Category: RAIL

A woman died after being stabbed in the throat Monday, April 22 on a Metro train before she got off at the Universal/Studio City station, and a suspect was arrested, according to police. The attack was reported shortly after 5 a.m. in the 3900 block of Lankershim Boulevard, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said. “The attack occurred on the train. Somewhere between the last stop and here at Universal City station,” said LAPD Det. Meghan Aguilar. “She then is able to exit, and the suspect exits as well, but the attack does occur on the train.” The woman was taken to hospital, where she died, police said. The victim was described as being in her 50s. Her name was not released. 45-year-old Elliot Tramel Nowden was arrested.

Eight men were charged on April 3 with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Modelo and Corona beer that is imported from Mexico. The group worked by robbing train yards and warehouses in dozens of thefts across the Northeast during the past two years. An indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan accuses Jose Cesari as being the leader of what it describes as the “Beer Theft Enterprise.” He reportedly recruited other participants via Instagram posts. The group usually operated at night, the indictment says, with some members meeting in the Bronx before traveling to rail yards or beverage distribution warehouses to steal from them. One or more of those charged drove a vehicle to the targeted facility to be filled with cases of stolen beer, the indictment says. Often, a U-Haul box truck was used. After arriving, the indictment says, they would break into the rail yard or warehouse, sometimes by cutting a hole in fencing, and then drive the truck onto the property. Cesari, 27, was charged with conspiracy to steal from interstate or foreign shipments by carrier and six other counts. Seven others face the same conspiracy charge.

A group of protesting farmers sprayed manure and threw projectiles and clashed with police during a demonstration in Brussels, Belgium. At the same demonstration, on Tuesday, March 26, protesters set the Maelbeek metro station on fire. Two police officers were injured in the melee with protesters, according to the Brussels Times. Farmers have been demonstrating across Europe for several months, citing numerous challenges to their livelihoods, including EU regulations and unfair prices.

Rail authorities in India are investigating an incident where a freight train was able to travel more than 80 km without a driver. The train was pulling 53 wagons full of chip stones and began rolling downhill along the tracks at Kathua in Jammu, northern India. The train reached a speed of 100 km/h before it could be stopped. The train had reportedly stopped for a crew change in Kathua. The driver and assistant disembarked, and the train began to move. Official sources said that the driver may have forgotten to pull the handbrake before deboarding, though this has not been confirmed by the authorities.

A railroad crossing in St. Clair County, Alabama, reopened after a train derailed in Ragland on Thursday morning, February 8. The incident closed part of Highway 144. The incident happened around 2:30 a.m., according to James Brown, Ragland police chief. Chief Brown said loaded cars from the nearby cement plant were being moved when several cars left the tracks, flipped over and spilled cement onto the ground. No one was hurt.

A man went on a stabbing spree at 7:35 a.m. on March 2 at the Gare De Lyon station. This station operates domestic trains as well as those heading to Switzerland and Italy. One person suffered life-threatening injuries to the abdomen while two others were lightly wounded, according to Laurent Nunez, police prefect. A fourth person went into shock after witnessing the assaults. The suspect was overpowered by passersby before railway police arrived on the scene, the police source said. The perpetrator volunteered to police that he suffered from “psychiatric problems” and was carrying medicine, Nunez said.

A chemical fire caused by a train derailment in Kentucky has been extinguished. People had been encouraged to evacuate but now are able to return to their homes, according to rail operator CSX late last week. “The fire is completely out,” CSX spokesperson Bryan Tucker said in a statement. The train derailed on Wednesday November 23, at about 2:30 p.m. The incident occurred near Livingston, Kentucky. CSX worked to clear the train cars and material at the site. The derailment and spilled chemicals started a chemical fire earlier in the week and prompted evacuations in the small town. State officials said Friday they were monitoring the air for traces of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, but so far there had been none detected at the derailment site or the nearby town of Livingston since Thursday morning. The fire was extinguished on Thursday. “We’re now able to get in and begin safely removing cars,” Joe McCann, director of emergency management and hazardous materials for CSX, said at a briefing Friday. He said an access road was built to reach the derailment area and the crashed train cars were removed.

Network Rail was fined £6.7m in the high court in Aberdeen after admitting guilt over a rail crash in which three people died. The driver of the train, Brett McCullough, 45, Donald Dinnie, 58 (the conductor), and a passenger, Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the derailment near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12 in 2020. It was described as the worst accident on Britain’s railways in 18 years. Debris had washed on to the track from a drainage system after heavy rain. The driver was not warned to reduce speed although the conditions had been reported. Admitting culpability helped reduce the fine from £10m.

A train derailment occurred on September 10 near Geseke, Germany, when one train collided with another train operating on the same track. The impact caused multiple carriages to derail, and passengers and cargo spilled out onto the tracks. The initial reports indicate that a communication breakdown between railway control centers played a role in the collision. The train driver died.

The head of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) wrote a letter saying inspectors found an alarming number of defects in Union Pacific’s freight cars and locomotives during a focused inspection in Nebraska this summer. The FRA performed focused inspections and “identified a concerning number of locomotives and freight cars with defects.