NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved a design-build contract for the Penn Station Access project, which will bring Metro-North service to Penn Station via the existing Amtrak Northeast Corridor route over Hell Gate Bridge. A joint venture of Halmar International and RailWorks has received the contract for the project, estimated to take […]
NEW YORK — The destruction of New York’s Penn Station — built in 1910, demolished in 1963 — is often cited as a seminal moment in the movement to preserve historic buildings. Now, the processes to protect historic structures may be used to prevent redevelopment of the current Penn Station, the crowded, confusing, and largely […]
WASHINGTON — The independent agency that oversees DC Metrorail safety issues has given its approval to a plan to gradually return Metro’s 7000-series railcars to service, ending an equipment shortage that has led to a significant reduction in Metrorail operations. The Washington Post reports the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission said it had no technical objections […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority have reached agreement on funding two projects to aid rail travel in the New York City area. The New York Times reports that, in a deal brokered by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Amtrak will use $500 million of the money it received from the recently […]
NEWARK, N.J. — A former Amtrak employee has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from fraudently obtaining dozens of chainsaw and hundreds of chainsaw parts over an eight-year period. A press release from Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General says Jose Rodriguez, 49, of Brick, N.J., obtained 114 chainsaws, 112 chainsaw replacement bars, and 222 replacement chains […]
NEW YORK — Users of New York City Transit subways and buses will pay no more than $33 in fares per week under a “fare capping” pilot program to begin March 1, 2022, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced Monday. The New York Daily News reports that riders who use the new OMNY tap-and-pay system will […]
Maryland & Pennsylvania 0-6-0 No. 6 gets a spin on the turntable at the beloved little road’s Baltimore roundhouse in March 1955. H. N. Proctor photo […]
PITTSBURGH — Norfolk Southern’s Southern Railway heritage unit, ES44AC No. 8099, was among two locomotives damaged when a train hit a rock slide and derailed early Sunday in Pittsburgh’s Baldwin Borough. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the derailment occurred about 4 a.m. along the Monongahela River paralleling State Route 837, with both locomotives overturning and five […]
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced plans for a series of celebratory final runs as it retires subway equipment that it says are some of the world’s oldest active subway cars. The R32 cars, nicknamed Brightliners, were built by the Budd Co. in Philadelphia, with the first of the cars making their […]
WASHINGTON — The leadership of the U.S. Senate committee responsible for transit policy has asked the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for detailed information on the wheelset defect that has sidelined the majority of the DC Metrorail car fleet. The Washington Post reports Sens. Sharrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), the chairman and […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board will hold a virtual public hearing next month on CSX Transportation’s proposed acquisition of New England regional Pan Am Railways. The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 13 and will continue on Jan. 14 if necessary, the board said today. The hearing is part of the board’s […]
DARBY, Pa. — The National Transportation Safety Board said it will send a team of four investigators to the site of Thursday’s accident between a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority trolley and CSX freight train at a diamond in Darby, Pa. Updated information from a SEPTA spokesman, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, reports the trolley’s […]
