NEW YORK — CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs dished out some tough love for the industry last week while reflecting on his nearly 14 months at the helm of the railroad. The former Ford Motor Co. executive has learned a lot about railroading in his travels around the CSX system but is puzzled by the industry’s […]
WASHINGTON — Brightline West’s bid to extend its proposed electrified, 186-mph rail route from Las Vegas, Nev., to Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has gained regulatory approval in two separate Surface Transportation Board decisions. In decisions released Friday, the STB approved route modifications at Las Vegas along with a 5-mile extension from the original terminus at Victorville, […]
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Kansas City says it has agreed to study passenger service on part of its freight network in Mexico, and is reviewing a draft decree by the Mexican government regarding passenger train operations. Reuters reports that companies holding Mexicos’s freight rail concessions — including CPKC de Mexico and Grupo Mexico’s Ferromex, in […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California High-Speed Rail Authority and 13 unions have announced an agreement to use union labor to operate the state’s high speed rail system. The Memorandum of Understanding announced today (Friday, Nov. 17) will cover an estimated 3,000 workers to operate the full system between the Bay Area and Southern California; about […]
ATLANTA — A collision between Norfolk Southern and CSX trains led to a derailment and fire this morning at CSX’s Howells Yard in northwest Atlanta. CSX said in a statement that at 6:28 a.m. ET, “a Norfolk Southern train came in contact with a CSX train at an interchange point in Howells Yard .. […]
KEARNY, N.J. — NJ Transit, which has previously wrapped or painted locomotives to honor its railroading predecessors, has now wrapped a locomotive to honor a New Jersey-based model railroading-firm: Atlas Model Railroad Co. of Hillside, N.J., which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024. The special wrap has been applied to Bombardier ALP-45DP dual-mode diesel-electric […]
NEW YORK — Canadian Pacific Kansas City CEO Keith Creel is not the least bit surprised at how rival Class I railroads have responded to the CP-KCS merger by launching new and faster cross-border intermodal service. “We’re creating competition and this industry is getting stronger as a result,” Creel told the RailTrends conference on Thursday. […]
BISMARCK, N.D. — The fight over the future of BNSF Railway’s Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge over the Missouri River was back in front of the North Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday, as the court heard arguments on a preservation group’s effort to overturn state permits allowing construction of a new bridge to proceed. The group Friends […]
BURBANK, Calif. — The agency that oversees Hollywood Burbank Airport and the California High-Speed Rail Authority have reached an agreement ending a lawsuit by the airport authority over the high speed rail project, the parties announced Thursday, Nov. 16. The agreement clears the way for construction between Burbank and Los Angeles Union Station, the Rail […]
NEW YORK — Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman – who used his position as a bully pulpit to criticize railroads and encourage them to reach their potential by hauling more of the nation’s freight – announced today that he will leave the board early next year. “After much consideration of the work the […]
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority needs a massive infusion of $24.5 billion to address state-of-good repair needs, more than twice the figure from its last estimate of such maintenance needs in 2019, the agency said in a report issued today. The figure — up from $10 billion in the 2019 assessment — includes […]
KIEL, Germany — The first of what will be multiple fleets of new battery-electric multiple-unit, or BEMU, trainsets have entered passenger service in northern Germany. The Stadler-built, two-car FLIRT trains debuted two weeks ago. They are designed to replace diesel multiple units and operate as regular electric trains when running on electrified lines. Each of […]
