Amtrak Trains

Amtrak has announced a new bus-rail connection for passengers going to the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose in Long Beach. Two Amtrak trains out of San Diego--the 9:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. departures--make the bus connection at the Santa Ana station. Fare for the daily, one-day round trip to Long Beach is $24.50, or $25.50 to Torrance or Los Angles International Airport, the end of the bus line.

A call for a "no-ride" list to tighten security on Amtrak passenger trains, floated this week by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York), has drawn cautious responses from Amtrak and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security . Schumer on Monday called on the U.S. government to expand its Secure Flight Program , which cross-checks air travelers against a security watch list, to keep anyone on the no-fly list off trains....

Three cars on an Amtrak train derailed in western Washington state after a Sunday morning mudslide. No one was hurt. The Amtrak Empire Builder was carrying 86 passengers and 11 crew when the accident happened near Everett. Afterward, the train was unlinked from the three disabled cars and took the  passengers to Mukilteo, where they were transferred to chartered buses, according to Amtrak. Rail traffic between Everett and Seattle, which includes the Amtrak Cascades and Empire Builder trains, was canceled until Tuesday morning, Amtrak said.

A semitrailer rig carrying eight cars was hit and destroyed Wednesday afternoon, its cars knocked to the ground by a fast-moving Amtrak train in Leucadia after the truck "bottomed out" and got stuck in the middle of a railroad crossing. Authorities said seven passengers on the train suffered minor injuries, but a spokeswoman for Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas said six people were treated for bumps, bruises and neck strains and then released.

A semitrailer rig carrying eight cars was hit and destroyed Wednesday afternoon, its cars knocked to the ground by a fast-moving Amtrak train in Leucadia after the truck "bottomed out" and got stuck in the middle of a railroad crossing. Authorities said seven passengers on the train suffered minor injuries, but a spokeswoman for Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas said six people were treated for bumps, bruises and neck strains and then released.

A slow-moving Amtrak passenger train rear-ended a freight train, causing mostly minor injuries to 68 people on board. The eastbound Amtrak train had just left the Syracuse station when it hit the back of the 92-car CSX freight train, also eastbound, in an industrial area north of the city, said CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan. The five-car Amtrak train was headed from Niagara Falls to New York City with 98 passengers and four crew members, Amtrak said. Sheriff's Deputy J.F.

A bicyclist died Thursday after being struck by an Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to San Diego. Robert Darnell Jordan, 42, was pronounced dead at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. Officials said he was crossing the tracks on his bike at 17th Street and Lincoln Avenue about 8:30 p.m. when he was hit by the train, which carried about 100 passengers and crew members. No one aboard the train was injured, officials said.

A retired aerospace engineer returning from the post office was killed Thursday morning when his minivan was struck by an Amtrak train as he crossed the railroad tracks on Chatsworth Street. The impact of the collision was so severe that the van was tossed 50 feet down the track and its engine was hurled into an adjacent parking lot. The driver, 63-year-old James Willis, was killed on impact, authorities said. But the cause of the accident remained in dispute.

Shots were fired at an Amtrak train carrying 167 passengers from Newport News to Washington, an Amtrak spokeswoman said. Two bullets hit the locomotive, but no one was injured. The engineer of Amtrak train No. 76 reported hearing shots at 4:15 p.m. EDT as the train was traveling through Richmond, spokeswoman Karina Van Veen said. The crew checked the train in Richmond and found nothing wrong, but a more thorough check in Washington revealed two bullet holes in a window.

An Amtrak train overshot a backstop at Union Station and struck a concrete barrier Saturday, derailing eight of 10 cars and injuring 38 people, one seriously, authorities said. Train No. 58 was pulling into the station and moving at about 3 m.p.h. as it approached the bumping block at the end of the track. Most of the 38 hurt were passengers standing inside the train as they prepared to get off, fire officials said.