Railroads

Your morning transportation speed-read:

An Ohio couple say they missed their honeymoon flight because they were held by the Transportation Security Administration over contact solution.

A Newark, N.J., flight was delayed when a flight attendant found graffiti in the bathroom of the plane.

Meet Rahm Emanuel's choice to lead the Chicago Department of Transportation.

High-speed rail is all the rage now, but some Amtrak trains in Detroit are going to be moving more slowly.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A Louisiana airport is displaying posters for movies that have been filmed in the town.

A man was removed from a flight for cursing on a plane.

A disabled man was subjected to a Transportation Security Administration pat-down.

Amtrak has a new operations chief.

The national passenger rail service, better known as Amtrak, said Monday that rail companies in Europe and Japan said its plans to build high-speed railways in the Northeast were sound.

The foreign opinions, which Amtrak dubbed an "international peer review," comes as Republicans in the House are pushing to plan to privatize rail service in the Northeast.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has frequently referred to Amtrak as a "Soviet-style operation," but the agency said Monday that "leading European and Japanese high-speed rail operators" found Amtrak's assessment that it can gradually get trains up to 220 miles per hour was "sound and reasonable."

"The positive feedback from our experienced colleagues around the world is encouraging and demonstrates that Amtrak's high-speed rail plan is a proper response to meet the region's need for increased transportation capacity and is a viable way forward," Amtrak vice president Al Engel said in a statement.

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) criticized cuts to rail security, calling them "reckless and dangerous."

Lautenberg and Holt rallied with workers at the Trenton Transit Center to oppose the cut. The pair said the Republican budget would reduce federal spending on rail security by 65 percent.

The topic is an issue again on Capitol Hill because Lautenberg scheduled a hearing this week  to examine reports that terrorist Osama bin Laden was planning to target American railways before he was killed. 

On Monday, he said again the potential plots should cause Republicans to reconsider their spending cuts.

"Six weeks after the American military’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, one thing is clear: this ruthless killer is dead and gone, but Al Qaeda remains determined to strike the U.S. again,” Lautenberg, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, said in a statement. 

America's railways will be the topic of discussion on both ends of the Northeast Corridor as a House committee holds a hearing in Washington on the security of trains from terrorist threats and transportation advocates gather for the American Public Transportation Association's rail conference in Boston.

The Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, chaired by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), will look into increasing rail security in the wake of evidence terrorist Osama bin Laden was planning to target American railways before he was killed.

Announcing the meeting last week, Lautenberg said that although bin Laden has been dead for about month, it was important to protect against his final plots.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.-based transportation advocacy group APTA opened its 2011 rail conference Sunday in Boston. It will run through June 15. Today, the group will hold a conference call for reporters featuring Federal Transit Administration chief Peter Rogoff and Federal Railroad Administration head Peter Szabo. 

The House will take a look at the issue of charter bus safety, following another deadly crash in northern Virginia recently that killed four people. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), will hold a hearing on the issue today. Similar hearings were held in the Senate after crashes in the Northeast in March resulted in 17 people being killed.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went to the groundbreaking of a streetcar in New Orleans.

A bill in the Texas State Legislature to ban Transportation Security Administration pat-downs there is up for a second vote.

California lawmakers are trying to take over control of a proposed high-speed rail.

Oakland's international airport has been authorized for flights to Cuba.

A little-noticed nugget in Republican president candidate Tim Pawlenty's big economic speech this week is that the GOP hopeful supports efforts in Congress to privatize railway service presently provided by Amtrak.

Pawlenty, who is among several Republicans off and running for the nomination to challenge Obama, included the national passenger rail service in a list of programs he suggested because they did not meet what he called "The Google Test." Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, suggested services that could be found on the internet should not be provided by the government.

"The post office, the government printing office, Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie, were all built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products," he said in his speech in Chicago. "That’s no longer the case."

Two members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee offered competing opinions on a plan to privatize rail service in the Northeast in Thursday's print edition of The Hill.

Presently, Amtrak operates the interstate passenger rail service through the Northeast portion of the country, where railways are most popular. But Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said in op-ed Thursday that "the time has come to deregulate America's passenger rail system."

"By focusing on projects that make sense, leveraging private-sector investment and opening the door to public-private partnerships, we can do more with less and finally take our nation in a new direction," wrote Shuster, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said Wednesday that he would hold a hearing next week on rail safety to examine reports that terrorist Osama bin Laden was planning to target American railways at the time of death.

Lautenberg promised to examine the issue after evidence of the plots was gathered in bin Laden's Pakistani compound during the May raid by U.S. troops that resulted in his death. The intelligence collected in the raid revealed the al Qaeda leader envisioned commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by blowing up trains.

Lautenberg, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, said Wednesday that even though bin Laden has been done now for about month, it was important to protect against his final plots.

“Millions of Americans ride our railroads each day, and an attack on one of these systems would be catastrophic," Lautenberg said in a statement.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Nearly 25 percent of domestic flights in April arrived late because of thunderstorms at airport hubs.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced the location of the first of his promised 100 "protected bike lanes."

A newspaper wants California Gov. Jerry Brown to end his silence on a proposed high-speed rail there.

The new Airbus airplane now flies to Washington's Dulles International Airport.