The British government, now with its third Prime Minister in 12 weeks, has confirmed it will continue to fund several major rail (and road) investment programs, as well as new nuclear power plants. Opponents of both sets of projects had hoped the high price tag might tempt the government to make immediate spending cuts. New […]
CHICAGO — Commuter operator Metra will add 18 trains — nine inbound and nine outbound — to its Union Pacific-West schedule on Monday, Dec., 5 while also adjusting to a “memory schedule” offering more consistent arrival and departure times in off-peak periods. Metra will make minor changes to its UP North schedule on the same […]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have ordered Union Pacific executives to appear at two days of hearings next month regarding the railroad’s increased use of embargoes, which have skyrocketed from 27 in 2017 to 886 as of October this year. “The Board has been closely monitoring UP’s recent use of embargoes and has observed a disturbing […]
WASHINGTON — The parties involved in the long-running dispute over Amtrak’s effort to launch Gulf Coast passenger service say they have reached an agreement, but at least initially are offering no details on the nature of that deal In a joint statement Tuesday, Amtrak, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Alabama State Port Authority say […]
SANDPOINT, Idaho — BNSF has opened its second bridge over Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, Idaho, providing a second track at a previously one-track bottleneck nearly a year ahead of schedule. The nearly mile-long bridge, next to a structure built by Northern Pacific in 1904, opened on Sunday, Nov. 20. “We are excited about the […]
CINCINNATI — Norfolk Southern has agreed to purchase the assets of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, the municipally owned railroad that forms the 336-mile Chattanooga-Cincinnati backbone of NS’s key corridor linking Chicago with Atlanta and the Southeast. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, the municipal railway board, and NS today announced the proposed sale of the Cincinnati Southern […]
WASHINGTON — Montana Rail Link has moved one step closer to closing up shop and turning over its operations to BNSF Railway. MRL on Nov. 18 asked federal regulators for permission to discontinue service over 656.47 miles of track in Montana and Idaho as part of the early termination of its lease with BNSF, according […]
Engineers and conductors have rendered a split decision in their respective union votes over the tentative agreements reached with the U.S. Class I railroads, the unions said this morning. By the slimmest of margins, conductors represented by the SMART-TD union rejected the deal, fueling the prospects of a nationwide strike that could begin as soon […]
WASHINGTON, Iowa — The city of Washington has become the latest to accept an offer from Canadian Pacific for funds to address impacts of its potential merger with Kansas City Southern, approving a deal worth at least $255,000 at its most recent city council meeting The Southeast Iowa Union reported today (Monday, Nov. 21) that […]
AURORA, Colo. — A 4-mile section of the Regional Transportation District’s light rail R Line, shut down since a Sept. 21 derailment, should reopen the week of Nov. 28, the RTD has announced. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has approved an RTD plan to address issues at the intersection of Sable Boulevard and Exposition Avenue, […]
OTTAWA — The Canadian government would gain new abilities to require railroads to create security management systems, and to grant or cancel transportation security clearances, under a proposed set of legislative amendments introduced last week by Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra. Those authorities and others are part of the Strengthening the Port System and Railway […]
WASHINGTON — Few railroads participate in a voluntary Federal Railroad Administration program to report situations that could have resulted in serious accidents, and those that do find notable flaws in the program, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The report summary notes that as of August 2022, only 23 of the […]
