KEENE, Calif. (AP) ― Flames forced the evacuation of nearby homes in Keene, Calif.
Several California homes remained evacuated Sunday after the car of a freight train that derailed near a small town burned and choked the area with thick, black smoke.
Kern County Fire Department spokesman Sean Collins said earlier that the homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution after a toxic cloud surged from the flames. A temporary shelter was set up at Tehachapi High School for evacuees.
The Colorado manufacturer of the passenger rail cars initially chosen by transit planners for the Sonoma-Marin commute train service has gone out of business.
Colorado Railcars, the only U.S. maker of passenger rail cars to meet federal crash specifications, shut its Fort Lupton, Colo., manufacturing plant on Dec. 23.
http://urlet.com/retaining.opened
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090107/NEWS/901070306/0/WIRE
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A freight train derailed Saturday in northern Nevada, triggering a bridge collapse and disruptions in rail service on one of the country’s main east-west lines, Union Pacific officials said.
The derailment occurred in a remote area along the Humboldt River about 10 miles west of Carlin and 260 miles east of Reno, rail company spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said.
Thirteen cars containing grain were involved in the derailment. Richmond she was unsure how many cars the westbound locomotives were hauling. No injuries were reported.
The 102-year-old bridge spanning the river collapsed a couple of hours after the derailment, Richmond said, and railroad officials are unsure how long it’ll take to restore it.
“We once fixed another bridge in about a week, and we should know in the next couple of days how long it’s going to take to get this bridge up and running,” Richmond said.
The train was passing through an 875-foot tunnel when the derailment occurred. Three cars derailed inside the tunnel and at least a couple of cars ended up in the river, Richmond said.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation by the rail company.
http://urlet.com/wasted.aolpress
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5fi2_0Cal3EmLAcTZNoqye_J2QQD95BFDDG0
2 trains collide in Winona County; cars fall into riverA 1,000-gallon liquid propane tank near the tracks was leaking, and nitrogen was leaking from one of the trains that derailed in the 5:30 a.m. crash near Dresbach, officials say.
By PAUL WALSH
Two freight trains collided head-on before dawn this morning in extreme southeastern Minnesota, sending some of the derailed cars into the Mississippi River, authorities said.
http://urlet.com/basque.distinctions
http://www.startribune.com/local/36293264.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsr
SMART or dumb?
By David Bolling
INDEX-TRIBUNE EDITOR
Thu, October 9, 7:04 PM
Before the end of this century, you’ll be able to take a clean, energy efficient train from Cloverdale to Larkspur and from Santa Rosa to New York.
The county will be laced with jitney routes carrying passengers to rail terminals, one of which could be as close as Schellville. Most working people will no longer commute to San Francisco because most of the jobs will be strung along the Highway 101 corridor. The freeway will be less crowded, the air will be clean, and bike paths shadowing the rail lines will provide healthy, carbon-free transit options all over the county.
That’s one version of reality extrapolated from the vision painted by proponents of SMART, the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit system that would be funded by a quarter-cent sales tax on the November ballot. But here’s another vision.
A $500 million boondoggle that will swallow available transit funds for a rail line to nowhere that no one will ride, while cheaper more flexible transit options serving all of Sonoma County, including the Valley of the Moon, will be co-opted and foreclosed. Instead of a network of jitney busses, commuting motorists will clog the roads getting to the few rail heads where insufficient parking will be available for a trip that will end up costing too much and taking too long to get them efficiently to work.
Is SMART smart? Or dumb? That’s the basic question presented to voters by Measure Q, the third ballot measure to attempt to generate the necessary two-thirds vote to fund the SMART train.
….{snip}….
But critics have long contended that SMART ridership estimates are inflated and that the train will never pay for itself. Some critics, reviewing the daily biking/hiking estimates for the parallel pathway, call them absurd.
More to they point, they say, SMART is asking voters to invest half a billion dollars over 21 years in technology and centrally-concentrated infrastructure they believe will be obsolete before the tax expires.
Former county supervisor Ernie Carpenter has called SMART the “silly train,” and signed the voter’s pamphlet argument against Measure Q. Also signing was Joan Vilms, a land-use and open-space expert who argues that “SMART won’t pick people up where they are or take them where they want to go.” She claims the money could be better spent on SMART vans and busses on non-fixed routes that are more neighborhood based.
….{snip}….
Vilms also worries that SMART will spur explosive growth along the 101 corridor and said land speculation is already taking place along the route.
Even more disturbing, according to Vilms, is that passage of SMART will signal destruction of a wild stretch of the Eel River.
That’s because to help finance the project, SMART has entered into an agreement with the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) which owns the old Northwestern Pacific track extending north from Healdsburg.
