FRA encourages railroads to make better use of hot bearing detector data

Hot box and dragging equipment detector.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration has updated its 2023 safety advisory that encourages railroads to make better use of data from wayside hot-bearing detectors. The second supplement to the advisory, issued in draft form on Friday, emphasizes the need for railroads to collect, analyze, and respond to data from hot-bearing detectors. The advisory initially […]

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First look: Midwest states’ Venture coach-café debut

Close-up of silver passenger car with blue window stripe and red and white trim

CHICAGO — The first of 17 Venture coach-café cars built by Siemens for Midwest States has finally debuted on one daily Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service round-trip. Trains News Wire sampled the new entry out of Chicago to Bloomington-Normal, Ill., last week on train No. 305, a 5:20 p.m. departure. The trainset returns the next morning […]

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NTSB releases final East Palestine report

Fire along railroad track at derailment site

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board on Friday released the final report on the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment and hazardous chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio — a document finalized by the June 25 meeting held by the board in East Palestine. As indicated at that meeting [see “NTSB issues 31 new […]

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New York begins work to replace aging Albany rail bridge

Steel girder bridge over river

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state has begun work on a new rail bridge across the Hudson River in Albany to replace a structure with portions dating to 1865, and also awarded funding to tear down a deteriorating, vacant warehouse that led to interruptions of rail service in 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced today. The […]

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Significant delays, cancellations disrupt Amtrak’s network

Passenger train at grade crossing

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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STB postpones start of new dispatching plan for Alameda Corridor

Map of relatively straight rail line leading to ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach

WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has postponed the start of a plan by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific to contract out dispatching of Southern California’s Alameda Corridor. In a decision announced Thursday, the board postponed the move — which was to be effective today (Friday, July 12) — “to provide sufficient time for evaluation […]

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CSX joins RailPulse telematics joint venture

Logo of RailPulse consortium

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX has become the fourth Class I railroad to join RailPulse, the telematics joint venture that aims to put GPS equipment and sensors on freight cars to monitor their location and health in real time. The announcement, made today, leaves BNSF Railway and Canadian National as the only major systems sitting on […]

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Britain’s Royal Mail to end rail operations

Red mostly windowless electric trains on curve

The British postal service, Royal Mail, has announced it will stop using its dedicated fleet of mail and parcel carrying trains in October, giving the rail freight company that runs the trains on its behalf, DB Cargo, three months’ notice. Royal Mail has told DB Cargo that its rationale for the decision is because of […]

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VIA Rail Canada unveils specially painted corridor trainset

Yellow Siemens Charger locomotive in yard

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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Amtrak may be planning to combine Capitol Limited and Silver Star: Analysis (updated)

WASHINGTON — Circumstantial evidence gleaned from Amtrak’s booking site portends mid-November changes to the operation of the Chicago-Washington, D.C. Capitol Limited and the New York-Miami Silver Star. A Trains News Wire review of ticketing availabilities on the two trains indicates tentative plans to combine their operation as a single-level Chicago-Miami train. Doing so would allow […]

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