Word: railroads
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LIKE bobbed hair, wedgie shoes and the free lunch, passenger trains have gone out of style. In the past decade, with the rise in air travel, railroad passenger business has dropped more than 40%, and 13 lines have stopped intercity service. Many travelers might return to the rails if they could be assured of a clean, comfortable and fast ride. Unwilling to give up on passengers entirely, a few U.S. railroads are now preparing to give them just that by introducing new trains that travel at speeds of more than 100 m.p.h...
...originally been scheduled to go into service almost two years ago. They have been held back by financial and technical problems. Japan, for example, spent $8 billion to build an entirely new roadbed and begin the Tokaido Line express. No entity in the U.S., least of all the railroad industry, has been willing to invest nearly that much. The Turbo-Trains have been further delayed because the New Haven's trustees have been unwilling to introduce costly new equipment until they merge their bankrupt line into a healthy company. The Penn Central was ordered by the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...arrival, one locomotive from the first shipment of eight was stolen, never to be recovered. Upon probing the possible motive for such a seemingly irrational act as the theft of a locomotive, I discovered that in meeting the prescribed quota of ton-kilometers-per-engine hauled, the harassed Soviet railroad official indeed stood to gain by having an extra and unaccounted-for one up his sleeve. Ironically, this locomotive got abducted before my men had a chance to change its axles to the wider track of the Russian railroads-as her crew must have found out when the narrower European...
...result was an 8-lb. boy named Thomas Knack, whose coming was no cause for celebration in the Knack household. The husband is a low-wage railroad worker already supporting five children. He blamed the local pharmacist, who had misread the handwriting on Frau Knack's prescription, for the birth of Thomas. Arguing that the error would strain the family budget, the Knacks took Pharmacy Owner Hans Reimer to court to recover damages...
...pipeline to a relatively ice-free port like Valdez. The line would have to weather destructive ground heaves caused by summer thaws and winter freezes and could cost $500 million or more. Alaska's Governor Walter J. Hickel is pushing his longtime dream of extending the Alaska Railroad beyond its present Fairbanks terminal all the way to the Arctic Sea. Washington's Department of Transportation, which runs the federally owned, 541-mile road, has balked so far at the estimated $300 million cost of the extension...