and European leaders increasingly focus their attention on threats from abroad.

According to reports from the Dutch media, objects deliberately fastened to railway tracks triggered safety systems across central and northern Netherlands, bringing trains to a standstill and leaving commuters stranded. ProRail, which manages the country’s rail infrastructure, said the evidence left little doubt that somebody had intentionally interfered with the network.

Workers began discovering sections of pipe attached to rails at around 5:30 a.m. Reports initially identified roughly 20 affected locations, while later accounts said security systems had been disrupted at more than 30 points.

The method wasn’t particularly sophisticated, but the consequences were enormous. By fooling track circuits into detecting trains where none existed, the objects automatically turned signals red and shut affected sections of railway.

Near Steenwijk, the situation became more dangerous when a train actually struck one of the pipes. Nobody was injured, according to ProRail, but deliberately putting material onto active railway lines clearly carried risks extending far beyond delayed commuters.

“We have been to these places and carried out investigations and found materials that were intentionally put there,” ProRail spokeswoman Joke van der Cruysen told NOS. “So we can say the railway has been sabotaged.”

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France: Authorities investigate train derailment that injured 44 for possible sabotage

French authorities are investigating a train derailment in Normandy that injured 44 people for possible sabotage after a piece of rail was found on the track.

The regional train was carrying 186 passengers from Rouen to Caen when it derailed Friday evening at Cléon, causing one carriage to tip onto its side.

A spokeswoman for France’s national police communications service, Service d’Information et de Communication de la Police Nationale (SICOP), told the Associated Press that a piece of rail found on the track was “probably” linked to the derailment.

“The reasons for its presence are unknown and will have to be determined by the investigation,” Rouen prosecutor Sebastien Gallois said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Cléon Mayor Melanie Delacour said the victims were “in a state of shock.”

“The windows of the carriages that remained upright shattered, and because of the train’s speed, stones flew into the carriages,” she told AFP.

Per police, the prosecutor’s office has remained cautious about drawing conclusions while the investigation is underway.

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said 140 firefighters and other emergency teams were deployed to the scene of the crash on Friday.

One of the injured victims was an 18-year-old woman who was evacuated to Rouen University Hospital by helicopter in critical condition, police said.

“Suddenly there were a few jolts, and then after about three seconds it got stronger and stronger,” Louis, a train passenger, told ICI Normandie radio. “I couldn’t stay in my seat any more. The windows partially shattered, the stones from the track came into the carriage. It was really shocking. I’m still shaking.”

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REPORT: After Billions Upon Billions in Spending, California’s High Speed Rail Program May Run Out of Money by the End of 2027

The high-speed rail program that California has been working on for years and which has already cost billions of dollars, may run out of money as early as the end of 2027, according to new reports.

Has there ever been a greater example of the inefficiency of government to build things?

They have been at this for years and hardly any tracks have even been laid. At what point to they just give it up already?

The New York Post reports:

Gavin Newsom’s bullet train barreling toward financial cliff as cash could run dry in 2027

California’s bullet train could have a new end point: Brokeville, USA.

The state’s beleaguered high-speed rail line is once again careening toward a financial cliff, as a new report — delivered last month to Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators — says the project could run out of cash by the end of next year.

The Office of the Inspector General warned that the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s funds could dry up as soon as December 2027 unless it secures financing — and the authority would need to borrow as much as $9.5 billion over five years just to keep construction on schedule.

Inspector General Benjamin Belnap’s report noted that high-speed rail officials have “obscured basic facts about the project, hindering lawmakers’ ability to provide effective oversight of the project.”

State Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach), who previously called the bullet train “the most wasteful government project in probably world history,” said on Tuesday that the warning of empty coffers by the end of 2027 was “no surprise.”

“During the informational hearing this spring, both the nonpartisan [Legislative Analyst’s Office] and the Inspector General were unable to identify a reliable funding source for high-speed rail,” Strickland told The Post.

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Report: California High-Speed Train Debacle Not Caused by Trump but by State Missing Grant Deadlines

Not surprisingly, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed President Donald Trump for a $4 billion cut to California’s troubled high-speed train project. Instead, records show the state never bought the trains required to get the money.

That is the conclusion of an extensive CBS News investigation published Sunday about the California High Speed Rail Authority repeatedly missing federal grant deadlines to buy the trains, which turned out to be one of the key failures the Trump administration cited for legally pulling the funding a year ago.

Now, more than 18 months after the original deadline, the Authority still cannot say when it expects to award the train contract, CBS reported, with the state calling that date “TBD,” otherwise known as “to be determined.”

Approved by voters in 2008, the project was originally designed to link San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours with electric trains able to reach speeds of 220 miles per hour.

Currently, there is no direct train service between the two major cities, and if someone wanted to try it by existing conventional lines, the trip could take up to 12 hours.

It looks as if it would still be a tedious trip even with the Golden State’s proposed high-speed rail plan.

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Cost of California’s High-Speed Rail Goes Up Again

It was also supposed to be carrying 65.5 million to 96.5 million intercity riders a year by 2030. Yet now 2040 is the date for “full service to start.” Skeptics don’t believe we’ll ever see the train run with paying customers aboard.

