Train Car

The fifth and final vinyl-chloride train car was removed from the East Jefferson Street Bridge derailment site in Paulsboro, officials said Sunday. Cleanup is progressing steadily under the direction of five agencies working together as a "unified command," Coast Guard spokesman Nick Ameen said. Ameen said the railcars were being secured on a barge in Mantua Creek. The bridge must now undergo repairs and inspection before returning to operation. "Once the bridge is deemed safe, that's when they'll be rewheeling the cars on the track," he said.

Work crews used a 150-ton crane Tuesday to remove a tank car that was breached and leaked its toxic contents when it fell into the Mantua Creek off a failed Conrail bridge in Paulsboro on Nov. 30. The car, one of four that ended up in the water and the first to be retrieved, was carrying vinyl chloride in liquid form, some of which escaped into the air as a gas and forced the evacuation of hundreds of nearby residents for days. Cleanup crews finally removed the chemical from the car a week ago, and most of the evacuees were allowed to return Friday after officials determined that the air in the area was no longer contaminated.

The Coast Guard said cleanup crews have removed all traces of vinyl chloride from a freight-train tanker that fell off a bridge and breached last Friday, and that the hazardous chemical has not been detected in the atmosphere in Paulsboro since Tuesday afternoon. But Coast Guard Capt. Kathy Moore, at a news conference, would not specify when the hundreds of evacuees could expect to return home, though she previously set Sunday as the target date. And even as workers made progress in the cleanup effort, three local congressmen held a news conference Thursday morning to say they would investigate the accident.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Two commuter trains serving New York City crashed in Connecticut during Friday's evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five critically injured and one very critically injured, Gov. Dannel Malloy said. There were no reports of fatalities. The Metro-North Railroad, a commuter line serving the northern suburbs, referred in a news release to a "major derailment" near Fairfield, just outside Bridgeport. It said emergency workers were at the scene of the accident, shortly after 6 p.m. "We're most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system," Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash.

It was just another train ride across a piece of America. If it had gone as planned, most of the travelers today would be joining the millions of anonymous illegal immigrants picking crops, cooking restaurant food and digging ditches in Texas and states beyond. But a series of mistakes and unforeseen mishaps turned a routine trip into a horrifying nightmare and left 18 men dead. Almost from the start of their journey, Border Patrol officials have concluded, the 18 Mexicans found lifeless Thursday inside a Union Pacific freight car here may have been doomed.

Ed Rendell may only be running for mayor, but he'll climax his campaign by whistle-stopping through the city in presidential style. Rendell's campaign has gotten hold of the train car used by President Harry Truman in 1948. More recently, the car was used by President Ronald Reagan, whose Republican urban policies have been sharply criticized by Rendell. On Nov. 3, the Sunday before the election, Rendell will ride the rails on the R8 commuter line starting at the Chestnut Hill station at 12:30 p.m. He'll hit the Market Street East, Wayne Junction and Fox Chase stations, with rallies at each stop.

PATCO rail commuters will soon have their own "quiet car. " Following the lead of Amtrak, SEPTA, and other transit agencies that have prohibited cell-phone use or loud conversation in one train car, PATCO will designate the last car in each of its trains as a quiet car on weekdays, starting March 1. The quiet-car experiment will last three months, and if it is well-received, the designation will be made permanent, PATCO general manager John...

An 11-year-old boy who was electrocuted Saturday while climbing on a SEPTA commuter train had apparently walked into a North Philadelphia rail yard after leaving a neighborhood block party. Jewel Angelo, of the 300 block of West Albanus Street, was found dead on the ground near two trains at the Wayne Electric facility Sunday morning. He was apparently killed Saturday evening around 7 p.m. after he climbed atop a train car and touched a rooftop pantograph, which carries 11,000 volts of electricity from overhead lines to power the train, SEPTA assistant general manager James B. Jordan said Monday.

At least two people were injured when two train cars on the SEPTA Norristown High Speed line briefly detached from each other before colliding Friday night. The accident happened about 7:45 p.m. in Haverford between the Beachwood-Brookline and Penfield stations, Heather Redfern, a SEPTA spokeswoman said. After the rear train car became detached from the car in front of it, they slammed into one another. The impact linked the two trains back together, she said. The train was stopped at the Wynnefield station Friday night while police and SEPTA officials investigated the cause of the accident.

