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🚆 Amtrak’s shiny new cars | Morning Newsletter

And Philly’s new status

An Amtrak train travels near Interstate 76 in Philadelphia in 2021.
An Amtrak train travels near Interstate 76 in Philadelphia in 2021.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer
    by Ashley Hoffman
    Published 

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

It’s looking mostly cloudy out today, but every day we get a tiny bit closer to March.

Today we’re talking about Amtrak’s shiny new cars, and Philly officially getting certified as a “welcoming” city.

If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.

— Ashley Hoffman (@_AshleyHoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

Amtrak is spending billions on new train cars. The Northeast Corridor should be first in line, some experts say.

🎤 And now I’m handing the microphone over to our transportation reporter Tom Fitzgerald:

I can’t forget the photograph, taken from the air, of Amtrak Train 188 at the scene of its derailment in Frankford — shaped like a Z, some of its cars on the ground. Eight people were killed, 46 seriously injured. What does that have to do with the Pacific Northwest?

AmeriStarRail, the upstart start-up from Wilmington, criticizes Amtrak for planning to send new trainsets being built with updated crash protection first to the Cascades route in 2026, instead of the Northeast Corridor to replace older 50-year-old passenger cars like Train 188′s. Federal authorities concluded the cause of the crash was a distracted engineer who took a curve at more than twice the 50-mph posted speed.

I wrote about this company of iconoclasts last October and their proposal to take over train service on the corridor, which Amtrak has rejected. Are they right about safety? Amtrak and federal regulators say no. Take a ride and see what you think. 🔑

What you should know today

  1. A Temple University police officer was shot and killed in a carjacking incident.

  2. A national forest site is now named after a Black paratrooper from the Main Line who died in a secret mission.

  3. Temple and striking graduate students have reached a tentative agreement.

  4. Philly is an officially certified “welcoming” city after demonstrating a commitment to immigrant inclusion and support. Here’s what that means for immigrants becoming a part of our community.

  5. Ange Branca’s Malaysian restaurant is coming back with a whole new format in a new location.

  6. This drag skating show on ice about fighting climate change is having a hard time keeping the ice frozen, and you simply cannot make this up.

  7. A social media mistake can remind us all of the importance of teaching Black history.

âť“Pop quizâť“

Who won’t you encounter at the new Disney exhibit?

A) Grinning Cheshire Cat

B) Boba Fett

C) Walt Disney himself

D) Mickey in a sorcerer’s outfit

🧩 Unscramble the anagram 🧩

The song from a Disney fantasy adventure about a magical dragon that plays at the Franklin Institute Disney exhibit.

Hint: 🕯️+ 🚰

ANTON CARTWHEELED

We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Send us your own original anagram to unscramble if you’d like. Email us if you know the answer. Cheers to Raymond Ellis who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Andrew Painter.

Photo of the day

🎶 For today’s Sunday track, we’re listening to “Wild thing. You make my heart sing.”🎶

👋🏽 Have a lovely Sunday. I’m spending mine rummaging at the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park.