An Amtrak train derailed in rural Missouri after hitting a dump truck at a highway-rail crossing. Four people died.

In 2021, 105 people died in incidents at highway-rail crossings like the one in Missouri. 

"It's a lot less than the number of people killed in traffic accidents, of course," University of Delaware Professor Allan Zarembski said. "But it's a significant number."

There are far fewer deaths compared to decades ago. But in recent years, the rate of incidents at highway-rail crossings has been increasing — up 32% in 10 years. That's according to records Newsy reviewed at the Federal Railroad Administration.

The agency is researching why mishaps are climbing, sharing these possible explanations: More rail and highway traffic, development along rail rights of way and individuals engaging in risky behavior.

"Unfortunately, a large number of these accidents are people trying to beat the train," Zarembski said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is looking at another possible factor in Missouri. The crossing did not have an active warning device seen at busier intersections, like a flashing sign or a gate that comes down. 

"There were no arms, there were no warning lights, there were no bells," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.

About half of the nation's crossings don't have that kind of active safety equipment. They're considered passive crossings, with signs or markings on the road.

The Federal Railroad Administration tells Newsy, "not every crossing needs an active warning device system ... ." 

But many are still dangerous. 

Newsy mapped three passive warning crossings with the most fatalities in the U.S.: Six deaths at a crossing in Cross County, Arkansas; five dead at an intersection in Las Animas County, Colorado; and five deaths at a rail crossing in Christian County, Illinois. 

"Why aren't all crossings protected? It's expensive," Zarembski said. "And don't forget, by the way, a lot of the crossings are in the middle of nowhere. So if I'm putting lights and gates, I need power."

The new infrastructure law includes $3 billion to improve rail crossings across the country. 

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here.

New federal aviation data shows many travelers have had issues negotiating with the nation's airports this year.

Customer complaints more than doubled in the first half of the year compared to 2021, according to the data.

The number of complaints rose from 6,800 to 16,000.

More than 5,500 were related specifically to flight problems.

The transportation department is introducing a new dashboard Thursday that shows each airline's policies for certain complaints.

To view that dashboard, click here.

Bike-matching fund aimed at giving those in need a hand up

Updated: 6:40 PM EST Nov 12, 2021

WLWT viewers gave from their hearts, and it's making a difference.This week, WLWT introduced you to Randy Bowling of Hamilton. Bowling is disabled, and his bicycle is his only form of transportation to and from work at Walmart in Fairfield Township.Last weekend, his bicycle was stolen."Your news story was barely over on the TV. I was watching it when my phone started ringing," said David Hood, executive director of Serve City. "I knew immediately this had struck a cord ... That line that Randy said, 'This made my life harder,' it was the big thing that struck me, and I think people heard that and said this is not OK. We need to do something." Serve City is the organization that owns the apartments where Bowling lives.Knowing Bowling was taken care of thanks to generous gifts from WLWT viewers, Hood created a way for people to help others like Bowling."This is probably not the first time this has happened, and unfortunately, might not be the last time it happens, and so we are setting up a fund called a 'Bike Matching Fund,' Hood said.They're collecting bicycles, or preferably money, to offer residents as a matching fund."So, if they're able to come up with $50, we'll match $50 dollars for them to get a bike," Hood said. "Bikes around here are a major source of transportation for employment, for doctors appointments, for therapy, for addiction recovery, all of those things, getting around to those things are critical to our residents." Donations can be made here. Any donations that include "BIKE" in the memo will go toward bicycles and locks to those in need of transportation.https://www.classy.org/give/313609/#!/donation/checkout

Don't expect any 200 mph trains that rival Europe and Asia's best, or even cheaper fares.

Transportation experts think the infrastructure bill could be the start of a turning point for the disadvantaged state of U.S. rail travel. But the bill doesn't change the fallout of Americans looking past rail for generations. Deep barriers remain to rail travel thriving in the U.S. as in other leading nations.

Attention on passenger rail increased with the election of President Joe Biden. He has long had the nickname "Amtrak Joe" for his regular rail commutes back to Wilmington to take care of his two sons after his first wife and one of his children were killed in a car crash. He was also involved in an Obama-era push for high-speed rail.

Passenger and freight rail receive $66 billion in the infrastructure bill the Senate passed last week. But the details are still up for negotiations in the House before the bill hits Biden's desk.

Regardless, any number close to $66 billion will be a large infusion of cash for an industry that's watched its competitors — road and air travel — receive overwhelmingly more government aid. Rather than compete on a level playing field with other transportation modes, American passenger rail has had to fight off attempts from multiple presidents to slash its funding.

"Amtrak was set up to fail," Robert Puentes, CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation told CNN Business. "It wasn't designed to last as long as it has."

This means that money has to be spent now just to bring it back to its baseline.

