STB grants dismissal requests by Amtrak, San Diego commuter agency

Passenger train next to ocean

WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board on Tuesday (Nov. 5) granted requests by Amtrak and Southern California’s North County Transportation District to dismiss long-running cases before the board. Amtrak had requested that the board dismiss its request for an order requiring CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern to allow operation of Gulf Coast service between New […]

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November 2024

The November 2024 cover of Trains magazine which features a blue and silver locomotive crossing a steel bridge

In every issue News, p. 4 Norfolk Southern sued by federal government over its handling of the Crescent Bill Stephens, p. 10 The more things change, the more they stay the same Great Railfan Roads, p. 46 Follow the BNSF Railway across Montana Preservation, p. 52 Kalmbach Media’s corporate art collection donated to Center for […]

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Horseshoe Curve funicular reopens after $150,000 overhaul

Funicular cars pass on hillside

ALTOONA, Pa. – The trackside park at America’s oldest train-watching site – Horseshoe Curve, on Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line in west-central Pennsylvania – is again accessible to all visitors. Closed since the end of the 2019 season by a seemingly endless cycle of mechanical, operational, electronic, and software issues, the funicular or inclined-plane railway that […]

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Chicago’s CTA returns rail service to pre-pandemic level

Elevated train with fall foliage and city skyline in background

CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority has returned to pre-pandemic levels of rail service, with a 20% increase in weekly train trips, the agency said on Monday, Nov. 4. The change means more than 1,200 additional rail trips per week compared to the spring 2024 schedule, according to the CTA, and covers all eight rail […]

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Amtrak’s Winter Park Express ski train expands dates, route

Passenger train in snow with people waiting to board

DENVER — Following several years of growing ridership and sold-out trains on many weekends, this ski season’s version of Amtrak’s Winter Park Express will advance its previous January debut into December, and then will operate five days per week beginning Jan. 9. The train will operate Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on Dec. 20-22, Dec. 27-29, […]

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Young Guns in Preservation: Michael Spring

Young individual standing on top of a steam locomotive tender

Michael Spring is living the dream at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Since 2023, the 22-year-old has been a full-time employee at his favorite tourist line. He serves as a conductor and student engineer for the excursion operations out of Cumberland, Md., in addition to being a shop mechanic at the yard facility in Ridgeley, […]

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OmniTRAX to serve P&G plant in Ohio

Logo of short line company OmniTrax

LIMA, Ohio — Rail and logistics firm OmniTRAX has been selected to provide switching for Procter & Gamble’s laundry-products factory in Lima, the third P&G manufacturing served by the OmniTRAX network. The new agreement became effective Nov. 1. OmniTRAX affiliate OmniTRAX Lima Industrial will switch daily inbound cars to the plans and return empty cars […]

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Operator in CTA Yellow Line collision faces dismissal: news report

People in safety gear at site of crash between rapid-transit train and maintenance equipment

CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority train operator involved in last year’s collision between a Yellow Line train and snow-removal equipment likely faces firing, the CTA says, but it has been unable to act because the individual remains off work because of injuries suffered in the incident. The worker was found to have a blood-alcohol […]

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