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From America's heartland to the "left" coast... rail is a disaster... Help say NO to the Central Florida commuter rail boondoggle, before it's too late!
November 27, 2005 
Monorail trains clip each other
on curve in Seattle tracks
SEATTLE -- Two monorail trains clipped each other on a curve in the tracks Saturday evening in the heart of Seattle. Two people with minor injuries were taken to hospitals, a fire official said. Seattle firefighters helped 84 passengers off the only two trains on the one-mile, 43-year-old elevated line between downtown and the Seattle Center, said Helen Fitzpatrick, fire department spokeswoman. The train had left the Westlake station shortly before the accident. John Gahagan, who was riding the monorail with his wife and two children, said the collision ripped off the sliding door on their train car and broke a window, showering his children in glass. The children, ages 15 and 11, were not injured. "We heard a screetching sound -- metal on metal -- and glass breaking," said Gahagan, 50, of Mukilteo, Wash., who added that several people slid off their seats. Still, he said, the crash "wasn't real violent." "The scariest thing was coming down the ladder," he said about an hour and a half after the accident. "We're fine. Everybody in the car was fine." Several blocks of Fifth Avenue were closed after the accident, which happened shortly after 7 p.m., Fitzpatrick said. The Seattle Police Department would investigate the crash, said Officer Rich Pruitt. He said the National Transportation Safety Board would also likely investigate. The crash occurred over streets where the Seattle Marathon was scheduled to be run on Sunday. Pruitt was not sure whether the marathon would have to be rerouted. The monorail was built for the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 and has been popular with tourists, drawing as many as 23,000 riders a day. But a years-long fight to expand the system met with sound rejection this month. Voters had approved a 14-mile system in 2002, but opposition grew after the estimated price more than quadrupled to $11.4 billion. On Nov. 8 voters junked the project entirely, rejecting a 10.6-mile, $4.9 billion alternative monorail proponents had offered. The line was shut down for more than six months last year, after a smoky fire stranded about 100 riders. No one was seriously hurt. 16 hurt as Chicago train plows into carsCHICAGO, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. federal investigators headed to Chicago Thursday to investigate how a commuter train plowed into five cars at a level crossing, injuring 16 people. The Metra express train hit five cars sitting on the track in gridlocked traffic Wednesday night, the Chicago Tribune reported. Three of the injured were in critical condition. Although the engineer had applied emergency brakes, the train pushed one car for nearly a block before it burst into flames. The area was littered with debris as passers-by pulled people from the wrecked vehicles. Metra officials said an express train going through the area would normally be traveling an average of 68 m.p.h. "There's warning signs all over the place that they shouldn't cross," said Elmwood Park Mayor Peter Silvestri. "But if the traffic is backed up, they'll continue to go across tracks when they shouldn't." Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were dispatched from Washington Wednesday night.
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