Most new funding will be for maintenance, rather than the futuristic high-speed trains that riders in Europe and Asia have enjoyed for decades. The White House has said there are 5,000 rail cars and thousands of miles of track, signal and power systems in need of replacement. Amtrak has said it needs $38 billion to reach a state of good repair in the Northeast corridor.

"This is an improve the status quo bill," said Jim Mathews, CEO of the Rail Passengers Association. "Passengers won't have to bring Velcro and duct tape to repair their own train cars."

A world-class railroad remains out of reach

Rail advocates, including Biden, have long touted the vast potential they see in passenger rail.

"You and your family could travel coast to coast without a single tank of gas on board a high-speed train," Biden said earlier this year. He's also spoken of the potential of trains going 220 mph between Atlanta and Charlotte or making trips between D.C. and New York in 92 minutes if three curves along the route are straightened.

Train travel can make getting around the U.S. safer, greener and more efficient, advocates say. Rail travel has less environmental impact than other ways of getting around. Rail also has a better safety record than motor vehicle travel.

But the full potential for world-class rail will still be unmet even with the additional spending. California's ongoing high-speed rail project has been estimated to cost $100 billion, a single project far exceeding the infrastructure package's entire new investment in rail.

The White House calls the new funding the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak in 1970. But when considering inflation and population growth, it lags a spurt of rail investment in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute.

The $66 billion, which is mostly for Amtrak, will likely lead to more frequent service and more stops nationwide as well as new equipment. Choke points on the Northeast corridor, in Baltimore and New York, may be relieved, paving the way for faster trips.

Amtrak praised the investment in a statement, but also called on Congress to make sure it gets on-time performance and preference from the host rail lines that its trains run on. Amtrak risks delays and inconveniences because the freight railways can give top priority to their own trains, while Amtrak trains wait their turn.

Passenger rail improvements could be thwarted by freight railroads that own much of the tracks that Amtrak operates on, according to Mathews and other rail experts. They point to the $2 billion invested to upgrade Amtrak service between Chicago and St. Louis. Technology was installed so trains could run at 110 mph, which would cut about an hour off the trip. But safety technology that track owner Union Pacific installed isn't suited for trains going over 90 mph.

Short-lived boost, long-term issues

There's also a risk that Amtrak's improvements will be short-lived, as the new funds run out in five years.

Joseph C. Szabo, who led the Federal Railroad Administration until 2015, cautioned that rail has long seen investments in fits and starts, and will continue to be disadvantaged until it has predictable, dedicated funding, like roads and aviation.

"It's always been treated somewhat as a stepchild," Szabo said.

The rail industry was dominant in the 19th century and created America's first big businesses. But rail fell out of favor in the 20th century in America and was seen as antiquated. Henry Ford, the inventor of the Model T, once predicted that some up-and-coming nations like China would entirely skip rail and build highways and cars instead. (Ford's prediction didn't materialize, and China now has the largest high-speed rail network in the world.)

Private rail companies struggled to turn a profit on passenger rail service in the mid-20th century. They were hindered by federal government regulations that set prices, and could force railroads to continue to operate unprofitable routes. The U.S. government heavily subsidized rail's competitor, highways, with the largest public works project in history, the Interstate Highway System. Rail travel couldn't compete. After the large railroad company Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970, the US government created Amtrak to preserve passenger rail service. Passenger rail wasn't profitable, so private companies wanted no part in it.

Even a president with the nickname "Amtrak Joe" is proving not to be enough to overhaul the status quo.

OXFORD, Ohio — The City of Oxford, along with Miami University have jointly committed $350,000 towards bringing an Amtrak stop to the city.

The $700,000 will go towards the design and construction of a platform at Chestnut Fields location at 909 South Main St.

The Oxford stop will be located on the Cardinal line, which travels from Chicago to Washington, D.C.

The approved stop will be a Category 4 Amtrak platform, which is an unmanned kiosk.

Currently, the city is negotiating vendors on design and cost estimates for the platform.

COVINGTON, Ky. — Drivers who have just gotten used to the new traffic patterns on the Brent Spence Bridge should brace themselves for another shakeup this week.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced Monday new lane closures on the Interstate 71/75 span across the Ohio River that will go into effect this coming weekend. The changes will impact northbound traffic only.

Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, access to I-75 north from the bridge will be closed as crews prepare for the next phase of maintenance and repainting. Once that setup is complete, crews will then close the bridge's access to I-71 north. KYTC officials said they expect that closure to remain in effect until 5 a.m. Sunday, at which point the longer-term lane patterns will be put into place.

By Sunday morning, the two center northbound lanes on the bridge will be closed, leaving the far-right and far-left lanes open: The far-right lane will provide access to I-71, and the far-left lane will provide access to I-75.

Officials expect this traffic pattern to remain in effect through Sunday, Aug. 29. The southbound traffic patterns — the two right lanes are open, while the two left lanes are closed — will remain in place.