“In my judgment, the Draft 2026 Business Plan describes a project that has reached a dead end,” says Louis S. Thompson, a 15-year member of the California High Speed Rail Peer Review Group that was established by legislation.

In a letter to lawmakers, Thompson, who was also on the team that created Amtrak, said that after so many changes in the project—cost, design revisions, longer estimated trip times—it’s “not, not even remotely, the system the voters approved in Proposition 1A” in 2008.

Early last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom, that “Steel Driving Man,” promised there soon would be some visible manifestation of the train’s “progress.” A few months later, HSRA CEO Ian Choudri promised, “We are going to be laying high speed tracks next year.”

The HSRA “expects to achieve several other procurement milestones in 2026,” but not track laying and there is no hard deadline for it to begin to be found in the plan. There is only a three-and-a-half-year timeline, which starts in July for the “Track & Systems Design & Construction” of the first section in the Central Valley.

In other words, the HSRA has provided itself cover should it fall short of its 2026 promise.

California’s perpetually unfolding mess has caught the attention of the editorial board of a newspaper one state over after a recent “60 Minutes” report “shined the spotlight on what has become the most embarrassing and costly government infrastructure boondoggle in US history.”

“Has there ever been a greater fraud perpetrated on the taxpayers than California’s high-speed rail travesty?” asked the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Where are the folks at ‘American Greed’ when you need them?”

That is, of course, a reference to the CNBC documentary series “American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals.” It won’t happen, but it would be fitting, if the HSRA borrowed the program’s name for the subtitle of its 2027 business plan, which this year is shamelessly being called “Transforming California’s Future.”

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Ontario landowners push back against high-speed rail and property rights threats

Landowners gathered at the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA) general meeting in Cobourg to voice strong opposition to the federal government’s proposed $90-billion Alto high-speed rail project, warning it threatens private property rights through aggressive expropriation and sweeping legislative changes.

The project, aimed at linking Toronto and Quebec City, has sparked alarm among rural residents and farmers in eastern Ontario as letters from Alto arrive, requesting access to private land for surveys, soil testing, and environmental assessments.

Many fear that allowing entry could weaken their legal standing and pave the way for forced takings.

“There is no law that requires property owners to allow anyone onto their property with respect to Alto,” OLA president Jeff Bogaerts relayed. “The moment you allow Alto onto your property, your property rights are going away.”

Attendees noted that the lack of clear route details, crossing plans, or impact assessments has left landowners in the dark.

Critics like Conservative MP Philip Lawrence argue that the project is fundamentally flawed. At speeds requiring grade separation, every road, farm lane, or crossing demands expensive overpasses or underpasses, costing millions each.

For him and concerned landowners, the economics don’t add up: an estimated $8,000 per Canadian household, with most taxpayers (outside of the 1,000 km corridor between Toronto and Quebec City) unlikely to ever use the service.

“It’s my property. I should be able to do what I want with it,” one farmer stated plainly. “We don’t need it, we can’t afford it, and it’s just a bad idea,” said another.

Others pointed out practical inconveniences, such as disrupted local travel patterns that could force longer drives for basic needs like groceries.

Concerns extend beyond cost and disruption, with speakers highlighting potential conflicts of interest, noting involvement of firms like SNC-Lavalin (now rebranded Atkins Realis), compounded by the fact that Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s partner is vice-president of Alto’s environmental division.

Questions also arose about the project’s alignment with broader global agendas under Prime Minister Mark Carney, with former MP Jack MacLaren saying, “I hope the train goes where the new world order goes, and that’s nowhere.”

Nowhere — that’s exactly where a 2018 Ontario government proposal for a high-speed rail line ended up, despite plans to have it running by 2025 and an $11 billion ‘commitment’ to the failed project.

Ironically, a copy of that year’s OLA magazine was shared with attendees, showing just how relevant those same concerns persist nearly a decade later.

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Total Cost of California High-Speed Rail Line Rises to $126 Billion, With a Big Funding Shortfall

California’s high-speed rail project connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco is now estimated to cost $126 billion, a rail authority board member said in an interview released by CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

But the High-Speed Rail Authority, according to its 2026 Business Plan issued in February, forecasts $39.3 billion in capital funding through 2045, a shortfall of around $87 billion.

“It is a big gap to fill,” board member Anthony Williams said, “[but] we have an understanding of how to get there and to fill that gap.”

The project, approved by voters in 2008, was supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by high-speed rail for around $33 billion and a completion date of 2020.

“We’re now in 2026,” Republican Congressman Vince Fong of Bakersfield said in the interview. “There are no trains. There’s no track laid. It was a complete bait and switch. The business plan that was put out in 2008 was very theoretical. You know, ‘This is what we think is gonna happen.’ And it became very clear that they didn’t have the specifics worked out.”

Toks Omishakin, who became California’s secretary of transportation in 2022, admitted that mistakes had been made and a lot of the project’s criticism is “very fair.”

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LA to Vegas high speed train now predicted to cost $21 BILLION, as critics warn final sum will be far higher

The price tag for the much-anticipated high-speed train between Southern California and Las Vegas has soared to $21.5 billion with warnings the number could keep rising. 

