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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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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Amtrak NPCU ‘Cabbage’ locomotives

Amtrak locomotive on track in city

Amtrak has been using unpowered F40PH locomotives for decades in various corridors across the country. For its shorter-distance trains — where one or both ends of the run lack turning facilities — these units allow Amtrak to assign only one powered locomotive instead of two. The first F40PH converted was AMTK No. 200, which had […]

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California agency awards more than $850 million for 11 rail projects

Train passing retaining wall in beach area

SACRAMENTO — Eleven rail projects, including a new LA Metro light rail line and extension of service in Sonoma County by SMART commuter trail, have received more than $850 million in funding from the Calfiornia State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) in awards announced last week. “From new zero-emissions buses in the Central Valley to vital rail […]

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Projects in Illinois, Virginia receive CRISI grants

Logo for Federal Railroad Administration

WASHINGTON — Two more awards have been announced under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements, or CRISI, grant program. The first of what Washington state’s two senators said will be 122 grants totaling $2.477 billion were announced late last week [see “Announcements of 2024 CRISI grants begin,” Trains News Wire, Friday, […]

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Public Amtrak board meeting set for Seattle in December

Man at podium with Amtrak logo

WASHINGTON — Amtrak announced late Friday that its federally mandated annual public Board of Directors meeting will be held in Seattle on Dec. 4, 2024. As in past sessions staged at St. Louis Union Station in 2022 and at Richmond, Va. Main Street Station in 2023, company officials will review operating results from the just-completed […]

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Amtrak asks STB to dismiss Gulf Coast case

WASHINGTON — Amtrak has asked the Surface Transportation Board to dismiss its petition asking the board to compel freight railroads to allow operation of Gulf Coast service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., saying the terms of an agreement between the passenger operator, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Alabama State Port Authority have been fulfilled […]

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Denver Union Station: Gem of the West

The façade of Denver Union Station on a sunny day

Denver Union Station’s predecessor established the city as the transportation hub of the West and the primary gateway to the Rocky Mountains. Opened on June 1, 1881, where 17th Street dead-ends into Wynkoop Street, Denver Union Depot was 504 feet long and 65 feet wide, the largest structure in the West. Within a decade, 100 […]

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Mobile groundbreaking yields no news on start for Amtrak Gulf Coast service

Architectural drawings of train station platform

MOBILE, Ala. — Two ongoing questions about Amtrak’s Gulf Coast service — when it will begin and what the New Orleans-Mobile trains will be called — remained unanswered during a Tuesday, Oct. 22, groundbreaking ceremony for a station platform and layover track in Mobile. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose […]

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