The NCRA, in turn, intends to contract with a reborn Northwestern Pacific Railroad to carry freight on the line and that freight, claims Vilms, will have track priority over passenger service.
More alarming to her is the prospect of the freight service being used to haul gravel mined from the bed of the Eel, in a remote section not otherwise accessible. Vilms, a longtime advocate of river protection and a founding member of Friends of the Russian River, argues the impact of gravel mining on the Eel could be devastating.
….{snip}….
http://www.sonomanews.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/doc48eeb1216b4e4734814287.txt
Citing an outpouring of community and environmental concern including the possibility of hauling nuclear waste, the Novato City Council again delayed weighing in Wednesday on a settlement with the North Coast Railroad Authority.”Negotiations are continuing,” said Mayor Pat Eklund. “Issues were raised that we were not aware of which is why we’ll continue negotiating.”
She said the next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Novato Unified School District office.
Wednesday was the latest of multiple times the council met over the past week to discuss the settlement to address “quiet zones” at railroad crossings and the need for an environmental impact report.
SANTA ROSA (BCN)
Sonoma and Marin county voters will vote on a rail transit measure Nov. 4.
Measure Q asks voters in Marin and Sonoma counties to approve a quarter-cent sales tax for 20 years to finance a passenger train service between Cloverdale and Larkspur proposed by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit group.
The $450 million rail project with 14 train stations and a $91 million pedestrian and bicycle path requires the approval of two-thirds of the total number of votes in the counties. It narrowly failed in 2006 when Sonoma County voters approved it but Marin County voters did not.
Even the wording submitted by opponents of the controversial project in the voter information pamphlet was the subject of a lawsuit in both counties.
….{snip}….
Opponents say the train will destroy wetlands and devastate wildlife along the 70-mile route. If facilitated by the rail project, freight trains along the Northwestern Pacific Railroad corridor and gravel mining might damage the Eel River and its threatened salmon and steelhead.
Opponents also claim any reductions in vehicle trips, carbon emissions and gas consumption would be too tiny to make a difference in air quality. They believe the trains would spew cancer-causing exhaust and back up cars idling at every street crossing.
They call the project a “train to nowhere” that would force many to subsidize a few riders to Marin County. They believe the train will lose $12 million a year and it does not go where most Sonoma County residents live and work. The area needs mass transit to San Francisco and the East Bay, not just to Marin County, opponents argue.
….{snip}….
Federal funding will pay 3 percent of the costs, state funding 7 percent, Regional Measure 2 will pay 3 percent, Sonoma County’s Measure M Traffic Relief Act will pay 2 percent and capital off-sets for ongoing track upgrades will contribute 3 percent, according to SMART. The 20-year investment in the project is estimated at $1.2 billion.
http://urlet.com/stole.twelfth
http://cbs5.com/localwire/22.0.html?type=bcn&item=SMART-MEASURE-bagm–
KHSU Election 2008 Coverage
http://www.khsu.org/election2008
Live from the Kate Buchanan Room on the campus of Humboldt State University
Monday September 8, 2008, Arcata City Council Forum.
CANDIDATES:
Michael Machi, incumbent
Michael Winkler
Jason A. Grow
Geronimo Garcia
Susan Ornelas
Shane Brinton
CANDIDATES:
Ward 2:
Linda Atkins
Polly Endert, incumbent
Ward 4:
Frank J. Jager
George Clark
Wednesday, October 8, 7-8:30 pm
Arcata City Council
CANDIDATES:
Michael Machi, incumbent
Michael Winkler
Jason A. Grow
Geronimo Garcia
Susan Ornelas
Shane Brinton
Monday, October 13, 7-8 pm
State Assembly, District 1
CANDIDATES:
Wesley Chesbro, Democratic
Jim Pell, Republican
Monday, October 20, 7-8 pm
U. S. Representative, District 1
CANDIDATES:
Mike Thompson, Democratic, incumbent
Carol Wolman, Green
Zane Starkewolf, Republican
Wednesday, October 22, 7-8:30 pm
Fortuna City Council
CANDIDATES:
Don Mayden
Odell Shelton, Jr.
Douglas Strehl, incumbent
Tom Mulholland
Kenneth E. Zanzi
Monday, October 27, 7-8 pm
Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District
CANDIDATES:
Division 1:
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, incumbent
Stephen Davies
Division 3:
Barbara Hecathorn, incumbent
Robert A. Schultz
Wednesday, October 29, 7-8:30 pm
Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District
CANDIDATES:
Division 2:
Edward “Buzz” Webb
Tera Prucha
Jake Pickering
Ben Shepherd
Adrienne Floreen
HighBoldtage 