The 218-mile railway will take passengers from Las Vegas to Southern California in just two hours, with a Metrolink connecting them to Los Angeles Union Station.

At speeds of up to 200 mph, Brightline West hopes that its project will promote a ‘car-free, care-free lifestyle’.

Earlier this year, Brightline West reported that the railway’s construction would cost $16 billion, double the initially projection. 

But rising costs due to labor shortages, material cost inflation, and competition from other infrastructure projects has driven the cost up even further, according to Desert Sun. 

To make up for the difference, the company has requested a $6 billion federal loan through the US Department of Transportation.

The company issued $2.5 billion in private activity bonds in February, which requires it to secure the necessary loan by November. 

But if they can’t secure it, they may end up paying even more and be forced to repay investors early. 

Initially, the railway was supposed to open in 2027, in time for the Summer Olympics in LA the following year, but the date has been pushed back to 2029. 

Brightline West ceremonially broke ground on the project in April 2024 and preliminary construction has begun. 

The all-electric trains will be built along the Interstate 15 median with new stations in Apple Valley and Hesperia.

The final stop in Rancho Cucamonga, California will connect passengers to LA on a pre-existing Metro line. 

Brightline West claims taking the high-speed rail will be two times faster than the driving time which can take up to five hours. 

They also boast that they will create more than 10,000 job during construction and 800 permanent operations and maintenance jobs.

It’s also environmentally friendly and is projected to save 325,000 metric tons of CO2 each year.

According to their website: ‘Brightline is the only private provider of modern, eco-friendly, intercity passenger rail service in America.’

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Leaked Emails Show EPA Sought To Discredit Scientist After Ohio Train Derailment Disaster

Leaked emails from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that the agency sought to discredit an independent scientist who questioned official data on contamination following the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and fire in February 2023.

Following the official EPA announcement that were no dangerous levels of toxins in the area and that it was safe for residents to return home, independent testing expert Scott Smith reported finding high levels of dioxins in the soil in East Palestine.

According to News Nation, when Smith’s findings were reported in spring of 2023, former EPA administrator Judith Enck said the agency should pay attention to Smith’s test results.

Instead of taking new samples and doing similar testing, leaked emails show that the EPA began collecting Smith’s personal information and monitoring his actions in an effort to discredit the environmental scientist.

Smith’s personal information and whereabouts were distributed to more than 50 EPA employees, his dog’s picture was circulated and drones were documented hovering near the scientist on multiple occasions.

Lesley Pacey, with the Government Accountability Project, told NewsNation that the EPA’s response was “troubling” since it was a matter of public health.

Pacey said, “What the EPA seems to have done here in East Palestine is that they were more interested in controlling the narrative and controlling what was going out to the community, from the community and back to the community,” adding, “They were definitely controlling the narrative of nothing to see here, no long-term health impacts.”

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Ernst Presses DOT to Reclaim $14 Billion from Overbudget Rail Projects After Audit

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced a new push to rescind or redirect $14 billion in federal transportation funding from what she calls “boondoggle” rail projects that are years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, according to a letter sent this week to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

In the letter, Ernst commended Secretary Duffy for releasing a long-delayed audit of California’s high-speed rail project and for canceling $4 billion in federal funding for the effort. The Department of Transportation’s 315-page report, required by a provision Ernst authored in the bipartisan infrastructure law (Section 11319 of Public Law 117-58), outlined what Ernst called a “trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste, and skyrocketing costs.”

DOT found that the California high-speed rail project failed to meet the terms of its federal grant awards, citing missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and exaggerated ridership projections. The project, originally pitched to voters in 2008 as a $33 billion rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2020, has since ballooned to $128 billion with no high-speed tracks laid.

Ernst praised DOT’s review as setting “a new gold standard in accountability” and urged Secretary Duffy to apply similar scrutiny to other federally funded projects identified under her boondoggle law. She listed four projects currently receiving a combined $4.5 billion from taxpayers: Honolulu Rail Transit in Hawaii at $1,941,400,000; the Purple Line Transit in Maryland at $1,006,000,000; the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity project in California at $1,335,730,000; and the Queens Railroad Project in New York at $294,781,579.

The letter also highlighted three additional projects that Ernst said were omitted from the official audit despite being over budget and behind schedule. These include the Subway Extension to Silicon Valley, California, receiving over $5 billion; the San Francisco Transit Center at $3.38 billion; and the Minneapolis Light Rail project in Minnesota at roughly $939 million. According to Ernst, the Department of Transportation has committed $9.4 billion to these three projects alone.

“If these can’t be salvaged with better management, they too should be canceled,” Ernst wrote. She suggested that the total $14 billion could be redirected to higher-priority infrastructure needs or used to help pay down the national debt, which she noted has surpassed $37 trillion.

Although the audit of California’s high-speed rail project was over 300 pages long, Ernst noted that the DOT’s summary of the other 14 projects required by her provision was condensed into a one-page chart. She called for greater detail in future “boondoggle reports,” including information on budget overruns, schedule delays, and additional DOD-supported transportation efforts.

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