If a train crashes...

If an Amtrak train crashes into a freight train at the same time somebody is holding Hillary's NH Campaign HQ hostage, does it make a headline?

The news of the crash didn't even cause WGN to interrupt its rerun of some 1980s sitcom. Maybe it's just because nobody died... fortunately, the worst injuries required, according to the Sun-Times, only overnight hospitalization, then release. It just wasn't big enough news to interrupt that all-important laugh track at the time.

I suppose WGN must have covered it during the regular news hour, later in the evening. They've mentioned it on their website, after all (with video of the broadcast, I gather, although, with slow internet connex, I can't download, so I can't be sure). Probably all the Chgo tv stations opened their local news broadcasts with it -- I don't know, since I'm outside of their broadcast zone -- and then followed with the hostage thing. The news of the crash only made the crawl on Fox News, while Mom was watching. All their cameras were on the waiting-to-happen scene in New Hampshire. (O'course, I might have missed it on the networks, since I was busy last night with friends, all the way through prime time. Did it get respectable coverage? So far, not much mention comes up in the blogosphere. Politics. P'tui.)

The investigation is under way -- my brother-in-law is already on the scene, with others from the NTSB, sifting and weighing evidence.

For those who hadn't heard about the accident before now, keep the injured passengers and crew in your thoughts/prayers.

Bomb threat causes Amtrak to evacuate train

Last night, the California Zephyr -- the train which runs from San Francisco to Chicago via Denver, Burlington IA, and my neck of the woods, the train I have often had occasion to ride from Galesburg to the Big City (and one round trip from Denver to Galesburg) -- was stopped just after it left Denver on its way east. Some passengers expressed concerns over one man whose behavior was troubling, so the train held up in Arvada to be evacuated while the Arvada PD did a bomb search.

The individual who had caused the worries did not have an explosive, but he was carrying both a big-ass knife and a supply of crystal meth.

Wow. This isn't the first scare of the sort, either. When my folks were returning from their vacation last month, Mom related the story of their ride out of Flagstaff:

When we came back from having had supper in the dining car, we were pulling out of Trinidad [Colorado] and there was this guy sitting alone in our car, and he mumbled something at us. I didn't understand what he said, so I asked him to repeat himself. "All the way to the back. Go all the way to the back."

I quietly and firmly said, "No, these are our seats," and your dad and I sat back down in our regular seats. A couple of other passengers arrived back, as well, and then, a little bit later, one of the younger car attendants, who asked the man, "Is this your seat?" and, "Where's your seat? Where's your ticket?"

The man seemed quiet, calm, (it was really spooky) as he pronounced, "There's a bomb on this train." He told the attendant he had heard a couple of guys up in the observation car talking about blowing up the train, and they had a duffel bag with a bomb. They had already gotten off the train at the last stop, but they were going to blow up the train. When asked, he indicated he'd had a little to drink, but he didn't seem to be really drunk, just weird.

The attendant said, "Come on up to the observation car and show me what you saw."

The man refused. The attendant got more senior staff to help question the man, who continued to refuse to accompany them to the observation car. When the man was informed that he would either come with them to look for the bag or he would be removed from the train at the next stop, La Junta (his ticket was for the whole ride, all the way to Chicago). Without hesitation, the man said, "I'd love get off at La Junta."

Almost immediately, a crowd of passengers started arriving in the coach car, having been cleared out of the observation car. They were all aflutter, wondering what was going on, chattering and asking questions and such, but indicated that the conductor and attendants had simply said there was a little problem, and that they should take their regular seats.

I don't know how, but we arrived in La Junta forty-five minutes early. The city police were waiting at the station. After several minutes standing and talking with the police, the strange man shook hands with every member of the train staff still standing at the platform, shook hands with police officers, and was escorted to one of the police cars.

The cabin attendant came up to us and told us nothing was found, and asked your father and me if we were okay. We told him we were fine. Which we were.

The train waited at the station until its regular departure time, and then went on its way toward Denver, undisturbed by further incident.

I can't help but wonder why that one didn't get any news coverage... Friday, 20 April of this year... the week of VA Tech shootings.

Amtrak ridership up in IL

Since the railroad has increased its availability out here in the dingles, ridership has increased rather dramatically. Who'd 'a' thunk?

They added a run each way on the Quincy-Galesburg-Chicago route, and it's been full nearly every trip. I've ridden it a few times, when I've traveled with me muddah to the Big City, and it's a heck of a lot less stressful than trying to drive the roughly 200 miles and then trying to find parking. It's also relaxing. I write, Mom knits, and we both talk to strangers on the train. Some might think it peculiar to chat with people you never expect to meet again, but then, some think blogging with a readership below 30 per day is peculiar... it probably is, and I find myself peculiarly without concern over it.

At any rate, the boom in ridership has put the bug in the shorts of some of our legislators, again. Over the past couple of months, for example, Dick Durbin has made mention that he'd like to see a train run from the Quad Cities to Chicago, because there is none right now, and the nearest connection is 50 miles away, either in Galesburg or in Princeton. His solution, of course, is the whole shebang being built -- new rails and new train to take the whole 170 miles from downtown Rock Island to Union Station in the Windy City.

He's never gonna get it.

They've asked for that run before.

The solution, from what I can see, is to make a connection between Rock Island and either Galesburg or Princeton (the latter would be a more pragmatic, direct, rapid route, but I'd really like to see a line run north-south to make my district a little more accessible for businesses, so I can't discard it entirely. Besides, I've always wanted to revive the old Rocky Doodle). All one would need is about 50 miles of direct track to either city, and the equipment need only run to make the connection to an already existing train. It would do the job of getting more commuters to Chgo, and therefore would increase the worth and efficiency of the one line dramatically.

Not that I expect anything to come of this dream. It is, after all, something the politicos talk about nearly every year since... well, as long as I can recall, and then some.

Gratuitous postcard: New train's a-comin' thru

Okay, it's the same line as always, just with a couple of extra runs each day. Thanks to all you generous taxpayers statewide, we folks out here in Forgottonia are getting a few extra seats on trains between Quincy and Chicago, at the end of this month. Now you don't have to wonder how my retired mother can afford to take so many train trips to Chicago.

G-Rod has seen fit to double the subsidies to Amtrak so that it can run some more trains up and back. Choo choo! Woo hoo!



c'mon. you know you love trains, too.