At least 39 people were killed and dozens of others were injured when two high-speed trains collided in Spain on Sunday night in a massive crash that tossed bodies hundreds of feet from the wreckage and forced survivors to climb out of crumpled cars. The crash happened in Adamuz, a small town in southern Spain near the city of Cordoba.
At least 39 people have been killed and dozens more taken to hospital after a high-speed train carrying about 300 passengers derailed and collided with an oncoming train in southern Spain on Sunday night. As people scrambled to track down loved ones who were still missing, and officials warned that the death toll could continue to rise, the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, described it as a night of deep pain for our country.
High-speed rail systems are found all over the globe. Japan's bullet train began operating in 1964. China will have 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of high-speed track by the end of 2025. The fastest train in Europe goes almost 200 mph (320 kph). Yet high-speed rail remains absent from most of the U.S. Stephen Mattingly, a civil engineering professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains why high-speed rail projects in much of the country so often go off track.
The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR/EIS) will be available for public comment from December 5, 2025 through February 3, 2026 - a required step under both the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). To read the full review, for details on how to submit a comment, or for information on the four public hearings on the document, click here.
Imagine the Google Switching Center. Now try on the Sony Pictures In-Railroad Entertainment System. And the Morton's Steakhouse dining car. Naming rights have rescued major California businesses before. Now the chief of the often-belittled California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSR) thinks they may be at least part of the answer to keeping the half-built bullet train system going long enough to actually carry passengers.
The Portuguese and Spanish governments have agreed to open the first direct Lisbon-Madrid train line with a high-speed service to start by 2034, officials said Thursday. The rail link would be ready by 2030 and would start with a five-hour service, according to Portugal's infrastructure ministry. The travel time would be cut to three hours when the high-speed trains are put into service four years later.
China's CR450 train hit 453 km/h during pre-service trials, surpassing its CR400 predecessor's 420 km/h and outpacing Deutsche Bahn's 405 km/h test record. Despite the impressive figure - particularly for British rail travelers eyeing autumn leaves nervously - operational speed will be 400 km/h, and 600,000 km of testing remains before passenger service begins. State-backed mouthpiece Science and Technology Daily (STD) called the CR450 "the world's fastest" electric multiple unit (EMU).
This year's winter timetable will bring more trains on certain high-traffic routes, a few faster connections and more direct cross-border journeys to destinations in neighbouring countries. With the timetable now in place through mid-October of next year, customers can purchase train tickets for future trips, up to 12 months in advance. So passengers who already know their travel plans for 2026 can secure their rail transport now to take advantage of cheaper prices.
I love taking Caltrain to work. It's always fun to look at the highway and be like, 'Hahaha sucks to be a commuter right now,' I've always been fascinated with California high-speed rail, I think it's a great idea. A lot of other countries have high-speed rail; getting from here to LA in an eco-friendly manner is great, Infrastructure projects, they take time,
Layered over this are a network of megacities whose populations outstrip those of many European nations, with the country's 1.5 billion population forming a patchwork of 56 recognized ethnic groups, dozens of languages and dialects, and food traditions so varied that the catch-all "Chinese cuisine" barely grazes the surface. Visiting can be a thrilling and bewildering experience. The scale is overwhelming (one time zone spans five natural ones),
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker were on hand for the ceremonial breakthrough of the final meter of rock to open the first tunnel beneath the Brenner Pass, a key junction in an EU rail project that will one day run from Helsinki to Palermo. "In the end, there is no project that is too big to be tackled, there is no project too big for us to bet on," Meloni told a ceremony.
It's delusional in the extreme to think that investors, even in magical-thinking Silicon Valley, would be willing to put money into a project with absolutely no possibility of being profitable. Public projects are for public benefit, not profits. The central question respecting the high-speed rail now is whether, short of making all the money in the world available to build it, it can be built at all in the current century.
That means if someone wants to travel, say, between Washington and Providence, RI, a distance of about 400 miles, it can be done with unrivaled safety, comfort, and speed in about six hours, on infrastructure that's well over a century old. Parts of that run have been updated and modernized, permitting bursts of speed up to 160 mph with the new trains.
For a long time, the Eurostar has been the only passenger train ferrying Brits from London, under the Channel and onto the Continent. But not for long. In recent years cross-Channel ambitions have been revealed by the likes of Deutsche Bahn and Evolyn, while Virgin has announced a new service that will be a direct competitor with the OG London-Paris line, due to launch in 2029.
This time, the scope of installation covered multiple neighborhoods including Bayview-Hunters Point, Lower Haight, The Mission, and Potrero Hill. Bench parts were cut and painted on Saturday, then assembled, transported via bike, and installed on Sunday. This build we prioritized bus stops which had neighbors immediately willing to adopt the benches ... We encourage anyone who would like to adopt a bench to take a look at the adopters' guide on our website and reach out! We maintain all our benches and respond quickly to any problem reports via our website, whether or not the bench is adopted.
As climate impacts intensify, California must act now to build climate resilience for tomorrow and for future generations. Coyote Valley, just south of San Jose, offers a model for how conservation and stewardship of nature can do that. Here, protected natural and working lands provide a buffer from catastrophic wildfires, floodplains recharge groundwater, wetlands soak up rains to prevent downstream flooding, farmlands grow our food and open space connects over one million acres of critical wildlife corridors.
A new report released Friday by the California High-Speed Rail Authority warns that the scaled-down Central Valley segment the only portion of the line currently under construction is unlikely to be profitable when trains begin running, as early as 2032. The report projects that revenue will cover only 45% to 74% of operating costs. Now, the rail authority is pushing to build the project beyond the 171-mile stretch between Merced and Bakersfield,
A bipartisan congressional committee is investigating whether California's High-Speed Rail Authority knowingly misrepresented ridership projections and financial outlooks, as alleged by the Trump administration, to secure federal funding. In a letter sent to Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chair James Comer (R-KY) requested a staff briefing and all communications and records about federal funding for the high-speed rail project and any analysis over the train's viability.
The ICE high-speed train service from Paris to Berlin represents the first direct, high-speed rail link between the capitals of the EU's largest countries, establishing a new milestone in European train travel.
The ride begins mundanely on track-bound rubber wheels, but quickly picks up as the train hits the 100-200kmph range. Once at optimal levitating speed, the rubber wheels retract, suspending the train less than half an inch off the track.
