Category: RAIL

A Russian attack on a train station in eastern Ukraine has killed as many as 50 people according to sources inside Ukraine. Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration released a statement on Telegram. The people killed were civilians waiting to evacuate the area to safety. Krylenko’s statement says the Iskander missile contained cluster munitions. Independent verification is forthcoming, reports say. Photos posted by Krylenko show heavy smoke coming from the station, fire, bodies and debris including abandoned luggage at the station.“This is an evil that has no limits,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a separate statement. “And if it is not punished it will never stop.” He also said rescue workers were on the scene and more than 100 people were injured.

Frank R. James, a 62-year-old man injured 23 people in a Sunset Park, Brooklyn subway train shooting. Dressed in a safety-orange vest and a green construction helmet, James is accused of strapping on a gas mask, releasing two smoke grenades and firing a gun he was carrying. The gunman was reportedly on the train for eight stops, escaped in the chaos as the train came into the station. One surveillance camera, and possibly others, that could have captured the gunman was not working. The camera malfunction hampered the search for James. In the station, police found a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun, a hatchet and a bag of fireworks. James was later captured alive.

A man was struck and killed on the MARTA tracks forcing a shutdown at the Atlanta City East Point station for more than four hours. In the early morning, a person on the northbound trackway was struck and killed by a train approaching East Point Station, a spokesperson for the agency said. “Due to emergency situation at East Point, bus bridge established from College Park to Lakewood. Northbound train terminating at College Park, southbound service terminating at Lakewood. Delays continuing on North/South line, a tweet from MARTA said.

Former Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian, who was involved in a 2015 derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight people, was acquitted of all charges on March 4, 2022. He had been facing involuntary manslaughter charges among 200 ancillary charges, including a count of causing catastrophe. The train he was operating was increased to106 miles per hour on a curved section of track with a 50-mph speed limit. Eight people were killed and 200 were injured as the train flew off the tracks. His lawyers argued that “criminals” had been throwing rocks at trains just before the crash and that radio broadcasts of those reports had caused him to become distracted by “the madness of what was happening.”

A man pushed a woman onto the train tracks at the Rogiers metro station in Brussels. The train was able to stop inches from the woman, who was seen motionless on the tracks during the incident. The 55-year-old woman was taken to a hospital suffering shock but was reportedly not seriously injured. “The metro driver was able to brake just in time and thereby avoid a collision,” a spokesman for the STIB transportation company said. “Our metro driver was also in shock and had to go to the hospital.” The man who pushed her immediately ran away after doing so but has since been arrested.

A homeless man with a history of mental problems is accused of pushing Michelle Go onto the train tracks at a New York City station, where she was hit by a train Saturday, January 15. She was waiting for a southbound train when the attack occurred. “This incident was unprovoked, and the victim does not appear to have had any interaction with the subject,” New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. The accused attacker fled the scene but later turned himself in to police. Another woman at the same station told police that the man had also approached her and that she was fearful that he would push her onto the tracks. “He approaches her and he gets in her space. She gets very, very alarmed,” Jason Wilcox, NYPD transit chiefs aid. He was describing the encounter of the other woman. “She tries to move away from him and he gets close to her, and she feels that he was about to physically push her onto the train. As she’s walking away she witnesses the crime where he pushes our other victim in front of the train.”

A Los Angeles Times report highlighted the supply chain problems and resulting thievery. Thieves in the area where trains have been waiting for the next leg of their journey have been pilfering the rail cars. Rails have been littered with torn plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes and packaging from a wave of rail car theft that has been on the rise in recent months. As a hub for the supply chain, Southern California has been especially hard hit. “Thieves are pilfering railroad cars in a crime that harks back to the days of horseback-riding bandits, but is fueled by a host of modern realities, including the rise of e-commerce,” the LA Times report says. “Union Pacific reported what it claimed was a 160% increase since December 2020 in thefts along the railroad tracks in L.A. County.” The supply chain crisis has exacerbated the situation due to bottlenecks where containers sit for weeks at a time waiting for the next leg of their journey to their destinations. Union Pacific, which operates 3,200 miles of railway in California, says it is deploying more drones, bringing in extra security and has enlisted the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to combat the thefts. Irfan Khan image.

Trains from Poland, filled with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees, have been arriving at Berlin’s main train station every other hour for days. The trains are mostly filled with mothers and children looking for a safe place away from the war that broke out in late February. Loudspeakers in the station stated in Ukrainian and English: “Dear refugees from Ukraine, welcome to Germany, please follow the instructions of the volunteers in the yellow and orange vests.” Numerous volunteers are available in high visibility vests to assist and direct the refugees towards a basement area of the station that has turned into a temporary refugee town.

The parents of a baby in Germany were left on the platform as the train sped away this past Sunday. The parents “watched in horror” according to bystanders as the train left with their child on board. The father placed the child, 11 months old, in a stroller on the train but stood on the platform while waiting for his wife to join them. The doors closed suddenly, and the train began to leave Duesseldorf station. The family was eventually reunited, police said Monday. The parents grabbed a taxi to try and catch the train at its next stop, however passengers alerted the conductor about the baby and the train returned to Duesseldorf. The parents eventually returned to the Duesseldorf station and “the baby was handed back into the care of its grateful parents,” a police statement said.

Early on New Year’s Day a man at a New York City subway train station was attacked by gang members. The 38-year-old man was approached by members of a gang, one wielding a knife. During the attack, the man ended up on the train tracks below the platform. It was not clear how he ended up there, whether from being pushed or jumping. A witness jumped to the tracks and assisted the man up but did not make it back up onto the platform before a train came. The man assisting was struck by the train. The assault victim was not hit by the train but was treated for a broken arm. The man assisting died. Police released these images of the gang members involved and were searching for their identities and locations.