Amtrak’s Chicago Metropolitan Lounge ends free use for business-class passengers

People in loosely organized line at railroad station

CHICAGO — Amtrak business-class passengers no longer receive free admission to Chicago Union Station’s Metropolitan Lounge, although a $35 day pass is available. Enlarged and reimagined at a new location within the sprawling facility in 2016, the Metropolitan Lounge’s primary function has been to serve transferring long-distance sleeping car passengers. It is a multi-level place […]

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MBTA Green Line extension was built with track out of gauge, faces significant repairs

Green and white light rail vehicle at station

BOSTON — Tracks were built out of gauge on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Green Line extension, meaning the 4.7-mile, $2.3 billion project faces significant rebuilding less than a year after it opened. MBTA CEO Phillip Eng revealed the problem at a press conference today (Thursday, Oct. 19). An MBTA spokesman said 80% of the […]

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The Trains Interview: Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena talks service, growth, competition, and steam

Trains spoke with Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena today after the railroad’s third-quarter earnings call. Vena, who served as UP’s chief operating officer in 2019 and 2020, rejoined the railroad as its chief executive on Aug. 14. Vena has pledged to make Union Pacific the safest railroad in North America and to grow volume faster […]

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Hydrogen fuel conversion planned for Irish EMD-built locomotive

Orange and black double-cab locomotive coupled to similar locomotive with gray paint

Irish national rail company Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) has announced plans to convert one of its EMD-built locomotives to burn hydrogen instead of diesel fuel. IÉ is working in partnership with Latvian rail engineering firm DIGAS to test the use of a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine in an existing Class 071 diesel freight locomotive. Since earlier […]

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Cowboy state conveyance

Night Crawler in Casper, Wyoming in 1966

Workers fuel and exchange mail on Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train 29, known informally as the “Night Crawler,” at Casper, Wyo., in July 1966. Passengers have detrained for breakfast in town while “Chinese red” EMD and GE diesels on a freight wait to follow the passenger train out of town, the largest in the state […]

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AAR says long trains are safe and that a 7,500-foot limit is unnecessary

WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads says long freight trains are safe and has told the Federal Railroad Administration that there’s no need for an emergency order that would cap train length at 7,500 feet. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen on Oct. 9 called on the FRA to limit train length, claiming […]

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Florida railroads adopt Seaboard Coast Line-inspired paint scheme

Black and yellow locomotive

APOPKA, Fla. — Regional Rail LLC’s Florida Central Railroad soon will receive two rebuilt EMD GP15-1s dressed in a black-with-yellow-stripes image reminiscent of the Seaboard Coast Line. Regional Rail, established in 2007 and based in Kennett Square, Pa., now has 13 operations throughout the eastern United States and in Saskatchewan, Canada. As a growing short […]

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