WASHINGTON — Inadequate training methods contributed to a November 2024 incident on the Coastal Carolina Railway in which a conductor suffered amputation of his left leg after being struck by a railcar in a gravity-drop move, the National Transportation Safety Board said its final investigation report released today (Dec. 8, 2025). The Nov. 19, 2024, […]
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA and the Transport Workers Union have reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract, averting a strike the union had said was imminent. “I am very pleased that we were able to settle without a strike,” TWU Local 234 President Will Vera said in a statement today (Dec. 8). “… Patience was […]
PECOS, Texas — The heavy haul trucking company whose rig was stopped on a grade crossing and struck by a Union Pacific Z-train a year ago, killing the train crew, has filed a lawsuit against the railroad. The countersuit, filed last week by Boss Heavy Haul and Optimized Process Designs in Reeves County District Court […]
Amtrak should be asking itself a $7 billion question about the future of its long-distance trains. Should it spend that Bipartisan Infrastructure Law windfall on nearly 600 new bilevel cars that would replace aging Superliner equipment — and continue with a problematic procurement process? Or would that money be better spent on a national single-level […]
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Sound Transit celebrated the opening of the 7.8-mile, three-station extension of its Link light rail Line 1 on Saturday, Dec. 6, marking the fifth addition to the Link system in three years. A ribbon-cutting at the new Federal Way Downtown station was followed by the beginning of service about 11 a.m., […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration today (Dec. 5) approved a five-year waiver allowing expanded use of automatic track inspection, ending a long period when the FRA had not acted on requests regarding the technology. In a letter to the Association of American Railroads, Karl Alexy, the FRA’s chief safety officer, said the FRA’s Railroad Safety […]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A British Columbia Supreme Court justice has certified a class-action lawsuit against Canadian National and Canadian Pacific (now CPKC) over the 2021 wildfire that destroyed the community of Lytton, B.C., saying in a ruling this week that there is “some basis in fact” to support allegation that railroad operations caused the […]
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Sound Transit is set to open the latest addition to its Link light rail system on Saturday, Dec. 6, opening the three-station Federal Way Extension with a series of events. Events begin at 9:30 a.m. with speeches and a ribbon cutting at the Federal Way downtown station, with trains set to […]
PHILADELPHIA — A shortage of thermal wire will prevent the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority from meeting a deadline today (Dec. 5) for ongoing repairs to its fleet of Silverliner IV electric multiple-unit cars. The agency is about 7,000 feet short of the wire needed to add additional fire-detection measures to the 1970s railcars, the subject […]
WHITEWATER, Colo. — A Union Pacific train crew escaped without injuries this week after their train hit a rockslide and derailed, with both locomotives winding up on their sides in the Gunnison River. “Around 11 p.m. MT Tuesday evening, a Union Pacific train encountered a rockslide south of Whitewater, Colorado. The Union Pacific crew onboard […]
NEW ORLEANS – Ridership on Amtrak’s Mardi Gras service — launched in August to link New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. — has exceeded expectations in its first three-plus months of operation along the Gulf Coast. Amtrak on Thursday said that more than 46,000 passengers have ridden the twice-daily roundtrips since the long-awaited service launched using […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express have adjusted their schedules to make way for morning work blocks that will be in effect for the next five years between Washington and Alexandria, Va., to permit construction of a second two-track Long Bridge across the Potomac River. After months of negotiations, stakeholders have reached an agreement […]
