BISMARCK — North Dakota’s Attorney General said during a State Historical Board Friday that BNSF Railway owns the Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge, the first time the attorney general’s office has weighed in on the ownership issue contested by a group that wants to preserve the 140-year-old bridge, which BNSF wants to replace. The Bismarck Tribune reports […]
MONTREAL — Two Canadian unions whose contracts with Canadian National Railway expired at the end of 2022 have voted in favor of a strike, CityNews reports. Unifor Local 100 and Unifor Council 4000 have voted 98% and 97%, respectively, in favor of a strike. The two unions represent about 3,000 workers in mechanical, intermodal, and […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a letter to Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman, has asked that the STB deny the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, saying the merger “would reduce competition in an already highly consolidated market and could cost increased shipping costs.” Warren, in the letter […]
OTTAWA — Transport Canada will provide up to C$5.4 million in funding for 20 projects nationwide under the Rail Climate Change Adaption Program, which seeks to better prepare railroads for dealing with conditions such as flooding, fires, and more extreme operating temperatures. The program supports research, development, and deployment of innovative technologies, tools, and approaches […]
WELLINGTON, Kansas — No injuries were reported after 18 cars of grain from a Union Pacific train derailed near Wellington on Saturday evening, CBS News reports. The railroad told CBS, “Crews have cleared the derailed cars, and track repairs are currently underway.” The derailment occurred about 5 p.m. Wellington is about 30 miles south of […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board on Saturday approved the appointment of Ronald L. Batory as trustee of the CP-Kansas City Southern Voting Trust, succeeding the late David Starling. All five members of the board approved the appointment, although board member Robert Primus did so with a concurrence that maintained his objection to the standard […]
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Twenty-eight cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed near Springfield on Saturday evening, leading to an initial shelter-in-place order from local authorities before it was determined no hazardous-materials situation was involved. The Associated Press reports that there were no hazardous materials aboard the train and no injuries were involved. Clark County reported […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National has reached agreements with four mechanical unions in the U.S. regarding paid sick time. The agreements provide workers with four paid sick days plus three personal leave days to be used as sick days, CN said today. The four unions are the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, National Conference […]
TORONTO — Metrolinx, the Ontario transit agency which oversees GO Transit commuter trains, has abandoned plans to build a facility for midday servicing of commuter trains in Toronto’s Don Valley, a plan opposed by residents concerned about potential damage to the environment and nearby parkland. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports the Metrolinx proposal would […]
WASHINGTON — All seven Class I railroads will join a Federal Railroad Administration voluntary safety reporting program at the urging of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. In the wake of the disastrous Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Buttigieg wrote the CEOs of the seven major systems on Monday and asked them to […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board says it is “looking closely” at aluminum protective covers on tank cars involved in the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, over concerns those covers melted on three of the cars, which may have hampered the performance of pressure relief devices. The issue occurred on three of the five cars […]
Canadian National set a grain volume record for February by moving 2.4 million metric tons out of Western Canada for the month, topping the record set last year by 200,000 metric tons. CN attributes February’s performance to increased collaboration between supply chain partners, which helped the railway bounce back from a period of extreme cold. […]