Also in the release, KYTC District 6 chief engineer Bob Yeager said the maintenance project remained on schedule.

"We are more than 50% complete with the maintenance project on the bridge," he said. "This is a routine project that is part of the normal lifecycle of a major structure like the Brent Spence Bridge."

Yeager also emphasized in the release that inspections of the bridge show it remains safe to carry vehicles.

"They continue to reiterate the structure is sturdy, it is safe, and our maintenance work will ensure it stays that way," he said.

When KYTC first announced the project, they estimated work would continue through November 2021.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A new plan says boosting walking and biking opportunities for Ohioans could save billions of dollars.

The Walk.Bike.Ohio plan was developed over the past two years by the state Department of Transportation. The plan found that existing trips by foot or bike can save Ohioans $12.7 billion in transportation and environmental costs over 20 years and even more if such trips increase by just 1%.

Caitlin Harley is active transportation manager for the transportation department. She says the plan outlines what Ohio has to do to improve walking and biking as a transportation option.

Scot Grossman and his team are finishing touches on this brand new, nearly two-mile stretch of trail that curves along Clear Creek Canyon in Colorado.

“It’s 65 miles, 5,600 vertical feet, going through multiple jurisdictions along the way. The biggest link to that 65 miles is Clear Creek Canyon, which we’re in right now,” Scot Grossman, the projects team supervisor at Jefferson County Open Space, said.

By the end of August, this part of the trail will be open for walking and biking.

“We finished about three miles in 2017; this is a mile and three quarters right now. We have funding for another three and a half miles, which will leave roughly a five-mile gap, and that's really where that federal money comes in,” Grossman said.

He has watched as segments of this 16.5-mile missing link on the Peaks to Plains trail project have come to life -- funded by state money, federal transportation dollars, and other grants.

“Big public projects like this, big capital projects, take money from all over. It can’t just be the local jurisdiction taking on something of statewide significance like this,” he said.

That’s where federal funding can play a role and where President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan might fill a gap.

“The federal jobs act is a huge one for us to be able to leverage the funding we do have, which is significant but not enough to finish something like this,” Grossman said.

And projects like this exist around the country.

“I bet all of you can think of a place in your neighborhood where you're like, ‘Oh, I can make that two-mile trip on my bike, except I have to cross that one road that feels very dangerous.’ Putting this kind of investment into biking and walking will help find a solution to things like that,” Caron Whitaker, Deputy Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists, said.

Whitaker says the larger infrastructure package being discussed could help shift gears in how we travel.

“There's a lot of projects that are on the backlog that cities and towns and even states have wanted to do for a long time but just haven’t had the funding. So the infrastructure package would give them that funding,” Whitaker said.

The issue right now is that no one in the federal government has agreed on what should be in the plan that gets implemented.

“So there are competing bills in the Senate and the House, and there’s going to have to be some negotiation, and the bills look very different,” Nick Klein, an assistant professor at Cornell University in the department of city and regional planning, said.

Klein said it’s not clear whether this bill will be what we normally see for transportation policy or if it will be something different.

“In public opinion surveys, the American public wants to see a future with more walking, cycling, and transit. By and large, that’s what people want us to focus on,” Klein said.

“The infrastructure bill is very important because it sort of sets the agenda for where and how we’re going to spend billions and billions of dollars,” he said.

Back at the Peaks to Plains project, Piep van Heuven with nonprofit advocacy group Bicycle Colorado said projects like this couldn't be done without federal funding.

“We don't have a lot of detail yet on the infrastructure plan, but there are three very good indicators; one is that the funding of bicycling and walking is likely to increase, possibly double,” she explained. “And [the plan] also uses language like ‘fix it right,' which is a nod to Complete Streets or the philosophy that when you build a road or maintain a road, you want to do so for everybody. So that’s for people driving and biking and walking.”

Construction on this trail continues -- paving the way for what other user-friendly trails could look like moving forward.

“Having those federal dollars in focus to be able to complete things like this is enormous,” Grossman said.

“This is a great example of exactly the kind of bike and pedestrian multi-use path that we want. It’s the creme de la creme,” Van Heuven said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday time is running short for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, indicating that President Joe Biden will look to act without Republican support if there is no consensus when Congress returns from its Memorial Day break.

“By the time that they return, which is June 7, just a week from tomorrow, we need a clear direction,” Buttigieg said. “The president keeps saying inaction is not an option. And time is not unlimited here." He said the American people “expect us to do something.”

Biden plans to meet with lead Republican negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, this coming week and says he remains open to hearing from other GOP senators who are working on different proposals. But Biden has been eying the dwindling timeline for a deal, with an early June hearing scheduled on a House transportation bill that is widely seen as a building block for the big package he favors.

