Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City operations have returned to normal in wildfire-ravaged British Columbia, where a fire halted rail traffic for a day last week, according to RailState, a company that tracks freight rail movements across Canada. The Kookipi Creek Fire shut down the railroads’ directional running zone in the Fraser River Canyon […]
WASHINGTON — Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD), has been named to the Surface Transportation Board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council. Ferguson, who joins the RSTAC as an at-large member, has nearly 30 years in the rail industry, having begun his career as a conductor. […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific furloughed 94 mechanical employees at shops across the system this week due to soft traffic volumes and a higher number of locomotives placed in storage. “As a routine part of business, we constantly examine our resources against volume needs. While some targeted furloughs are occurring in a handful of mechanical […]
CHICAGO — “Unforeseen mechanical issues” resulted in the cancellation of Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal out of New York on Wednesday, Aug. 23, despite the fact that the triweekly train’s equipment had arrived at the Big Apple’s Sunnyside Yard late Sunday. As has been recent custom, this resulted in the cancellation of its eastbound counterpart from Chicago […]
LEXINGTON, N.C. — Siemens Mobility broke ground Wednesday, Aug. 23, on its new Lexington, N.C., plant, which aims to begin production in 2024 and expects to employ more than 500 people by 2028. The new facility, on a 200-acre site with room for expansion, will produce passenger cars as well as offering locomotive and passenger […]
CHICAGO — Norfolk Southern has selected four teams of structural design consultants for the Belt Junction and 80th Street Junction Replacements, part of the CREATE program’s massive 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project on Chicogo’s South Side. The project, EW2 in the CREATE list of 70 projects to improve rail traffic flow in the Chicago area, […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic showed another week of mild decline for the week ending Aug. 19. According to statistics from the Association of American Railroads, the week’s total volume was 478,853 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.7% from the same week in 2022. That marks the seventh time in nine weeks the drop has […]
WASHINGTON — The union representing railroad conductors is calling for the Federal Railroad Administration to set standards for those involved in training of conductor trainees, while also issuing an advisory to its members regarding their duties and responsibilities regarding such training and trainees. The actions from the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific is now dealing with flooding along Texas’ Gulf Coast as a result of Tropical Storm Harold, adding to the issues it continues to address in Southern California from Tropical Storm Hilary. In a Tuesday evening update to customers, UP said a 5-mile stretch of track was underwater in Corpus Christi, […]
The east tube of the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been reopened for freight traffic and is available for almost 100 trains per day, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) reports. With that route now handling freight traffic that had been rerouted over the Gotthard Pass panorama route, improved passenger service over the panoramic route is planned as […]
STUART, Fla. — A new double-track bridge for the Florida East Coast Railway at Stuart would cost about $218 million and take four years to build, Brightline Vice President of Community Relations Ali Soule told Martin County officials on Tuesday. WPTV reports Soule appeared before Martin County Commissioners to ask them to pass a resolution […]
NEW WESTMINSTER, British Columbia — The first set of next-generation railcars for the Vancouver-area SkyTrain system have begun testing in Ontario, transit agency TransLink has announced. The 205 Mark V cars — to comprise 41 five-car trainsets are being manufactured by Alstom and are undergoing testing in Kingston, Ont. The fully articulated trainsets, being built […]
