Railroad Security

Over time, transportation has shown to have an incredible impact on the United States. It has revealed to bring about economic and social changes in various ways. In the late eighteenth century ancient methods of traveling were still in use in America and it was often very slow. Americans were aware that if transportation advancement occurred, it would potentially increase foreign trade, increase land values as well as strengthen the American economy. In the mid 1800s it has been determined that transportation advancement has a drastic effect on our

With the completion of the Transcontinental railway in 1869, it connected the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways in Promontory, Utah. This connection made travel from east to west much easier than the horse and stagecoach or covered wagon of days past. With the connection of rail, came luxury and convenience of travel, as well as the movement of goods out west. Steam engines were a major part of the Industrial Revolution, and steam locomotives made travel from place to place so incredibly easy compared to the traditional horse and buggy, but as with everything else, technology advanced and the steel skinned, steam breathing dinosaurs that carved the way for many across the country, has met the end of the line with the advent of the diesel engine and electric streetcars essecently being combined to make diesel-electric locomotives most famously made by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division.

Railroad crossings have the potential to be very dangerous if they are not approached with caution. There are three main safety points that must be practiced at railway crossings. First, looking for barriers and flashing lights. Secondly, you should always double check for trains, even if there are no flashing lights or lowered barriers. Lastly, we should try to cross the tracks as quickly as possible. These safety practices will keep you and your passengers safe while crossing railroad tracks. My first point for being safe at railroad crossings is looking for lowering or lowered barriers or flashing lights. This is obvious but it is still very important. These two objects tell you in advance if a train is coming and if you can proceed across

Espanola’s superfund site on North Railroad Avenue use to be the Norge Town Laundromat and Dry Cleaning. Evidence of water plume contamination was found within a fifty-eight acre area extending south from the site. The contaminates found in the ground water/aquifer of the site were tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene, cis-1, 2-dichloroethylene, trans-1, 2-dichloroethylene, and vinyl chloride (VC). On September 27, 2001, a Record of Decision by the EPA was signed to start clean up/remedy of the site.

The attempted attack by an armed individual on a high-speed train in Europe has concerned the United States about vulnerability of rail passengers and whether present security measures are acceptable. Airports are guarded with several layers of security including airport police and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel using metal detectors and full-body scanners, but a lot of railroad stations have nominal scrutiny for passengers boarding trains. Bigger stations have armed Amtrak officers and bomb-sniffing dogs. Passengers and baggage are randomly searched at a few of the chief rail centers, like Union Station in Washington and Pennsylvania Station in New York. Even so, these measures would hardly

However, DOT still retains the “regulatory role with respect to the transportation of hazardous materials via rail” (United States Government Accountability Office, 2009). Moreover, “The Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency share responsibilities, programs, and resource investments to mass transit and passenger rail emergencies” (Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, 2010). However, the rail transportation subsector is susceptible to lots of hazards such as terrorist attacks, natural deserters, accidents, sabotage, cyber-attacks, etc. Some of these will lead to destruction of trains and/or railways themselves, hi-jacking of trains, breaching railway databases (Major Vulnerabilities to Railway Security, n. d).

Hence, the CO2 emission reduction due to high speed rail cannot be legitimately included as an element of a rational strategy for reducing GHG emissions. Considering the untenable traffic impact projections, California High Speed Rail Authority’s claims are considered specious. To attain more liability to the claims of the authority, an independent assessment of HSR’s CO2 impacts should be made, including both operations and construction. The critics state that the California High Speed Rail Authority should stop making any statements about CO2 or other air quality impacts until such an

Public transportation, such as trains and buses, in America is a thriving business that helps cuts down on the emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. During the weekdays, 35 million people take public transportation to get to work, travel around the country, or just to easily get around a major city without having to worry about parking. In 2013 alone, Americans took public transportation over 10.7 billion times, which it the highest amount in over 57 years. Because of this high amount of people taking the public transportation 865 million hours have been saved in time that would have otherwise been spent in traffic. Public transportation has also saved 450 million gallons of fuel that would have been burned in traffic alone.

Many procedures are in place to address the dangers surrounding hazardous cargo. For example, placarding rail cars to identify contents and requiring the train’s crews to carry the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) assist first responders in identifying the material in the event of an accident. A second concern security plans must address is theft of hazardous material when a train is parked. What prevents someone from stealing or releasing chlorine gas when a train, like the one in Lac-Megantic, is left running and unattended? Terrorists learned how to fly passenger aircraft so it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that they are learning how to operate freight trains. These are both serious security concerns that must be address. Again, referencing the Lac-Megantic accident, it appears the LE began his duty day at 1355 and concluded it at 2330, just 25 minutes short of a 10 hour day. This may seem insignificant, but when we consider that his duty day was primarily at night and he was operating the train alone, these would be considered contributing, but not causal, factors resulting in the accident. In this case, security planners might address this vulnerability by dictating that trains operated after sunset have two crew members or limit the total duty day to 8

Should the studies on climate change possess validity, then numerous human activities have altered the atmosphere of the Earth for the worse. Several among these activities categorize under the macrocosm of transportation. As a species, the human race continues to create and produce, which may contain threatening consequences based on these reports. Inside the category of transportation, every subcategory seems to partake in this, including automobiles, aircrafts, shipping, and railways, among countless others. Fortunately, various people and organizations have attempted to decrease the emission of greenhouse gases, or GHGs, in transportation-related technology and energy. When it comes to paying for these eco-friendly additions,

In addition, if train stations are readily accessible to more people, then more people would be encouraged to utilize trains and abandon their cars, reducing the community’s carbon emissions.

When it comes to our environment in today’s day and age, citizens only seem to see it becoming worse and worse. In fact, most would even say that the world is beyond saving with all of the impact greenhouse gases and the human way of living is destroying our ecosystems. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! Today, we have plenty of efforts in place attempting to reduce, and hopefully reverse, the negative effects on our environment. The transportation industry, one of the largest contributors to CO2 emissions, is no exception. Amtrak, being the number one passenger rail system in America, is making it an active goal to help preserve our planet.

Having over 121,000 kilometers of rail lines throughout China and 228,218 kilometers throughout the United States transcontinental travel throughout the countries has become immensely accessible. The use of such transports has subsequently resulted in an emittance of pollutants such as nitrous oxide, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide. The increase of the anthropocentric activity dictates the positive feed back loop of the total emissions of criteria pollutants.

Discussion: Public transport services can have social and environmental impacts; these include air and noise pollution, land disturbance (train tracks), and traffic congestion. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003), “there is concern that current technology for powering transport systems may be unsustainable in the long-term”, which is why funding is needed to upgrade to renewable trains and trams. Although public transport emits carbon dioxide (CO2), the emission is significantly lower compared to private vehicles; public transport such as trains use 2%, whilst private vehicles (cars) use 43% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003).

The North American and European railway systems is freight transportation systems I will be comparing in this paper. When analyzing the cost structures between the two systems, the results show that the share of fixed costs in the overall transportation cost is much high in Europe versus North America. When transporting freight by railway in North America, rail companies look for the shortest route for each train car while European rail companies devote their focus to the high utilization and consolidation in each train car. The capacity of each train and how the cost is structured differs from North America to Europe due to infrastructural and institutional reason.