OLD LYME, Conn. — Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner and a host of federal, state, and local officials were on hand Thursday for a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction on a replacement for the Connecticut River Bridge between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook, Conn. The $1.3 billion project will replace a bridge dating […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board today (Sept. 5) announced the schedule for those who will testify in its upcoming hearing on growth in the freight rail industry, and adjusted the starting time for each day of Sept. 16-17 hearing to 9 a.m. ET — a half-hour earlier than the original schedule. The hearing will […]
Genesee & Wyoming train dispatchers have voted to join the American Train Dispatchers Association, the union said this week. Based at the American Rail Dispatching Center in St. Albans, Vt., the 34 G&W dispatchers control railroad traffic in 43 states on more than 13,000 miles of shortline track. The center handles dispatching for nearly all […]
Eugene (Gene) H. Blabey II, who founded several short lines during a 50-year railroading career, died on Sept. 2. He was 85. Blabey was among the first railroaders inducted into the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s Short Line Railroad Industry Hall of Fame. “Gene was a legend in our industry and a leading […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — CSX Transportation is on pace to have the second largest coal franchise by revenue and volume among its Class I peers by the end of 2024, surpassing Union Pacific, and trailing only BNSF Railway. CSX moved 367,000 carloads through the second quarter compared to UP’s 335,000 carloads, as the Omaha-based railroad’s coal […]
ATTLEBORO, Mass. — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has, in fairly subtle fashion, joined the list of commuter operators employing locomotives with heritage paint schemes. Newly rebuilt GP40MC No. 1129 — handling a test train of Hyundai-Rotem bilevel cars — passes through Attleboro on Aug. 28, 2024, displaying a version of the “cranberry” paint scheme […]
WASHINGTON — A Presidential Emergency Board appointed to address a labor dispute between NJ Transit and the union representing its engineers has recommended that engineers receive the same raises that other unions have agreed to. NJ.com reports that the three members of Presidential Emergency Board 251 supported NJ Transit’s argument in support of the raises […]
CHESTERTON, Ind. — The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District has commissioned a study of South Shore Line pedestrian grade crossings to assess potential safety improvements in the wake of a fatal July incident at the Hegewisch station in south Chicago. The report, by what the NICTD describes as “a nationally recognized engineering firm specializing in […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic continued its recent surge in the week ending Aug. 31, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads. The week saw volume of 516,632 carloads and intermodal units, up 8.4% from the same week in 2023. It was the third straight week of increases of 8% or more, following […]
KENOSHA, WIs. — A Union Pacific worker was struck and killed today (Wednesday, Sept. 4) by a Metra commuter train in Kenosha, WISN-TV reports. The incident occurred about 12:17 p.m. near 13th Avenue and 69th Street, about a half-mile south of the Kenosha Metra station. The worker killed has been identified as 34-year-old Austin Scott […]
CHICAGO — GATX Corp. is growing its locomotive lease fleet by 30% with the recent purchase of 156 locomotives from Progress Rail. “The acquired fleet is predominantly four-axle 1,500- and 2,000-hp locomotives such as GP38-2s and MP15s, which are core to GATX’s operating lease business. A limited number of high-horsepower six-axle locomotives, including nine SD70ACes, […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has reached a tentative agreement with its final general committee SMART-TD union that represents conductors. SMART-TD (the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division) is the largest labor union on NS, and two of its three general committees on the railroad had already backed tentative contract deals. […]
