LOS ANGELES — Metrolink commuter rail service in south Orange County, and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner operations between LA and San Diego, were scheduled to resume this morning (Monday, Oct. 4) following the conclusion of emergency repairs to tracks near San Clemente, Calif. Service was halted Sept. 16 after a landslide pushed the rail line out […]
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Birmingham and three Mississippi communities will receive Federal Railroad Administration funds from the Southern Rail Commission for station work in preparation for the resumption of Amtrak service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. Birmingham will receive $250,000, while Gulfport, Miss., will receive $246,500; Bay St. Louis, Miss., will receive $270,000; and Pascagoula, […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board is renewing a call for Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to end the practice of using watchmen to notify track worker of approaching trains in areas where positive train control offers additional safety features. The recommendation comes in a report issued Thursday on the NTSB’s investigation of […]
ALLENSWORTH, Calif. — Amtrak will offer special train service on Oct. 9 for a celebration at Col. Allensworth State Historic Park, site of a former Black settlement in the San Joaquin Valley. Four Amtrak San Joaquin trains in each direction will stop that day at the site of the former station in Allensworth, located near […]
CHICAGO — The widow of a man killed in Saturday’s Empire Builder derailment in Montana has filed suit against Amtrak and BNSF railway for their alleged role in her husband’s death. Courthouse News Service reports Rebecca Schneider, wife of 28-year-old victim Zach Schneider, filed suit Tuesday in federal court in Chicago for unspecified damages. Zach […]
Passenger pioneer Amtrak No. 583 is a 3,000-hp, six-axle EMD SDP40F. The model was the first new diesel locomotive purchased by Amtrak in the 1970s. It has a different side panel arrangement and lacks the front platform of the earlier FP45. Jim Hediger photo […]
JOPLIN, Mont. — BNSF Railway’s busy Hi Line Subdivision is open again following the derailment of Amtrak’s Empire Builder over the weekend. According to KHQ News, a local NBC affiliate, the first BNSF freight train to pass through the community of Joplin, Montana, since Saturday’s derailment arrived just after 4 a.m. Tuesday. The train is […]
JOPLIN, Mont. — The vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board says Amtrak’s Empire Builder was traveling below its posted speed limit when it derailed and partially overturned over the weekend in rural Montana, killing three people. NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg told members of the media Monday afternoon that the eastbound Empire Builder […]
NEW ORLEANS — After first being turned back to Chicago at Memphis, Tenn., and later at Jackson, Miss., Amtrak’s City of New Orleans will finally make its grand entrance to the Crescent City one month after Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana with torrential rains and strong winds. The southbound train departing Chicago today and its […]
GALESBURG, Ill. — As the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners sets off on its annual trip and convention this week, the organization has released a statement on the weekend derailment of Amtrak’s Empire Builder in northern Montana. “It is horrifying to see the derailed and overturned rail cars. For many of us, rail […]
JOPLIN, Mont. — The passengers killed in Saturday’s deadly Empire Builder derailment have been identified as a tech engineer from Illinois and a husband and wife from Georgia. According to media reports, the three people killed when Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder derailed Saturday afternoon in northern Montana have been identified as 28-year-old Zach Schneider, of […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration is launching its own investigation into the Saturday derailment of Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder in northern Montana. Specifically, FRA has sent a team of 18 dispatched to the scene consisting of technical experts in track, motive power & equipment, signal and train control, and operating practices. The agency has […]
