Amtrak service resumes through Albany

Amtrak logo.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak has resumed service through Albany, N.Y., as of Monday afternoon, ending a three-day suspension of service triggered by falling pieces from a building next to the tracks. The trains will operate with a speed restriction past the Central Warehouse, a long-vacant cold storage facility. Pieces from the wall of the 12-story […]

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Massachusetts legislation includes East-West Rail funding

Map of proposed passenger route in Massachusetts

BOSTON — The Massachusetts legislature has passed a transportation bill including $275 million in funding for the East-West Rail project, which would extend existing rail service west from Worcester to Springfield and Pittsfield, Mass. The Boston Globe reports the $11.3 billion transportation and infrastructure bill was part of a flurry of legislation passed late Sunday […]

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Canadian National releases 2022-23 Grain Plan

Cover of document with CN locomotive

MONTREAL — The continued addition of more new grain hoppers, along with the addition of new locomotives and ongoing hiring efforts, are key elements in Canadian National Railway’s 2022-23 Grain Plan, released last week. The plan outlines CN’s preparations for moving up to 27 million metric tons of grain from western Canada in the crop […]

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Hays Watkins, key figure in CSX merger, dies at 96 (updated)

Black and white portrait of man in coat and die

Hays T. Watkins Jr., a soft-spoken Kentuckian who made the CSX merger a classic success, is dead at the age of 96. Watkins died Friday after complications from a fall, his son Tom Watkins has reported. “Hays Watkins without a doubt was and to this day remains the person with the highest degrees of integrity […]

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Canadian National blasts Amtrak proposal for dispatching control as ‘outrageously self-serving’

City of New Orleans hurries through Matteson, Ill., on May 21, 2020

WASHINGTON — Canadian National calls an Amtrak proposal that would give it dispatching control over CN lines with poor passenger performance “an outrageously self-serving recipe” that would “cause profound harm to freight railroads, freight customers, American consumers, and the broader economy,” and urges the Surface Transportation Board to reject the concept “out of hand.” Amtrak, […]

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Norfolk Southern resumes hump operations at two yards under new operating plan

ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has resumed hump operations at its classification yard in Macon, Ga., and will soon reopen the hump at Bellevue, Ohio, as part of the new operating plan it began rolling out last month. Both yards were converted to flat-switching facilities in 2020 after volume sank at the onset of the pandemic. […]

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UP plans major locomotive rebuild program (updated)

Yellow locomotives on train of tank cars

Wabtec will modernize 600 locomotives over a three-year period for Union Pacific in a deal valued at more than $1 billion, the largest such program in railroading history. The Associated Press first reported the agreement on Tuesday evening. The program will include 525 AC4400 and AC6000 locomotives, as well as 75 Dash-9 units which will […]

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Canadian National optimistic about new container volume from Port of Halifax

Locomotive moving cars of containers with ship and dock in background

MONTREAL – Canadian National’s plan to turn the Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, into the Prince Rupert of the East is gaining traction. In June CN launched a second pair of intermodal trains that serve Halifax, where terminal operator PSA now owns both container terminals and has made improvements. The port also has expanded berths […]

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Long Island Rail Road ends development of battery-electric equipment

Reporters surrounding officials at press conference with train in background

NEW YORK — The Long Island Rail Road has scrapped a plan to develop battery-electric multiple-unit trainsets for use on its non-electrified lines, Newsday reports, after determining retrofitting of existing equipment is not feasible. The LIRR and Alstom announced a partnership to develop and test the equipment on its Oyster Bay Branch in April 2021 […]

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