COOS BAY, Ore. — The Port of Coos Bay, Ore., is once again making a bid for a U.S. Department of Transportation Mega Grant, after its bid for an intermodal project was not selected a year ago. The project seeks to create a new intermodal gateway capable of handling 1.2 million containers per year. Oregon […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is preparing to buy the first trainsets for its high speed rail system. The California High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors last week approved a Request for Qualifications for the purchase of six trainsets for use on the initial 171-mile, Merced-to-Bakersfield section of the long-delayed LA-San Francisco high speed system. “Our […]
RICHMOND, British Columbia — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has expressed concerns about fire risks posted by distributed-power locomotives as part of its final report on a July 2021 incident involving a Canadian Pacific freight train at Elko, B.C. In a press release accompanying Thursday’s release of the final investigation report, the TSB says […]
BOSTON — The delivery schedule for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway cars being built by Chinese firm CRRC remains undetermined, but MBTA and Massachusetts officials believe the company will eventually complete its troubled order for the railcars. CommonWealth Magazine reports that MBTA CEO Phillip Eng told a Thursday board meeting that he, MBTA Deputy […]
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The contract worker killed in a maintenance-of-way accident earlier this month on state-owned tracks operated by the Housatonic Railroad has been identified as Rodolfo G. Rocha, 51, of Los Fresnos, Texas, the Berkshire Eagle newspaper reports. Survivors include a wife and son. Rocha was hit by track equipment while working in […]
Five students have received Railway & Locomotive Historical Society scholarships for 2023, the organization has announced. The awards to graduate and undergraduate students are each worth $3,000. This year’s recipients are: — Harun Celik of Ames, Iowa (Edward Myers Scholarship), an international student pursuing a Ph.D.in history at Iowa State University. He is writing a […]
OAKLAND, Calif. — The last original Bay Area Rapid Transit cars are set to be retired next month, public broadcaster KQED reports. With some 560 of the next-generation “Fleet of the Future” now in service, BART plans to retire its legacy equipment as of Sept. 11, 51 years after the system opened. The transit operator’s […]
STUART, Fla. — Brightline and Florida East Coast Railway will perform additional rehabilitation work on the St. Lucie River drawbridge beginning tonight (Friday, Aug. 25), with extended overnight closures Aug. 27-28 and Aug 28-29, in order to complete the work before the start of Brightline service to Orlando, the two rail companies have announced. To […]
WASHINGTON — Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD), has been named to the Surface Transportation Board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council. Ferguson, who joins the RSTAC as an at-large member, has nearly 30 years in the rail industry, having begun his career as a conductor. […]
TORONTO — The Toronto Transit Commission says it will not reopen the Scarborough RT rail line in the wake of last month’s derailment that sent five people to the hospital. The route — an orphan in Toronto’s four-line subway system because of its use of a different type of equipment — was already scheduled to […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific furloughed 94 mechanical employees at shops across the system this week due to soft traffic volumes and a higher number of locomotives placed in storage. “As a routine part of business, we constantly examine our resources against volume needs. While some targeted furloughs are occurring in a handful of mechanical […]
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will shut down a 5-mile, 11-station segment of Red Line rail service for 16 days in October to address track maintenance, the agency announced today. The shutdown from Oct. 14 to Oct. 29 will affect the Ashmont Branch between the JFK/UMass and Ashmont stations, as well as the […]
