New publication from Classic Toy Trains

large model bridge on train layout

It’s my pleasure to tell you, our devoted readers of Classic Toy Trains, about our brand-new colorful and informative 100-page special-interest publication: Great Layouts You Can Visit! Packed with photos and filled with stories and details, it offers toy train enthusiasts of every age, background, and level of interest and experience something enjoyable and useful. […]

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BNSF and CN ask STB to force UP and NS to produce more merger documents

WASHINGTON — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are withholding key documents that are needed for rival railroads, shippers, and regulators to properly evaluate their transcontinental merger proposal, BNSF Railway and Canadian National have told the Surface Transportation Board. In separate filings, BNSF and CN say the STB cannot properly assess the merger’s potential impacts on […]

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Investigative report examines FRA inaction on safety recommendations

Aerial view of derailed passenger train

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has failed to enact a majority of recommendations from National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations over the last decade, even though human errors and track defects led to more than 3,000 accidents, 23 deaths, and nearly 1,200 injuries during that time, according to an analysis from the Howard Center […]

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VIA’s Ocean hits parked trucks, derails

VIA Rail Canada logo

SAINT-ALEXANDRE-DE-KAMOURASKA, Quebec — No injuries have been reported onboard after VIA Rail Canada’s Ocean derailed early this morning after striking two parked trucks. The site Noovo Info reports the two locomotives of the train derailed about 1:30 a.m. after striking the trucks, which had parked too close to the tracks, according to the provincial police […]

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Brightline confronts cash crunch even as it gains riders, revenue in Florida: Analysis

Passenger train comes down steep ramp from above-ground station platform

MIAMI— In the first full month following a strategy revamp in early October, Brightline showed promising revenue growth, driven by increased premium-class seating on its Orlando trains and additional customers riding more frequent West Palm Beach-Miami service. However, its mounting, increasingly expensive debt load is causing concern among investors as a hefty interest payment is […]

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SEPTA to restore regular Regional Rail schedules on Monday, Jan. 12

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority logo

PHILADELPHIA — Regional Rail service will return to its normal schedules, including morning express trains, on Monday, Jan. 12, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has announced. The move comes as more of the agency’s Silverliner IV railcars, sidelined for repairs since a federal emergency order was issued in October, are returning to service. “This is […]

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Amtrak service remains suspended by washout near Santa Barbara, Calif.

GAVIOTA, Calif. — Suspensions to Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight service will continue until at least Tuesday, Jan. 13, because of a washout near Gaviota, Calif. According to the Pacific Surfliner website, Union Pacific anticipates reopening the tracks north of Santa Barbara on Jan. 13. In the meantime, the two daily Surfliner round trips to […]

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New subway cars enter service in Baltimore

Subway car with black and yellow front

BALTIMORE — The first six cars in an order for new subway equipment have entered service on Baltimore’s Metro subway system. On Wednesday, the Maryland Transit Administration held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the start of operations for six new cars built by Hitachi Rail, part of a 78-car, $400 million order placed in 2017. […]

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Democratic Senators call for passenger grant funding

Trains Washington Watch logo

WASHINGTON — Fourteen Democratic senators have asked the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund a major program for passenger rail projects, saying House Republicans have proposed zeroing out that funding. In a Jan. 9 letter to the committee’s chairs, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and ranking members Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and […]

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LIRR unions to seek second Presidential Emergency Board

Electric multiple-unit trainset with yellow front approaching station on three-track main line

NEW YORK — A group of unions representing Long Island Rail Road workers will ask President Donald Trump to appoint a second Presidential Emergency Board to address their dispute with the commuter railroad. The move would further delay the possibility of a strike or lockout involving the five unions. In a statement reported by cable […]

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Shelter-in-place order lifted after Norfolk Southern derailment in South Carolina

Norfolk Southern logo

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. — A shelter-in-place order has been lifted after a hazmat team determined there was no threat from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train wreck near the town of Summerville. The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post that the derailment was reported about 9:51 a.m. ET, with officials issuing […]

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UK’s Caledonian Sleeper looks to the future

GLASGOW, Scotland — The Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight passenger rail service between London and five Scotland destinations, is in the enviable position of having fully recovered, and then some, from the collapse in demand faced by all forms of transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The operation profiled in the March 2026 issue of Trains is […]

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