A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by the estate of a Delaware man who died last May when a roll of newsprint about to be unloaded from a train car at the Inquirer and Daily News printing plant in Upper Merion fell on him. The suit was filed on behalf of Sarah Troester of Wilmington, administrator of the estate of her husband, Jefferson. He was an assistant engineer employed by Arcellor-Mittal Railways Inc. at the time of his death, according to the lawsuit.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Two commuter trains serving New York City crashed in Connecticut during Friday's evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five critically injured and one very critically injured, Gov. Dannel Malloy said. There were no reports of fatalities. The Metro-North Railroad, a commuter line serving the northern suburbs, referred in a news release to a "major derailment" near Fairfield, just outside Bridgeport. It said emergency workers were at the scene of the accident, shortly after 6 p.m. "We're most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system," Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash.

A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by the estate of a Delaware man who died last May when a roll of newsprint about to be unloaded from a train car at the Inquirer and Daily News printing plant in Upper Merion fell on him. The suit was filed on behalf of Sarah Troester of Wilmington, administrator of the estate of her husband, Jefferson. He was an assistant engineer employed by Arcellor-Mittal Railways Inc. at the time of his death, according to the lawsuit.

The fifth and final vinyl-chloride train car was removed from the East Jefferson Street Bridge derailment site in Paulsboro, officials said Sunday. Cleanup is progressing steadily under the direction of five agencies working together as a "unified command," Coast Guard spokesman Nick Ameen said. Ameen said the railcars were being secured on a barge in Mantua Creek. The bridge must now undergo repairs and inspection before returning to operation. "Once the bridge is deemed safe, that's when they'll be rewheeling the cars on the track," he said.

Work crews used a 150-ton crane Tuesday to remove a tank car that was breached and leaked its toxic contents when it fell into the Mantua Creek off a failed Conrail bridge in Paulsboro on Nov. 30. The car, one of four that ended up in the water and the first to be retrieved, was carrying vinyl chloride in liquid form, some of which escaped into the air as a gas and forced the evacuation of hundreds of nearby residents for days. Cleanup crews finally removed the chemical from the car a week ago, and most of the evacuees were allowed to return Friday after officials determined that the air in the area was no longer contaminated.

The Coast Guard said cleanup crews have removed all traces of vinyl chloride from a freight-train tanker that fell off a bridge and breached last Friday, and that the hazardous chemical has not been detected in the atmosphere in Paulsboro since Tuesday afternoon. But Coast Guard Capt. Kathy Moore, at a news conference, would not specify when the hundreds of evacuees could expect to return home, though she previously set Sunday as the target date. And even as workers made progress in the cleanup effort, three local congressmen held a news conference Thursday morning to say they would investigate the accident.

A train and car collided in Clayton, Gloucester County, this morning, with two people reportedly injured. A Gloucester County Communications dispatcher confirmed that the crash occurred about 8:35 a.m. at West Chestnut Street. Emergency crews were at the scene, but little detail was available. The crash site is at a freight train crossing in a residential area, and next to the Herma Simmons Elementary School. At least one victim was reported to be taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

The parents of a 15-year-old boy sought in Wednesday's shooting on the Broad Street subway surrendered him to police late Thursday afternoon, authorities said. The teenager faces charges including aggravated assault, simple assault, and reckless endangerment, police said at a news conference. Capt. Sharon Seaborough, commanding officer of Central Detectives, thanked the parents for responding swiftly. "I made the phone call to the father, and the father had his son [at Central Detectives]

The parents of a 15-year-old boy sought in Wednesday's Broad Street subway shooting surrendered him to police at 5:20 this evening, authorities said. The teenager faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and other crimes, city police said at a news conference. Capt. Sharon Seaborough, commanding officer of the Central Detective Division, thanked the parents for cooperating with the police and responding swiftly. "I made the phone call to the father, and the father had his son [at Central Detectives]

Two people, one of them a teen wearing headphones, were struck and injured by commuter trains in suburban Philadelphia within an hour of each other Wednesday in what an official called a "tragic coincidence. " SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams characterized the two as "non-fatal accidents" that just happened to occur nearby in the same time frame, but a local police official said construction work and the use of headphones likely figured in the first accident. At 3:10 p.m., a 16-year-old boy was hit by an outbound train Warminster Local train at a grade crossing 1,000 feet south of the Ardsley Train Station in Glenside.

Two people, one a teen wearing headphones, were struck and injured by commuter trains within an hour of each other Wednesday in what an official called a "tragic coincidence. " SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said the accidents just happened to occur nearby in the same time frame, but a local police official said construction work and the use of headphones likely figured in the first accident. At 3:10 p.m., a 16-year-old boy was hit by an outbound Warminster local at a grade crossing 1,000 feet south of the Ardsley station in Glenside.