Railroads

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will travel to Kenya this month to discuss direct flights between that country and the U.S.

Police explosives that were missing at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport have been found.

Commuter rail service between Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J., that had been disrupted by Hurricane Irene has been restored.

Ridership projections for a proposed high-speed rail in California have been validated.

The Homeland Security chief said there is no specific threat that al Qaeda is planning an attack on 9/11 anniversary.

Amtrak is increasing passenger and baggage screenings in advance of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The passenger train service this week said it would conduct more passenger and baggage screenings and would increase the use of K-9 explosive detections teams in advance of Sept. 11.

It also said it would expand police patrols at stations, on trains and along tracks and other key rail infrastructure.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The Transportation Security Administration said a man tried to board an airplane in Brazil with snakes and tortoises in his pants.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed a utility company and lax regulators for a California pipeline explosion.

The terminal at Miami International Airport was evacuated because of a suspicious package.

Commuter rail service in New York has resumed post-Irene.

Most of its Northeast service has resumed operation after Hurricane Irene, Amtrak said, but the railway between Philadelphia and New York City remains out of service because of a flood at the station in Trenton, N.J.

Most of Amtrak's East Coast service was canceled over the weekend in anticipation of Irene, the first major storm to make landfall in the United States in three years. The agency said that its New York City-to-Boston and Boston-to-Portland, Maine, service would resume operations Tuesday, but it could not yet restore its popular Philadelphia-to-New York route.

"Most Northeast Regional service will operate south of Philadelphia, but no Acela Express, Northeast Regional or other Amtrak trains can operate north of Philadelphia to New York," the agency said in a statement. "As of early this Monday evening, about a half-mile of Amtrak right-of-way remained submerged near Trenton, N.J.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transit service is New York City has been fully resumed.

Amtrak is unsure when service will be restored between Philadelphia and Boston.

A Transportation Security Administration worker has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

The Chevy Volt is the most cost-efficient electric car.

Amtrak said Friday afternoon that it was canceling more trains on the East Coast over the weekend in anticipation of Hurricane Irene, including trains in the Northeast that had been spared in a previous round of cancellations.

Amtrak said that it was canceling service on Saturday from Washington to Boston; New York to Harrisburg, Pa.; New Haven, Conn., to Springfield, Mass.; New York City to Albany, N.Y.; Vermont to Washington; and Raleigh, N.C., to Charlotte, N.C. On Sunday, the day the hurricane is expected to make impact, Amtrak said it won’t run any trains in the Northeast at all.

Earlier this week, the agency said it was canceling trains south of Washington.

An Amtrak train from California to Chicago derailed near the Nebraska-Kansas border, the agency said Friday morning.

The train, number 6 on the California Zephyr route, was on it way to Chicago from Emeryville, Calif., in the San Francisco bay area when it made impact with a farm truck around 8:50 central time, Amtrak said. Two locomotives and three rail cars on the train went offtrack in the accident, but there were no life-threatening injuries, Amtrak said.

The train was carrying 178 people. Some of the passengers were transported to a local hospital.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Cadillac Escalades are the most popular cars for auto thieves.

A Massachusetts man says he was questioned by the Transportation Security Administration because he was reading a book about old airplanes.

The New York tri-state region's Metro-North commuter railway is under fire.

Connecticut has a new transportation chief.

With a wary eye on the hurricane forecast to make landfall in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast over the weekend, the national passenger rail service said Thursday it was canceling some of its trains south of Washington on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Amtrak said that trains 52 and 53 from Sanford, Fla., to Lorton, Va., and the portion of Sliver Star 91 and 92 from New York to Jacksonville, Fla., would be canceled. Additionally, trains 97 and 98 from New York to Miami and train 89 from New York to Savannah, Ga., would canceled.

Three additional trains, numbers 79 and 80 from New York to Charlotte, N.C., and train 90 from New York to Savannah will be canceled just on Saturday and Sunday, the agency said.