Nashville-area transit agency considering changes to commuter rail service

Commuter train with purple and silver locomotive

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The WeGo Star commuter rail service is considering operating changes including the introduction of evening and Saturday service, as well as Sunday operation for Tennessee Titans football games. Currently, the service offers six daily round trips, weekdays only, on a seven-station, 32-mile route between downtown Nashville and Lebanon, Tenn., on the Nashville […]

Read More…

Cars involved in Fredericksburg derailment were runaways

Derailed freight cars at night

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Last Saturday’s derailment of CSX railcars that damaged garages at a Fredericksburg apartment complex involved runaways, a CSX representative said at a community meeting on Wednesday, July 24. “One section of the train was tied down improperly,” CSX State Relations Director Randy Marcus told the meeting, according to a WUSA-TV report. Those […]

Read More…

CSX train derails, damaging garages at residential complex (updated)

Derailed freight cars at night

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — A series of garages were damaged Saturday night when a CSX freight train derailed Saturday night in central Fredericksburg, WRIC-TV reports. The incident was reported to Fredricksburg police about 8:50 p.m. No injuries were reported, but five railcars struck a large wall separating the Cobblestone Square development, a commercial and residential complex, […]

Read More…

‘Train Tour’ events planned for new DeLand SunRail station

Locomotive with two bilevel passenger cars rounding curve

DeLAND, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation has scheduled two open-house events to familiarize residents with the soon-to-open extension of Orlando-area commuter rail service SunRail to DeLand. The “Train Tour” events will be held Saturday, July 27, and Saturday, Aug. 3, from 9 a.m. to noon, and will offer an opportunity to visit the […]

Read More…

NC&StL locomotives remembered

Diesel NC&StL locomotives with passenger train by signal and station

NC&StL locomotives were distinctive but disappeared all too soon.   The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway had its share of unique items and was a pioneer. Historian Dain L. Schult says the “NC,” as it was known, was the only southern road to try a Camelback and a duplex; neither type worked out. It […]

Read More…

Amtrak may be planning to combine Capitol Limited and Silver Star: Analysis (updated)

WASHINGTON — Circumstantial evidence gleaned from Amtrak’s booking site portends mid-November changes to the operation of the Chicago-Washington, D.C. Capitol Limited and the New York-Miami Silver Star. A Trains News Wire review of ticketing availabilities on the two trains indicates tentative plans to combine their operation as a single-level Chicago-Miami train. Doing so would allow […]

Read More…

Brightline to offer Taylor Swift sing-along trains

Train crossing bridge

ORLANDO, Fla. — A lot of companies could take lessons on promotions from the people at Brightline. Last month, the company built a promotion around a poll showing that 59% of Floridians would prefer to find an alligator in their pool than get stuck in traffic on a family trip. In response, it offered 40% […]

Read More…

First Tri-Rail express train disrupted by pedestrian accident

View from bridge of commuter train at station

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — The launch of a new express service on South Florida commuter rail operator Tri-Rail was disrupted Monday when another train struck and killed a pedestrian, halting operations and forcing the commuter operator to provide buses on the inaugural train of the service. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports a northbound Tri-Rail train […]

Read More…

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway history remembered

Blue-and-white streamlined diesel locomotives of Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway in station

Although the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway employed several nicknames — “Dixie Line,” “Nashville Road,” and “Lookout Mountain Route” among them — to former employees and their families, it will always be “Grandpa’s Road.” James A. Skelton was one of those Grandpas. He was 14 in April 1862, and although the War Between the […]

Read More…