San Jose to close light rail branch NEWSWIRE

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose’s transit agency, the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority, is proposing the closure of a little-used light rail line as part of a series of budget cuts. The 2-mile Ohlone/Chynoweth-Almaden branch would be replaced by bus service under the authority’s New Transit Service Plan, which will go before the authority […]

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BART seeks cause of weekend outage that shut down system NEWSWIRE

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SAN FRANCISCO — Bay Area Rapid Transit engineers are conducting “a comprehensive forensic evaluation” to determine what caused a shutdown of the BART system on Saturday. The Saturday morning outage began about 6 a.m.; service was not fully restored until about 11 a.m., the San Francisco Chronicle reports. BART’s preliminary report is that the closure […]

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Caltrain to begin systemwide bikes-board-first policy NEWSWIRE

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SAN FRANCISCO — Caltrain, the San Francisco-area commuter rail service, will institute a bikes-board-first policy at all stations on Monday, March 11. The procedure allows riders with bicycles to board first on designated bike cars after exiting passengers have disembarked. Other passengers are encouraged to board at non-bike cars to avoid having to wait. Caltrain […]

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California high speed rail CEO calls FRA plan to cancel and seek return of funds “unprecedented” and “harmful” NEWSWIRE

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California High Speed Rail Authority responded strongly on Monday to a Federal Railroad Administration intent to cancel funding and seek the return of federal grants, calling it “unwarranted, unprecedented, and harmful” to the state and nation. Those were the words of Brian Kelly, CEO of the authority, in a statement accompanying the […]

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Missteps lead California high speed rail to crisis NEWSWIRE

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – “A new statewide train system, over 700 miles in length, capable of travel at speeds up to 200 mph,” reads a 2005 brochure published by the California High Speed Rail Authority. The system will “carry as many as 68 million passengers annually by 2020.” Those dreams are stalled somewhere in the arid […]

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New power silences San Francisco Bay Alco NEWSWIRE

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Knoxville Locomotive Works SE10B No. 30 is new power for San Francisco Belt Railway. Doug Wooton Alco No. 23 loads cars with “dirty dirt” at the SFBR yard. Davis Strench No. 25’s engine will be removed, and the unit placed on display. Kyle Stockman SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Bay Railroad is in the […]

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Winter weather wallops operations on Donner Pass NEWSWIRE

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The SPMW 222 at Crystal Lake, Calif., about 15 minutes before its bearings failed. S.R. Bush TRUCKEE, Calif. – Winter on Donner Pass is only at the halfway mark but already is proving one to be remembered. November and December were mild, but in January things began to shift the pace and strength of storms […]

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