GATINEAU, Quebec — Rail accidents and incidents in Canada were down in 2023, although fatalities were up slightly, according to final statistics released last week by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The board received 1,235 reports of rail “occurrences” — 914 accidents (which involve a fatality or serious injury, or a derailment, collision, or […]
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad has received approval for a rezoning request allowing it to build a new freight terminal near New Carlisle, Ind., the South Bend Tribune reports. At a meeting last week, the St. Joseph County Council voted 9-0 to rezone four parcels of land from […]
The California Air Resources Board pitted a standard diesel-electric locomotive consist against zero-emissions alternatives – including battery-electric models from Wabtec and ProgressRail as well as Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s hydrogen fuel cell locomotive – in a hypothetical test run from the Port of Los Angeles to Barstow, Calif. The analysis concludes that the current zero-emissions […]
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The George H.W. Bush Presidential Center officially opened the new pavilion that houses Union Pacific SD70Ace No. 4141 on Thursday, which would have been the president’s 100th birthday. The 29,000-square-foot pavilion on the Texas A&M campus also includes a helicopter that was frequently used as Marine One to carry the president […]
WASHINGTON – Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are contracting out dispatching of the Alameda Corridor to a neutral third party. The 16.1 mile grade-separated corridor, which leads to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., handled an average of 31 trains per day in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Alameda […]
WASHINGTON – Total U.S. weekly rail traffic for the week ending June 8 was up 4.1% compared with the same week last year thanks to a spike in intermodal volume. Carloads declined 4.4% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was up 12.2%, the Association of American Railroads reported. Six […]
NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority replaced the first section of the 130-year-old Park Avenue Viaduct in Manhattan without disrupting Metro-North service over the weekend, the transit agency said yesterday. The Park Avenue Viaduct carries four Metro-North Railroad tracks and serves all Metro-North trains traveling into and out of Grand Central Terminal, totaling 750 […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Canadian Pacific Kansas City for violating the Clean Water Act following two derailments that resulted in oil spills in Maine. The derailments on the former Central Maine & Quebec occurred in 2022 and 2023 following washouts. Nearly 15,000 gallons of contaminants were spilled into nearby […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX is flattening the hump and demolishing the hump tower at its yard in Cumberland, Md., and building a classification yard ladder to make flat-switching more efficient. Similar moves are under way at the railroad’s yards in Hamlet, N.C., and Willard, Ohio, where the humps were decommissioned in 2017 as CSX shifted […]
WASHINGTON — Aside from the revelation that Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner was granted $620,000 in bonuses on top of a $500,000 salary last year, very little new ground was covered at today’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Rail Subcommittee hearing. The hearing, “Amtrak and Intercity Passenger Rail Oversight: Promoting Performance, Safety and Accountability,” was abruptly […]
FERNLEY, Nev. – The Port of Nevada, an inland port near Reno, is now offering international intermodal service to and from the Port of Oakland, Calif., thanks to a partnership with Union Pacific and CMA CGM Group. “Direct rail access between Reno and the West Coast significantly increases the amount of cargo freight that can […]
ROCKLAND, Maine — Loss of a freight customer that supplied more than 95% of Midcoast Railservice’s revenue on the 57-mile Rockland branch leased from Maine’s Department of Transportation has prompted the Finger Lakes Railway subsidiary to exit the property. The move upends plans the state, Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, and Amtrak had been […]
