Notable rail news for your day-after-the-Super-Bowl Monday: — The Federal Railroad Administration will hold a hearing for rural landowners to comment on the Texas Central high speed rail project. The Dallas Business journal reports that U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who opposes the project, announced the hearing last week. No date or location has been […]
Your morning look at rail news headlines: — The Associated Press reports that Virginia’s House of Delegates is scheduled to vote next week on a transportation bill that includes creation of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, to oversee state rail operations. — As part of its efforts to find alternative funding, the Southeast Pennsylvania has […]
MONTREAL — While Bombardier remains in “active talks” with French-based Alstom over a merger of the companies’ rail equipment manufacturing, the Canadian firm has also approached Japan’s Hitachi about a possible deal, Reuters reports. The Bombardier-Alstom talks were reported earlier this week by Bloomberg [see “Report: Bombardier, Alstom discussing combining rail units,” Trains News Wire, […]
CHICAGO – Two British heritage railways connected to the embattled Iowa Pacific have been put up for sale. The Weardale Railway and Dartmoor Railway, as well as an engineering and equipment leasing business, were all recently listed. The properties are being sold for between $610,000 and $854,000. The railroads are owned by British American Railway […]
BERLIN — German national passenger rail operator Deutsche Bahn has dropped fares for intercity travel for the first time in 17 years, with a 10% on tickets for intercity travel of more than 31 miles (50 kilometers). The lower fares reflect a decrease in the German government’s value-added tax on rail travel, from 19% to […]
MONTERREY, Mexico — A Mexican railroad’s president is calling for protesters who block railroad lines to be thrown in jail. The call, from Kansas City Southern de Mexico’s President President Jose Zozaya comes in the wake of KCSdeM shutdowns at least a half dozen times this past year in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Shutdowns […]
MEXICO CITY — Kansas City Southern, rail company Ferromex, and bus company Autobuses de Oriente have already expressed interest in operating Mexico’s Maya train project, even though construction has not yet begun, according to Latin America business site BNamericas. The $6.3-billion project would build a 900-mile tourist route on the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting archaeological sites, […]
Displaying its original British Rail paint scheme is this HST, at Peterborough on the East Coast route in August 1984. Keith Fender In its final livery – for the new London North Eastern Railway franchise — a London Kings Cross-to-Aberdeen HST heads north near Stonehaven, Scotland, on Aug. 17, 2019. The trains are about to […]
WASHINGTON – The final version of a defense funding bill in Congress would ban federal funding for transit equipment from Chinese companies — but would also delay that ban for two years in most cases. Roll Call reports that the conference version of the National Defense Authorization Act would prohibit the use of federal dollars […]
One of 10 locomotives produced by Wabtec for Egyptian National Railways is unloaded in Alexandria, Egypt. Wabtec ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT — Wabtec Corp., a leading rail equipment supplier following its recent merger with GE Transportation, celebrated today the delivery of 10 ES30ACi Light Evolution Series locomotives to Egyptian National Railways and the Ministry of Transportation. The […]
Mainline steam in November 2019: Polish 2-6-2 Ol49 59 is about to leave Wolsztyn with the 11:37 service to Leszno on Nov. 22, 2019. The 80-minute one-way steam trip cost around $3. Keith Fender WARSAW — Daily steam hauled passenger services survive on two regional commuter rail lines in western Poland but seem set to […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Southern Railway has released details of the second phase of Precision Scheduled Railroading it is introducing to its Mexican subsidiary. With a planned Dec. 2 rollout for Phase Two, Kansas City Southern de Mexico will consolidate trains, move certain Laredo, Texas, terminal work to the Mexican side of the […]