Democratic senators also plan on moving forward on a sweeping infrastructure package “with or without the support of Republican senators,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote to Democrats on Friday. Biden had originally set a Memorial Day deadline for reaching a deal before he let that deadline slip back.

The two sides remain far apart. Republican senators last week outlined a $928 billion infrastructure proposal as a counteroffer to Biden’s $1.7 trillion proposal, and they said they would not go along with his plans to raise the corporate tax from 21% to 28% to pay for new spending.

Republicans want to shift unspent COVID-19 relief dollars to help cover the costs, a nonstarter for many Democrats and a proposal that Biden is finding unworkable, a White House adviser told The Associated Press on Friday.

On Sunday, Capito said she remained hopeful the two sides can move closer to agreement.

“I think we can get to real compromise, absolutely, because we’re both still in the game,” she said. “I think the president told me himself that 'let’s get this done.' We realize this is not easy. I think we bring every idea that’s on the table into the negotiations to see how we can achieve this and get it across the threshold.”

Capito said Republicans still disagree with Biden on what should be considered “infrastructure,” saying it should focus on the “physical core idea” such as roads, bridges, ports and even newer things such as broadband, but not elder care as Biden proposes. But Capito said that she believes his “heart” is in the bipartisan talks, and that there remains a “hunger for bipartisanship.”

“I think that’s what we see and, in fact, we are inching towards one another,” she insisted.

Buttigieg said while Republicans “philosophically seem to agree that trillion-dollar investments are the kind of thing we need to be doing right now,” there is “a lot of daylight” between the two sides, such as investments to boost the electric vehicle market to shift Americans away from gas-powered cars to stem greenhouse gas emissions.

The GOP plan amounts to about $250 billion in new spending, far from the president’s approach. Biden reduced his $2.3 trillion opening bid to $1.7 trillion in earlier negotiations.

“I think we are getting pretty close to a fish-or-cut-bait moment,” Buttigieg said Sunday. “We believe in this process, but also very much agree that this can’t go on forever.”

___

Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Most of the items you buy get to you, in part, by trucks. Right now, many trucking companies are facing a driver shortage, which could make it harder for you to get what you need.

“The demand for [commercial driver’s license] drivers has dramatically increased. Right now, it’s as a height I've never seen it, as in demand, as right now,” Don Mutters, an admissions rep at Great Lakes Truck Driving School, said.

Like driver’s ed, students here at Great Lakes Truck Driving School are guided by instructors through maneuvers and cones. After 200 hours and a test, they’ll have their commercial driver’s license.

“The volume, you would be surprised at how many calls and inquiries and people trying to get into school,” Mutters said.

Classrooms are full, and trucking companies desperate for new hires know it -- visiting the students before they’ve finished the course.

“No exaggeration, the demand is, to use a cliche, through the roof. Trucking companies are calling us every single day,” Mutters said.

He explained things have been hectic due to the shortage of truck drivers.

“The need, I don't see it ever diminishing,” Mutters said.

These students have their work cut out for them once they complete the necessary schooling.

“I like it when they’re all running, naturally, but you got to have drivers to put in them, so we got plenty of work,” Gene Carson, VP of Operations at Cleveland Express Trucking, said while standing out in the lot of trucks.

Outside the Cleveland Express Trucking facility sits a giant hiring sign.

“There are not as many resumes to choose from as there were maybe six to eight months ago," Carson said. "The smaller companies, they always had more of a challenge hiring, but it's nothing like it is now. I kind of get excited when I get a resume show up that’s been sent to me.”

He said it’s the worst he’s seen during his years in the industry. He’s having trouble hiring and says it’s due to several factors: more regulations on drivers, long-travel away from home, and concerns about job security as more autonomous vehicles hit the road.

“There’s a lot of things going on,” Carson said.

The American Trucking Association recently announced the industry needs to hire nearly 61,000 drivers as soon as possible to meet demand.

Roughly 1.1 million new drivers are needed in the next decade to support the current economic demands.

“Everything has to work in the right place, right time, the right amount to make everything possible,” Dr. Jen-Yi Chen, an associate professor of operations and supply chain management at the Cleveland State University, said. “People buy more in-house over the internet and online, consume more, and that requires more logistics and transportation. This imbalance creates a big problem for the supply chain.”

Dr. Chen said this could mean higher prices or shipping delays for Americans, some of which we’ve already seen. And without more drivers, the problem isn't going away.

“We are expecting the summer demand to pick up, like back to school. And then we're going to get into the holiday season, so it won't be until next year if ever to come back,” Dr. Chen said.

That’s why schools like Great Lakes continue helping potential drivers graduate. “Once you're enrolled here, we work with the students until they pass,” Mutters said.

They hope to get more drivers on the road and to keep them there.

“Literally every product, every consumable we all use on a daily basis...eventually it gets onto a truck and transported to a store, and we all rely on that,” Mutters said.