WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway’s bid to have federal regulators review Union Pacific’s compliance with conditions imposed as part of the 1996 UP-Southern Pacific merger is nothing more than a publicity stunt, UP told the Surface Transportation Board last week. On Nov. 28 — three weeks before UP and Norfolk Southern submitted their merger application — […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are withholding key documents that are needed for rival railroads, shippers, and regulators to properly evaluate their transcontinental merger proposal, BNSF Railway and Canadian National have told the Surface Transportation Board. In separate filings, BNSF and CN say the STB cannot properly assess the merger’s potential impacts on […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has failed to enact a majority of recommendations from National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations over the last decade, even though human errors and track defects led to more than 3,000 accidents, 23 deaths, and nearly 1,200 injuries during that time, according to an analysis from the Howard Center […]
SAINT-ALEXANDRE-DE-KAMOURASKA, Quebec — No injuries have been reported onboard after VIA Rail Canada’s Ocean derailed early this morning after striking two parked trucks. The site Noovo Info reports the two locomotives of the train derailed about 1:30 a.m. after striking the trucks, which had parked too close to the tracks, according to the provincial police […]
MIAMI— In the first full month following a strategy revamp in early October, Brightline showed promising revenue growth, driven by increased premium-class seating on its Orlando trains and additional customers riding more frequent West Palm Beach-Miami service. However, its mounting, increasingly expensive debt load is causing concern among investors as a hefty interest payment is […]
PHILADELPHIA — Regional Rail service will return to its normal schedules, including morning express trains, on Monday, Jan. 12, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has announced. The move comes as more of the agency’s Silverliner IV railcars, sidelined for repairs since a federal emergency order was issued in October, are returning to service. “This is […]
GAVIOTA, Calif. — Suspensions to Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight service will continue until at least Tuesday, Jan. 13, because of a washout near Gaviota, Calif. According to the Pacific Surfliner website, Union Pacific anticipates reopening the tracks north of Santa Barbara on Jan. 13. In the meantime, the two daily Surfliner round trips to […]
BALTIMORE — The first six cars in an order for new subway equipment have entered service on Baltimore’s Metro subway system. On Wednesday, the Maryland Transit Administration held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the start of operations for six new cars built by Hitachi Rail, part of a 78-car, $400 million order placed in 2017. […]
WASHINGTON — Fourteen Democratic senators have asked the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund a major program for passenger rail projects, saying House Republicans have proposed zeroing out that funding. In a Jan. 9 letter to the committee’s chairs, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and ranking members Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and […]
SUMMERVILLE, S.C. — A shelter-in-place order has been lifted after a hazmat team determined there was no threat from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train wreck near the town of Summerville. The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post that the derailment was reported about 9:51 a.m. ET, with officials issuing […]
GLASGOW, Scotland — The Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight passenger rail service between London and five Scotland destinations, is in the enviable position of having fully recovered, and then some, from the collapse in demand faced by all forms of transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The operation profiled in the March 2026 issue of Trains is […]
CUMBERLAND, Md. — The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad launched its first trips for 2026 with four excursions from Cumberland to Frostburg, Md., on Jan. 3 and 4. The trips were powered by the railroad’s former Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309, which ran flawlessly. Named the Allegheny Winter Express, the 10-car trains were well patronized, […]
