CHICAGO — Some portions of the North American railcar fleet of transportation leasing company GATX are being idled due to Precision Scheduled Railroading. PSR, which most Class I systems and certain short lines are using to maximize productivity of assets, is among the reasons utilization of GATX boxcars dropped in the second quarter of 2019 […]
Railroad Performance Measures website goes dark NEWSWIRE
Railroad Performance Measures website home page WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads pulled the plug on the Railroad Performance Measures website this month, saying it has outlived its usefulness. The railroadpm.org website — which reported weekly Class I figures for terminal dwell, average train speed, and cars online — was an outgrowth of the […]
Regulators approve new rail line to serve South Carolina auto plant (updated) NEWSWIRE
Short line Palmetto Railways, owned by the state of South Carolina, will build a 28-mile branch that will connect the new Volvo assembly plant in Ridgeville, S.C., to a CSX Transportation main line. Palmetto Railways WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have approved the construction of a 28-mile rail line that will serve Volvo’s new assembly plant […]
BNSF Railway is high and dry after recent Midwest flooding NEWSWIRE
Midwest flooding map BNSF Railway OMAHA, Neb. — Plagued with weather-caused outages since mid-March, BNSF Railway reports all service is restored. Operations were slated to resume over the July 20 to 21 weekend on the 80-mile Napier Subdivision, along the Missouri River from near Omaha to near St. Joseph, Mo. It was BNSF’s hardest hit […]
Caltrain announces business plan through 2040; plans on tripling ridership NEWSWIRE
SAN JOSE, Calif. — After more than a year of staff work and public meetings along the San Francisco Peninsula, Caltrain today released a draft business plan for its next two decades calling for up to $25 billion in capital investments to triple its ridership to more than 180,000 passengers per weekday. The plan, which […]
CN, CP to argue Chicago interchange dispute before federal regulators NEWSWIRE
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has ordered Canadian National and Canadian Pacific to participate in oral arguments next month to settle their simmering dispute over the location of their interchange in Chicago. In a decision late Friday, the board directed CN and CP to participate in an Aug. 6 oral argument in Washington. The […]
Costly new safety rules could sideline British heritage railways NEWSWIRE
LONDON — Britain’s heritage railroads face massive costs, or the possibility of being shut down, in the wake of stringent new safety regulations resulting from the death of a passenger in 2016. The Telegraph reports that heritage railways must place bars over the drop-down windows of their coaches to prevent passengers from leaning out to […]
NJ Transit train cancellations soar in June NEWSWIRE
NEW YORK — Some 373 NJ Transit commuter trains were cancelled in June, a 52 percent increase over the same month a year earlier, even though New Jersey officials have been touting improvement by the commuter system. CBS-2 TV in New York reported the numbers and asked Gov. Phil Murphy about them last week. “The […]
Pacific Locomotive Association debuts restored Southern Pacific KM NEWSWIRE
Southern Pacific KM No. 9010 debuted July 20 at Niles Canyon Railway. Gordon Lloyd SUNOL, Calif. — The Pacific Locomotive Association through Howard Wise and other volunteers have pulled off a miracle with the restoration of Southern Pacific German-built Krauss-Maffei Diesel-Hydraulic model ML-4000CC No. 9010. The locomotive debuted on the association’s Niles Canyon Railway Saturday. […]
SD9 hauls again in Indiana NEWSWIRE
With six cars on the drawbar for Nease Chemical in Fernald, Ohio, Indiana Eastern SD9 No. 206 cruises through the farmland of eastern Indiana on former Chesapeake & Ohio rails near the tiny community of Peoria, Ind., on July 18. David Rohdenburg COTTAGE GROVE, Ind. — Midwest shortline Indiana Eastern Railroad, which operates 43 miles […]
Southern Pacific No. 18 returns to service on the Durango & Silverton NEWSWIRE
After several months of work in the shops in Durango, Colo., Southern Pacific No. 18, otherwise known as the Slim Princess, returned to service at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad on July 18, pulling a loaded passenger train from Rockwood, Colo., to Cascade Canyon, Colo. On April 9, 2019, the steam engine, leased […]
Study will consider light rail, commuter train link at Montreal airport NEWSWIRE
The logo for Montreal’s new light rail system. MONTREAL — Canada’s federal government will fund a feasibility study on the possibility of connecting Montreal’s future light-rail system to an existing commuter-rail station in Dorval, near the city’s airport. Transportation Minister Marc Garneau announced the $2 million study Friday at groundbreaking ceremonies for the light rail […]
