CHICAGO — Amtrak’s stretched-thin and aging fleet is encountering significant challenges to reliability across the entire system this week as national network trains remain sold out for many segments. Sunset cancelled With Tropical Storm Beryl causing widespread flooding in the Houston area early in the week, Amtrak truncated the eastbound Sunset Limited at San Antonio, […]
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A rail-themed restaurant is a concept familiar to many rail enthusiasts. Perhaps you’ve dined at one yourself. Often located in a converted passenger station, the décor is themed, unsurprisingly, after railroads. Sometimes, these restaurants will feature authentic dining car plates from one or several railroads, and other such memorabilia. Sometimes, though, these rail-themed restaurants will […]
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A rendering from a Milwaukee Road brochure for the 1947 Olympian Hiawatha shows a couple enjoying a double bedroom in one of the train’s Lake-series 10-6 sleepers. Milwaukee Road photo […]
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CHICAGO — Metra, which has a long-range goal of adding dedicated train service between O’Hare International Airport and downtown Chicago, will provide a sampling of what that service could be like during the upcoming Democratic National Convention. The commuter rail operator will offer shuttle service between its O’Hare Transfer station and Chicago Union Station on […]
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MONTREAL — VIA Rail Canada has introduced a special one-off paint scheme, which it is calling “Lumi,” for one of its new Siemens-built trainsets for use in the Québec City-Windsor corridor. Lumi, short for luminoscity, features the monochrome yellow that has long been a signature color for VIA. The company says the Lumi trainset “acts […]
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The National Museum of Industrial History will offer a day-long, rare-mileage trip to Vosburg Tunnel on the Reading & Northern Railroad, using two R&N Budd Rail Diesel Cars, on Wednesday, July 31. The 3,900-foot former Lehigh Valley Railroad tunnel north of Tunkhannock, Pa., was completed in 1886. The trip, the 2024 Anthracite […]
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CHICAGO — The heads of Chicago’s four transit agencies argued Tuesday at a legislative hearing that financial support, not structure, is the key issue they face in trying to serve the region’s passengers. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the top officials at Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority, bus operator Pace, and the overarching Regional Transportation […]
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CHICAGO — Metra’s Electric District will see some service disruptions July 13-20 to accommodate construction work adding a fourth track in downtown Chicago. On Saturday, July 13, and Saturday, July 20, Electric service will operate on a Sunday schedule to reduce the number of trains in the construction zone, while midday service will change on […]
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ORLANDO, Fla. — A lot of companies could take lessons on promotions from the people at Brightline. Last month, the company built a promotion around a poll showing that 59% of Floridians would prefer to find an alligator in their pool than get stuck in traffic on a family trip. In response, it offered 40% […]
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NEW YORK — Officials signed off on a $6.88 billion federal grant Monday for the Northeast Corridor’s Gateway Tunnel project — the largest single federal grant ever for a transit infrastructure project, and part of $11 billion in federal money for the $16 billion project to build two new bores under the Hudson River between […]
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LONDON — The British election last week resulted in a landslide win for the previous opposition Labour Party, which won 411 seats, with the former Conservative government reduced to 121 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. The new government has pledged to make some big changes to Britain’s railways, although in some ways the […]
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