SMART-TD considers strike against CPKC

Train with red, yellow, and black locomotives at grade crossing

The union representing Canadian Pacific Kansas City conductors is polling members on a possible strike, claiming the railroad took advantage of a service crisis to make workplace job changes on the former Kansas City Southern. The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) Local 457’s General Committee of Adjustment is […]

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BNSF, Texas town reach agreement on new logistics facility

Map of planned logistics center in north Texas.

GUNTER, Texas — BNSF Railway and the city of Gunter, Texas, have reached agreement on a plan to allow the railroad to develop a 900-acre business park north of the small town north of Dallas. KTEN-TV reports the agreement requires a buffer zone of 500 to 800 feet from existing residences, and limits on the […]

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Local Texas group to fund Heartland Flyer for a year

Long passenger train two locomotive and bilevel cars

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Heartland Flyer passenger service has received a one-year funding reprieve, thanks to a decision by the federally designated planning organization for the Dallas-Fort Worth area to divert funding from regional highway tolls to cover the Texas portion of the train’s operating grant. The Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas […]

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NTSB releases preliminary report on UP fatality in Texas

Diagram and aerial photo of fatal sideswipe accident at rail yard.

WASHINGTON — A conductor who made an incorrect cut during switching, fouling a main track, was killed when a car he was riding on sideswiped the car fouling the main during a subsequent move, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report on a fatal accident that occurred June 9, 2025, at Union […]

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MoPac Northerns

MoPac Northerns

Two 4-8-4s, Baldwin products of 1943, lead a westbound freight with a long string of open hoppers through Sandy Hook, Mo., about 19 miles west of Jefferson City on Missouri Pacific’s River Line. The railroad had 15 such locomotives, Nos. 2201–2215, and 25 more home-built examples, Nos. 2101–2125. C. T. Wood photo […]

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Spanish rail company Renfe shuts down U.S. affiliate

Red and white electrified passenger train

MADRID — Renfe, Spain’s national railway company, has shut down its U.S. affiliate, Renfe of America, giving up on its hopes of operating the Texas Central high speed project. Spanish newspaper El Economista reports Renfe has taken a €4.5 million Euro ($5.17 million) loss in the company’s 2024 financial report, saying that it sees “no […]

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CPKC says service is on the mend in former KCS territory

red, yellow and other colors on a locomotive

WASHINGTON – Canadian Pacific Kansas City expects service to return to normal by late July in former Kansas City Southern territory that has experienced congestion, delays, and missed customer switches since a May 3 computer cutover. “CPKC’s level of service performance on the legacy-KCS network since May 3, 2025 — as reflected in part in […]

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North Dakota storms blamed for two derailments

CPKC logo

High winds and a tornado are blamed for a pair of derailment in North Dakota on Friday and Saturday. Thirty cars of a CPKC train were derailed on Friday, June 20, about three miles southeast of Enderlin, where a tornado killed three people. The Fargo Forum newspaper reports the storm was so destructive that authorities […]

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Grain-hauling boxcars

Grain-hauling boxcars

A string of single-sheathed boxcars awaits coopering at an elevator on the Milwaukee Road in Sisseton, S.Dak., in 1939. Single-sheathed boxcars could be found in grain service into the 1960s. John Vachon, Library of Congress photo […]

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