An outbound Metra train passes BNSF maintenance-of-way equipment near Downers Grove, Ill., on Oct. 27, 2018, during a three-day maintenance project on the BNSF Railway main line between Chicago and Aurora, Ill. A similar tie replacement project this weekend will alter Metra schedules on the BNSF route. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — A major BNSF […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is calling for freight railroads to do more to improve Amtrak on-time performance, indicating to Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration his interest in working with the passenger railroad and federal agency on the issue. Durbin sent letters to Amtrak and the FRA in response to a report […]
This button was created by a group opposing a Canadian National plan to double track a portion of the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Richard Wronski HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — A suburb northwest of Chicago has gone on record opposing Canadian National’s plan to double track a portion of the former […]
A Union Pacific North train departs the Central Street station in Evanston, Ill., in December 2018. Metra ticket sales at the station will end Oct. 31. TRAINS: David Lassen EVANSTON, Ill. — Reflecting the continuing transition of passengers to mobile ticketing, Metra and Union Pacific will close the ticket office at the Evanston Central Street […]
CHICAGO — Metra is testing a new security screening system at several downtown Chicago stations this week, the Chicago Tribune reports. The heat scanner, on loan from the Transportation Security Adminstration, is being used today (Thursday, Oct. 17) at the Ogilvie Transportation Center after tests Tuesday and Wednesday at two Metra Electric stations, Millennium and […]
Norfolk Southern website As Norfolk Southern crews work round-the-clock, the railroad estimates a mid-November re-opening of a bridge between Kansas City and Moberly, Mo., destroyed October 1 by flood and debris on the Grand River near Brunswick, Mo. As an alternate route, the Surface Transportation Board on Friday granted NS trackage rights on a parallel […]
Video by Chris Guss Metra heritage unit No. 211 sits at the platform in Aurora on Tuesday after arriving from downtown Chicago. Chris Guss CHICAGO — Metra’s newest heritage locomotive, F40PHM-2 No. 211, made its debut Tuesday on BNSF’s Chicago Subdivison when it led a PTC test train from downtown Chicago to Aurora, Ill.. The […]
An inbound Metra train approaches the site where preparations are under way to add a third track on the Union Pacific West line near River Forest, Ill., in December 2018. Metra has agreed to built a soundwall at the site in response to concerns from adjacent homeowners. TRAINS: David Lassen RIVER FOREST, Ill. — Responding […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the August collision of two CSX Transportation trains provides more detail on the wreck that occurred in territory protected by positive train control. Local train H702, which rammed into 110-car frac sand train, W314, at a control point, was operating with its PTC system in […]
A Canadian National train with Illinois Central-painted locomotives departs Chicago’s Markham Yard in 2017. TEH-17089-16 Jacob Metzger Q: When I was in the second grade, we took a field trip to what was then the largest freight yard in the country. That was over 50 years ago, when I lived in a Chicago suburb. I […]
An inbound South Shore commuter train passes through the Museum/11th Street station on its way to Chicago’s Millennium station. A South Shore project to add a branch line to Dyer, Ind. — which would be served by 12 daily round trips to downtown Chicago — has received federal approval to move into the engineering phase. […]
The waiting room of St. Paul Union Depot is shown just prior to the renovated station’s reopening in December 2012. In 2018, for the first time since its renovation, the station surpassed a million visitors, and also leased out all available commercial space. Steve Glischinski ST. PAUL, Minn. — The renovated St. Paul Union Depot […]
