MONTREAL — Canadian National Railway is experiencing a systemwide computer network failure affecting operations of GO Transit and VIA Rail Canada, as well as CN’s customer service. The railroad said in a post on Facebook this afternoon (Tuesday, Oct. 3) that it was experiencing “an internet connectivity and Electronic Data Interchange issue.” GO and VIA […]
WASHINGTON – The CSX Transportation carman who was struck and killed by a pair of locomotives in Walbridge Yard on Sept. 17 was walking from his truck to line and lock a switch at the time of the accident, the National Transportation Board said today in its preliminary report. Visibility was clear at the time […]
A cut of cars ran away downgrade on BNSF Railway’s Slaton Subdivision in the Texas Panhandle on Sunday morning and collided with the lead locomotive of a westbound train, demolishing its cab. The crew was warned ahead of time and was able to move to safety. Images online showed a flatcar carrying steel pipe crashed […]
FORT WORTH, Texas – BNSF Railway has opened two new sections of main line trackage on the Southern Transcon: A third main track on the Needles Subdivision in California and a second main track on the Emporia Subdivision in Kansas. Last week BNSF opened an additional 8-mile segment of the third main between Homer and […]
WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board has extended by 15 days the comment period for its proposed reciprocal switching rule. The Association of American Railroads had sought a 90-day extension for comment on the rule, officially dubbed Reciprocal Switching for Inadequate Service. The rule, proposed last month, would provide rail customers with access to a […]
WASHINGTON – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been awarded up to $5,000,000 by the Federal Railroad Administration to establish the National University Rail Center of Excellence. The Center would be dedicated to developing a future railroad workforce while advancing research to enhance the safety, efficiency, and reliability of passenger and freight rail transportation. […]
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – The Dominican Republic government has announced it will build a new rail line from Santo Domingo to the popular tourist destination Punta Cana, Resumen Turismo reported. Other lines will link several coastal settlements on the island’s Southeastern coast. The Santo Domingo – Punta Cana section will be the first constructed […]
WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration issued two safety advisories last week: One covering crossing gates and another regarding the operation of track maintenance machines. The grade crossing advisory notes that crossing gates attached using a king pin system could fail suddenly. King pin assemblies came into use in the early 1990s as railroads shifted […]
NEWINGTON, Conn. — The Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold the first of a series of hearings on proposed changes to rail and bus service today in New Haven, Conn., with three other hearing also set for this week. Fare increases are also being proposed. The most significant changes will come on the Shore Line […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern operations were disrupted by an outage at its data center on Friday night, the railroad reports, the second time in little more than a month that technical issues have affected rail operations. The railroad said in a statement that the issue, which affected dispatching, train movements, and its terminal operating system, […]
I wrote last month about working grain trains west as a young brakeman. This month’s story, entitled “Trust me,” is from late 2008 when I was working as a locomotive engineer. In my 42 years on the railroad, the last 30 as an engineer, I took pride in being qualified on three mountain-grade territories: Stampede […]
STUART, Fla. — The Florida East Coast Railway drawbridge over the St. Lucie River was rendered impassible to marine traffic today (Saturday, Sept. 30) after being struck by a tugboat pulling a barge, according to information from Brightline posted on the Martin County Board of County Commissioners Facebook page. The tugboat struck the northwest fender […]
