(Source:  Infrastructurist)

Image: Nostri-imago@ flickr

So, the absent minded editor of a certain infrastructure news site recently had an adventure in losing things on Amtrak trains. The experience was revealing and – spoiler alert – the much-slagged government owned and operated rail line acquitted themselves beautifully on matters of beyond-the-call-of-duty customer service.

 For simplicity’s sake, let’s just call this editor “I.” Anyway, I was headed from Washington DC to New York on the 11 a.m. Acela. When the train reached Penn Station (on time), I gathered the various bags and coats I’d brought and exited the train. Not among the gathered possession was an iPhone, which was left unattended on the seat. I realized this as I was about to catch the subway home to Brooklyn, by which time the Acela had already scooted off for Boston.At this point the situation looked glum. It remained so through the course of the first conversation I had with an Amtrak employee. The gentleman, white haired and in his 50s, gave the classic bureaucrat’s shrug. “You gotta call lost and found in Boston,” he said. Shrug.

“Are they open today? Will they be open when the train arrives?” I asked. It was Sunday.

“They’re closed today,” he said. Shrug.

I gave him a pleading look. He shrugged again and turned away.

So even if some heroic individual wanted to return the device, it would take a return visit to the train station in Boston to actually be able to turn it in – assuming, say, she didn’t get off the train in Stamford or Providence or…

I went to the Customer Service office. There, a genial woman named Karen became my new best friend. She immediately began coordinating a multi-city search and rescue operation. Before I even finished explaining the situation, she was on the phone with an agent in New Haven to make arrangements for someone to dash onto the train and look for the device during the brief stopover there. She called the lost phone about a dozen times in hopes that someone would answer. At some point, a man did answer. His name was Mark and he was a conductor on the train. He promised that he would get the phone back to New York safely that evening. Karen’s liaison in New Haven organized a complicated hot handoff across the platform between Mark and a conductor southbound train. About four hours after I’d got off the train without, an Amtrak conductor walked up to me in Penn Station with a sealed envelope containing the lost phone. It was carefully bubble-wrapped. 

(Source: Washington Post)

 WASHINGTON — Lying on her chest in a small crawl space, Staff Sgt. Dana Fernkas watches the gray Air Force jet emerge from the clouds and ease up just behind the rear window in the belly of her plane.

 (Source: Financial Times)

(Source: The Sun, UK via News.com.au)

A DRUNKEN model flew into a rage on a jet after catching her boyfriend romping with a woman next to him, it was claimed yesterday.

Daniel had got friendly with the other woman, pretty toff Clare Irby, after Sarah dozed off on a nine-hour flight to London from the Indian city of BANGALORE.

Magazine covergirl Sarah went mad and had to be calmed down by the crew at 30,000ft. Armed cops boarded Kingfisher Airlines Flight IT001 at Heathrow and arrested the trio.

A police source said Ms Hannon fell asleep after drinking with Mr Melia before and during the flight.

Mr Melia then “got on well” with Ms Irby underneath a blanket but was stopped by hostesses – at which point Sarah awoke and started screaming.

“They certainly put the bang into Bangalore,” the source said.  

Mr Melia, 36, and Ms Irby, 29, were arrested for alleged gross indecency while Sarah was held for being drunk on an aircraft. All three were released on bail.

(Source: Infrastructurist)

Image: Infrastructurist

Everywhere you look, from Argentina to Saudi Arabia, there’s a country planning a new high-speed rail line.  Contributor Yonah Freemark offered this incredible, easy to understand graphical depiction on Infrastructurist, which compares seven lines on four continents that are either in the engineering phase or already under construction. They range in size from the diminutive 34-mile project that will connect Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to the gargantuan 818-mile link between Beijing and Shanghai. The variations in construction cost per mile and local meaning of the term “high speed” are almost as great.

(Source: Going Global & BMW Motorrad Blog via AutoblogGreen)

Two enterprising Swiss citizens are riding home along the Silk Route from Beijing to Istanbul, to generate awareness of climate change, promote sustainable motor travel and raise funds to benefit SCCF, a new international foundation focused on finding solutions to combat global warming.

Using BMW F 650 GS bikes, Mark Dembitz and Clarisse Von Wunschheim will journey across eight countries in 80 days, covering almost 17,000 kilometres. Their route will see them leave Beijing on 4 May and journey back to Europe via Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, before ending in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 July.

With a career in carbon finance and a keen interest in the environment, Mark is planning to make their ‘Going Global’ journey carbon-neutral, as well as use the opportunity to show others in cities and towns along the route how to help fight climate change.

“We will be keeping an accurate log of daily time and distance travelled as well as fuel usage, and the quantity and quality of petrol,” he said. “Based on this data, we will be able to approximate the quantity of carbon dioxide we emit along the ride. We will then secure credits (one credit is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide) to offset our carbon emissions.

Along the way, the duo will stop at schools and universities to “teach children and students about global warming, motivating them to join us in being aware of their impact on the environment and in making small changes to their lives that will contribute towards a better and cleaner world for everyone.” 

LA Transportation Blog – Transportation Headlines for April 8, 2009

(Source: Telegraph, UK) Germany is more than tripling the incentives on offer to buyers of new cars as it attempts to boost its auto industry, which employs around 15pc of the nation’s workforce.

The scheme offers German consumers €2,500 for trading in vehicles more than nine years old if they buy a car that is less than one year old.

Click here to read the entire article.  

TransportGooru has compiled several articles in the past reporting on similar efforts in UK (which is now contemplating introduction of  a similar program after watching the Germans successfully implement the program) & USA.  Here are the links to some of the earlier articles:

Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act revives “Cash for Clunkers” scrapping plan in U.S

Germany plans to extend Abwrackprämie aka “Environmental Bonus”

The bickering starts over the implementation of the Cash for Clunkers legislation

Obama Favors “Cash for Clunkers”

(Source: Telegraph, UK)

There is fierce competition for the world’s fastest police car with the Italians and Germans vying for the title.

Up until now the police prix d’or has been held by a Lamborghini Gallardo which an Italian police patrol is using on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway.

It is capable of hitting a top speed of 192mph, which is probably ample to keep up with the most reckless of motorists.

But the Germans have their eye on a car which would leave the Lamborghini trailing in its wake.

It has placed an order for a Brabus CLS V12 S Rocket which has a top speed of 225mph. It will be used on the fastest stretches of the autobahn.

 

In San Diego officers are using a custom made police car with integrated shotgun mounts and a top speed of 155mph.

This article states that some of the British police officers drive the Greenest, if not the meanest, among all forces – the tiny  SmartforTwo cars.

TransportGooru wonders if this San Diego squad car is a silly Dodge Charger.  American police officers should think about doing some police work in Europe!  It will make a great cinema when California Highway Patrol chasing some Hollywood superstar’s Lamborghini Gallardo with his Dodge Charger with integrated shot gun mounts!

On a releated note, few days back a South Carolina Trooper, J.D. McGaha, was cited for speeding in his unmarked patrol car.  Guess what he got for mashing his Dodge Charger – 3 days suspension, possible fine worth $355 & 6 points on his license. Oh, his Dodge Charger was taken back by his Department. Trooper McGaha is definitely not driving a Charger like a Ferrari anymore. Read the TransportGooru article on this incident here.