Railroads

After half a century as more of a curiosity than a convenience, passenger trains are getting back on track in some parts of the country. The high cost of fuel, coupled with congestion on highways and at airports, is drawing travelers back to trains not only for commuting but also for travel between cities as much as 500 miles apart.

Don't be put off by the sign, which reads "Cent al B ghd d Stat on." And don't worry about the gun-toting men who emerge from the dark and board the train as it sits in predawn silence at the huge, domed station that has seen grander days. They're there to protect passengers riding Baghdad's first commuter train, an experiment in urban renewal in a city as broken as the rusted station sign but struggling to pull itself together.

Metrolink officials said Monday that they have ordered engineers to slow down as they approach possible red lights, a new safety regulation that comes shortly after two trains collided in Rialto and two months after a fatal head-on crash in Chatsworth killed 25. Under the rule, which was put in place Friday, Metrolink trains must immediately slow to 40 mph or less when they are alerted that a light ahead may be red, the agency said.

For the last year, Orange County transportation leaders have recited the same mantra: Increase rail service. But with a new chairwoman elected Monday to head the county's largest transportation agency, that may change. Orange Mayor Carolyn V. Cavecche, the new Orange County Transportation Authority chairwoman, said she would like to see the agency address the "negative impacts" of adding rail projects.

A collision-avoidance system that transportation safety board investigators say could have prevented the fatal collision of two trains in Placentia nearly five years ago was approved for use on freight trains by federal regulators Monday. The system, called positive train control, will warn crew members of dangerous situations and automatically apply the brakes if they fail to act.

Grossly incompetent bookkeeping that plagued the failed OnTrac rail project is making it difficult for Placentia officials to determine the financial health of the city, the new finance director for the city said Wednesday. Although Terrence Beaman said he had found no indication of accounting fraud by former or current officials, his downbeat assessment only underscored the city's difficult situation. Placentia is about $30 million in debt and faces a $2.

Insisting there is no other way to meet looming federal deadlines to clean up the nation's dirtiest air, Southern California air regulators will seek greater authority to regulate ships, trains and other large sources of air pollution. "We're at the end of our rope," said William Burke, chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District board. "The state and federal governments simply have not acted quickly enough to address the public health crisis."

Federal regulators banned excessive fuel surcharges by railroads and imposed strict rules on the fees that many companies this week credited with bolstering their quarterly earnings, although the savings were unlikely to trickle down to consumers. In its decision, the Surface Transportation Board said the railroads must link the surcharges directly with the actual fuel costs for specific rail shipments.

The long, mournful wail of a 3,000-horsepower diesel locomotive's horn on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles signaled the end Tuesday of American railroads' "Dinger dynasty." After 43 years in the locomotive cab, third-generation passenger train engineer Tom Dinger pulled into Union Station for the last time. "It's a little bit melancholy," Dinger said as he eased up on the huge engine's black-handled throttle. For nearly 90 years, a Dinger has been at the controls of U.S. passenger trains.

A tentative deal was reached to end a 2-week-old strike by about 2,800 Canadian National Railway Co. employees that had provoked a threat of government intervention.