CLEVELAND — An activist investor group says its proposed Norfolk Southern management team would improve the railroad’s operations, service, and profitability by jettisoning CEO Alan Shaw’s resilience strategy and adopting the low-cost Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model. In a letter to shareholders today, Ancora Holdings says its plan for NS would cut costs, focus on […]
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DUQUESNE, Pa. — Pittsburgh’s Union Railroad is buying 13 acres of the former U.S. Steel Duquesne Works to develop a transload facility, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The railroad purchased the land from the Regional Industrial Development Corp. for $400,000 to develop a facility for truck-to-rail and rail-to-truck transloading, according to the development agency’s president, Don […]
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MONTREAL — The Canadian government will fund a C$16.75 million project to improve rail access and add storage at the Port of Montreal, Transportation Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced Monday, March 25. The project will include rehabilitation of, and adding a fourth track to, the Pie-IX rail bridge, along with adding a storage area, which Transport […]
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BOSTON — A four-day shutdown of Massachusetta Bay Transportation Authority’s Orange Line between Jackson Square and North Station resulted in elimination of six speed restrictions, with a seventh removed over the weekend after the conclusion of the March 18-21 suspension of service, the MBTA reports. “I’m proud of the dedicated workforce that worked in a […]
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NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — The company seeking to start a luxury sleeping car train between downtown San Francisco and Los Angeles Union station says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Union Pacific “formalizing the parties’ negotiations toward a comprehensive final agreement” to begin operations by 2025. A press release issued by Dreamstar Lines […]
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TIXKOKOB, Mexico — Mexico’s Maya Train experienced its first known derailment today (Monday, March 25), a low-speed incident when the last car of a four-car trainset apparently split a switch entering the Tixkokob station on the route between Campeche and Cancún. The derailment occurred about 9:30 a.m. with the train moving at about 10 kilometers […]
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WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific Kansas City says it has shippers lined up to export grain through the ports of Houston and Galveston, but they’re awaiting a regulatory decision regarding whether unit trains can move over Union Pacific trackage rights south of Beaumont, Texas. CPKC told the Surface Transportation Board last week that it has four […]
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DURANGO, Colo. — The final chapter of the long history of coal-powered trains on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad came Saturday, March 23, with a round-trip excursion between Durango and Cascade, Colo., handled by a Baldwin Class K-36 2-8-2 No. 481. The locomotive will now be converted to oil firing, completing conversion of […]
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JUNEAU, Alaska — A state legislator has introduced a bill calling for privatization of the Alaska Railroad — although even the bill’s sponsor says the purpose is as much about inspiring discussion as it is about potentially triggering a sale. HB 332, introduced by Rep. Jesse Sumner (R-Wasilla), calls for the state’s governor to request […]
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CHICAGO — One of the last industries still receiving freight rail service in downtown Chicago — and one that gave its neighborhood a distinct aroma — is calling it quits. Blommer Chocolate will close its factory at 600 W. Kinzie Street at the end of May because of the increasing costs of running a facility […]
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BOSTON — A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Red Line train derailed this morning (Saturday, March 23) while changing tracks to accommodate a planned service shutdown, WCVB-TV reports. The incident occurred just before 6 a.m. near the Broadway station in South Boston and involved the first car of the trainset. Shuttle buses for a planned shutdown […]
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MIAMI — As the Spring Break surge approaches, Brightline continues to seek the right pricing strategy when operating 16 daily fixed-consist round trips between South Florida and Orlando, plus another two to handle early morning and late evening Miami-West Palm Beach travel. A password-protected, 2,044-page supplement to a “Preliminary limited remarketing memorandum relating to $770 […]
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