http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/07/28/train-spain-driver-judge.html

Come along and ride this train - iNews880.com iNews 880 On Radio. On Line. On Demand. - Edmonton CHQTAM

http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/actualites/transports/201307/24/01-4673910-via-rail-ferme-plusieurs-gares.php#

http://news.sky.com/story/1120432/spain-train-crash-caused-by-speeding

The train that derailed in Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday evening killing 79 people and leaving more than a hundred injured was reportedly travelling at more than twice the speed limit. See below for video. Police sources told Spanish newspaper El Pais that, moments after the crash, the traumatised driver made another call to the operator. "It derailed!" he said. "What am I going to do, what am I going to do? We are all humans – we're humans. I hope there are no fatalities because it will all be on my conscience." Both the drivers escaped the crash with minor injuries.The carriages careened off the tracks at a curve approaching the station at Santiago where the limit is set at 80 km per hour (50mph). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/10201311/Train-in-Spanish-crash-was-travelling-at-more-than-double-the-speed-limit.html

Over the next few months. I would like to organize some meet and greets. The events will be called, "You Can't Organize Unless You Socialize".- The Future of High Speed Rail in Canada. We can discuss strategies on how to get improved higher speed passenger rail on the political agenda in the next federal election in Canada. Basically we would meet in a bar/restaurant and network. A Saturday 1-4pm type of thing. If you have a fun place in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and want to help get the word out let me know. I can do an Events page on Facebook. I can also do a poster and send it out to our 300 email list and our media list. So lets start in Toronto in August. Send suggestions on where and if you can help get the word out to highspeedrailcanada(at)yahoo.ca . It is time for Harper to go. Paul Langan, High Speed Rail Canada

It is hard to imagine how the tragedy in Lac Mégantic could have happened. A comprehensive investigation will reveal that it was not only the human errors at the time of the incident that caused the accident. A systematic failure in the safety program at the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway occurred. Reading the Globe and Mail article on their reporting of the accident suggested many questions needed to be asked. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-equation-of-a-disaster-what-went-wrong-in-lac-megantic/article13214911/ Questions regarding training, competency, inadequate safe work procedures, maintenance standards of locomotives, staffing policies will be asked. What I hope will happen from this tragedy is that regulations will be put in place, and enforced, to ensure railway companies make safety a priority in how they do their business.

The Mexican government announced plans Monday to invest about $100 billion in rail, road, telecom and port projects over the next five years, including Mexico's first high-speed rail links. Among the projects are the modernization or building of four airports, seven seaports and about 3,350 miles (5,410 kilometers) of highways. The government will strengthen fiber optic networks and expand broadband internet access, and speed up freight train service. "Mexico can be the great logistics platform for Latin America," Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said. "We have to create significant savings in the time and cost of transporting goods." But in announcing the plan, President Enrique Pena Nieto emphasized the goal of reviving passenger trains in Mexico. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-sets-100-billion-rail-ports-roads-plan-19671823#.UeaCDdinfpc

Workers on new 1,776-km rail link no strangers to tough conditions, reports Cui Jia in Urumqi. It was just after midnight in Hami prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the construction workers on the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway had just started work. The men work at night to avoid the intense heat of the day that causes the water in the concrete mix to evaporate too quickly and could compromise the strength of the bridge being built, making it too fragile to meet stringent safety and engineering standards. The stifling summer heat is just one of the challenges facing the 30,000 workers on the Xinjiang section of the project. The 1,776-km-long railway, which on completion will link the capitals of Gansu province and Xinjiang, crosses the desolate and inhospitable Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the arid sands of the Gobi Desert and a number of high-wind areas. These features make construction of the rail link a difficult and risky task. The project, dubbed the "

Sorry I did not post this earlier. Not high speed rail but this VIA tragedy is worth reading about. Hard to understand how 3 experienced engineers missed the signal. The crew of Via train No. 92 in Burlington, Ont., misperceived a warning signal to slow down before their locomotive and five passenger cars were involved in a deadly derailment in February 2012, according to a report released today by Canada's Transportation Safety Board that recommends "fail-safe" train controls. Here is the report. http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/712062/via-derailment-report.pdf

It seems anywhere but Canada. Italy unveils Bombardier's latest high speed rail train. Frecciarossa 1000 to begin line testing | International Railway Journal

BY ALAN CORMIER re: Toronto Star Editorial Pickering: Remember Mirabel? Letter June 22 We are told that Toronto will be short of airport capacity in the near future and that a second major airport is needed in Pickering. Not that many years ago, major airport renovations and expansions were carried out in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal at the cost of billions of dollars. Analysts with a broad vision said at the time that nearly one-third of all flights at these three airports were indeed travelling between these three cities only and that a high-speed rail corridor serving these three cities would cancel the need for the airport expansions and the dollars needed for expansion would be sufficient to pay for the high-speed rail. Alas, this was not to be, and the airport expansions went ahead. Looking at the arrivals/departure boards at the three airports these days suggests still that a high-speed rail service would significantly reduce the airport capacity needs. It is time for Transp