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Positive Train Control Tick, tock. U.S. railroads have collectively spent decades and billions of dollars on positive train control research. Tick. Public outcry after a 2008 commuter crash that killed 25 people — a crash that a Federal safety panel says PTC could have prevented — pushed Congress to act. Tock. With a Congressional deadline […]
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The head of the National Transportation Safety Board says a misaligned switch is the immediate reason Amtrak’s southbound Silver Star collided with a parked CSX Transportation freight train early Sunday, killing two people and injuring dozens. Investigators say they’ll now try and find out why the switch was misaligned. NTSB Chariman Robert […]
ATLANTA – The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority has signed a $146-million contract to refurbish 118 of its railcars. Kinkisharyo International, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Kinki Shayro Corp., will do the work at its factory in Piscataway, N.J., a former plastics factory converted by the company in 2015. The contract, part of MARTA’s Rail […]
LA GRANGE, Ill. – The end may be near for a locomotive plant that was once at the top of the industry. Progress Rail parent Caterpillar Inc. is considering closing the famed La Grange facility, splitting the remaining engine production between a plant in North Carolina and outside suppliers, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. The 850,000-square-foot […]
A photo freight crosses the Los Pinos trestle, near Osier, Colo. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn WAUKESHA, Wis. — Trains magazine and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad are pleased to announce a special photo freight event Aug. 25-26, 2018, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the last revenue freight on the legendary Rio Grande narrow gauge. […]
Conway Scenic GP9 No. 573 leads an excursion out of North Conway in December 2016. Justin Franz NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad has been sold to Profile Mountain Holdings Corp., the Conway Daily Sun reports. The sale was effective immediately. The popular New England tourist road was owned by Russ and […]
A view of a new modern moving assembly line at a GE Transportation factory in Brazil. The line is similar to ones used in aviation that move large and heavy components several feet per hour based on production demands. GE Transportation CONTAGEM, Brazil – GE Transportation’s plant in Contagem unveiled today a new approach to […]
PRINCETON, N.J. — PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J. — A cloudy late January morning sees NJ Transit electric multiple unit Arrow III cars Nos. 1311 and 1329 doing yeoman service on the Princeton Junction to Princeton “Dinky.” This 2.7-mile line offers over 40 round trips a day, connecting with NJT Northeast Corridor trains at Princeton Junction; it […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., has introduced the Safe Freight Act in the Senate today in an effort to require two-person crews aboard all freight trains in the United States. The bill is a companion to a piece of legislation previously introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. […]
An exterior image of GREX Business Car No. 400, Edwin Brazelton Snead. The car served presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, and served multiple politicians and dignitaries before ownership was transferred to GREX in the 1990s. GREX An interior image from GREX Business Car No. 400, Edwin Brazelton Snead. GREX GEORGETOWN, Texas — On Monday […]
A 220-car loaded CSX Transportation coal train with mid-train distributed power rolls into St. Albans, W.Va., on Jan. 27, 2018. Chase Gunnoe HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Unit coal trains in Appalachia are now running with distributed power less than two weeks after CSX Transportation officials indicated the increased use of the mid-train technology. Ed Harris, CSX’s […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board recently settled a carrier-shipper rate dispute in favor of the shipper, something that hasn’t happened in several years. The decision was in a case brought by Consumers Energy against CSX Transportation in January 2015. Consumers challenged the rates that CSX charged the Jackson, Mich.,-based utility to move Powder River […]
