InsideTransit

Two years ago I wrote about Casper, a nice cat in the UK who would ride the bus each day and always knew where to get on and off and what time the bus was going to arrive. Today I am back with the story of a dog who was captured on video riding the light rail in Maryland.

I found the video on Subchat and while I am not a pet lover, this is one cute doggie!  The video’s creator is not sure if the dog is lost, a stray or is with a person riding in the light rail car. The dog does appear to get off at the next station with a person but it’s unknown if the person was the dog’s owner.

I have heard that the MTA is looking into to finding the dog to see if it paid its fare – no one is above paying their fare – whether they walk on two legs or four!
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Just about a month ago, I wrote about the San Francisco transit agency BART and how they are looking for riders to give them feedback about new seating options in the manufacture of their new trains. I noted, “I don’t know about you but I often wonder just what might be stewing under the fabric seats the subway cars use. They often look “stained” and sometimes there are some interesting smells also coming from the seat region.”

Today the New York Times has a long article (don’t read it if you just ate) about the condition of the seats on BART. You see BART trains use fabric seats (why I don’t know) and they apparently hold germs better than a running back carrying the football.

Some notes from the NYT post:

• “Fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics were found in a seat on a train headed from Daly City to Dublin/Pleasanton. Further testing on the skin-borne bacteria showed characteristics of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the drug-resistant bacterium that causes potentially lethal infections…”
• “High concentrations of at least nine bacteria strains and several types of mold were found on the seat. Even after Ms. Franklin cleaned the cushion with an alcohol wipe, potentially harmful bacteria were found growing in the fabric.”

Just think about it – if that nasty bacteria transfers to your backside of your pants, you could be carrying that nasty crap on your ass all day.

With all of the heavy budget cuts hitting transit agencies across the U.S., it seems there are also less transit cleaners which may make for even dirtier trains in the future.

Passengers on a NJ Transit bus were lucky to exit the bus before a New Jersey Transit train struck the bus and carried it down the tracks. A driver saw the bus stuck on the tracks and rushed to the bus to let the driver and passengers know to get off the bus immediately. The weather was near full whiteout conditions.

NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel says an engineer had minor injuries. The 26 bus passengers evacuated before the Atlantic City line train hit it.

Here’s a video from 6 Action News in Philly:
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Alright folks…it’s Thanksgiving here in the U.S. One of the most popular meals on the holiday is to eat turkey.  Found via SubChat, here are some real live turkeys just waiting for their train in New Jersey.  They line up nicely, they wait quietly, they don’t bother other waiting passengers. What’s odd is that when their train arrives, they move away – maybe they are waiting on the wrong track? Is the Perdue train arriving on track 11 or 15?

Sad news out of Mathura, India today. A train bound for Delhi has crashed and killed 21 people and injured another 17 passengers. Read the full story about the crash on AFP. Local railway manager Rajendra Dutt Tripathi said a train travelling from the southern state of Goa to New Delhi had run into the back of the stationary Mewar Express, an overnight service from western Rajasthan to the capital.

From the AFP: Tripathi said initial reports suggested the Mewar Express was at a standstill because a passenger had pulled the emergency chain and the driver of the Goa express had overlooked a signal requesting him to stop.”

“R.D. Vajpayee, chief spokesman for northern railways, said that the company would pay 500,000 rupees (10,800 dollars) to the families of the dead.”

Nearly 18.5 million people ride the trains in the state-run transit system in India. There are 3oo train crashes a year in India.

This story out of Hamburg, Germany is pretty darn exciting. It appears that, “Siemens and the German Rail want to get together in the U.S. railroad business.” Spiegel Online is reporting (translated link) that since the U.S. wants more rail from cities including Orlando to Miami, the German collaboration wants a piece of the action.

German rail isn’t with its own problems – there have been lots of talk about axle and rail issues as of late. The one thing I noticed when riding the rails in Europe was that the trains were always on time or very, very close. Here you are lucky if the train just shows up

I’ve been on ICE a few times and can tell you that it was so much sweeter than AMTRAK can ever hope to be. Even if the routes (which will sadly never be built anyway) are U.S. made, I hope they allow the best of rail from across the world to influence both the design and the technology.

When you ask people which train station is their favorite, you always get different answers. For me, it’s always been Grand Central Terminal in NYC because it was my first love. But the new station in Berlin is beautiful along with some of the stations I’ve been to in Munich and London. Of course there are so many other stations around the world that might be better but that I haven’t been to as of yet.

The Daily Mail in the UK has put together a list of the top ten train stations in the world. Check out the full list to see all the photos and explanations of why each station is on the list. Here’s the list of locations:

1. Atocha Station, Spain
2. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, India
3. Union Station, Chicago
4. Pickering Station, Yorkshire
5. Ushuaia Station, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
6. Choum Station, Mauritania
7. Tanggula Mountain Railway Station, Tibet
8. Broken Hill, Australia
9. Haydarpasa, Istanbul
10. Divisadero Barrancas, Mexico

Which train stations are your favorites?

A couple of years ago I was in London and found a sushi bar that had a little train that went all around the table with little sushi plates on it. You took whatever you liked and paid by the total number of plates that you ate.

Now Strapya-World out of Japan has created a kit so you can create your own Sushi Train at home. It’s $66 and damn if I don’t want one for my birthday. You must check out the video below for how it works and all of the photos as well.  There is even a little controller thingy that looks like a real train – but keep it at a slow speed or your eel roll will be getting mixed with your california roll.

Tokyo Mango has put together their list of reasons why everyone should have a Sushi Train at home. Here’s a teaser from their list, “The kit comes with chopsticks and fake sushi, so you can use it as a tool to teach kids how to properly use chopsticks and eat fake sushi.”

There are even real sushi sounds that come with the train set. No seriously, there is a sound set. How come we don’t have an Amtrak hot dog train or a German ICE Bratwurst train?
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This is a breaking transit news alert…two trains have collided on the Red Line in Washington, D.C. this afternoon.

From ABC News 7 in Washington, “Metro confirms two trains have collided on the Red Line between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations. It happened close to the Fort Totten station, a Metro spokesperson said.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter said one train was on top of the other train.”

5:45pm Eastern – CNN is now reporting that one person has been confirmed dead at the scene.

6:15pm Eastern – WTOP is reporting that two people have died. Crews are working to free trapped people in the trains.

8pm Eastern – “John Catoe, WMATA General Mgr., says a train was stopped waiting, and it was struck by the second train, moving at speed. They were both on the same track.” The operator of one of the trains has died.

9pm Eastern – updates are coming in that 6 people have died. CNN also notes, “Seventy people were treated at the scene — 56 with minor injuries, 12 with moderate injuries and two with life-threatening injuries, according to Chief Dennis Rubin of Washington’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.”

Some photos from the scene:
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Here’s something you don’t see everyday…. a watermelon truck. Apparently the driver is selling watermelons for 5 thousand Wan each. At the end it appears that the couple on the motorbike really want some watermelon as they race after the truck. My only question is… are they seedless watermelons?