WASHINGTON — The launch of Amtrak Gulf Coast service without infrastructure improvements would cause “immediate and future impairment to freight service that is unreasonable under any definition,” CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern argue in their latest filing with the Surface Transportation Board. This is the exact opposite of the contention Amtrak makes in its latest […]
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WASHINGTON — Amtrak says its additional analysis shows its proposed Gulf Coast passenger service will cause “no unreasonable impairment” on the proposed route between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., and argues that the case for such impairment by host railroads CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern “has failed.” Those contentions are included in the passenger railroad’s […]
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NEW YORK — The head of a union representing Metro-North Railroad employees is asking that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority drop its mask mandate because of a series of confrontations involving conductors on the commuter railroad and passengers who have become combative when asked to wear a mask. Lohud.com reports Edward Valente, general chairman of the […]
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ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak has suspended operation of its Empire Service west of Albany, along with the Lake Shore Limited, because of a “potential safety concern with a non-Amtrak, privately owned building” located near the rail line. WNYT-TV reports the building involved is the Central Warehouse. Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan has declared a state of […]
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ELM GROVE, Wis. — In an unusual and unheralded move, Amtrak moved an eight-car train of privately owned legacy equipment from the Twin Cities to Chicago on Thursday, July 28. The train, scheduled to originate at Midway in the Twin Cities at 11:45 a.m. and arrive in Chicago at 8:30 p.m., was photographed in the […]
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BOSTON — A personal injury law firm says it has been hired by several passengers who were on board the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority train that caught fire on a bridge last week, and has taken the first step toward a possible lawsuit against the transit agency. WBZ Radio reports the firm Morgan & Morgan […]
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OTTAWA — Full service on the O-Train Confederation Line is projected to resume today (Friday, July 29) after a lightning strike Sunday damaged part of the catenary for the light rail system. CTV News reports a precise time has not been determined, with Troy Charter, OC Transpo’s director of transit and rail operations, saying a […]
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BLUE ISLAND, Ill. — Metra has broken ground on a $3.8 million rehabilitation of the Vermont Avenue station in Blue Island, a structure dating to 1868 on Metra’s Rock Island District. A Thursday, July 28, ceremony including Metra CEO Jim Derwinski and other state and local officials marked the start of a project including a […]
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WASHINGTON — Canadian National calls an Amtrak proposal that would give it dispatching control over CN lines with poor passenger performance “an outrageously self-serving recipe” that would “cause profound harm to freight railroads, freight customers, American consumers, and the broader economy,” and urges the Surface Transportation Board to reject the concept “out of hand.” Amtrak, […]
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MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A new Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Regional Rail station set to open next month has a new name. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the location in the Delaware County’s Middletown Township will be named Wawa Station after dairy products company Wawa, which has its headquarters across U.S. Route 1 from the new […]
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NEW YORK — With post-pandemic ridership remaining below levels forecast in 2020, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could face a “fiscal cliff” — the inability to balance its budgets — as soon as 2025, a year earlier than previously forecast, the MTA board was told Wednesday. Chief Financial Officer Kevin Willens told the board the agency […]
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MELBOURNE, Fla. — In another small step forward for Brightline’s planned expansion of service north to Orlando, one of the passenger operator’s trains reached a top speed of 79 mph Wednesday afternoon on an approximately 20-mile stretch of Florida East Coast Railway track between Melbourne and Rockledge, Fla. Florida Today reports Brightline spokeswoman Katie Mitnzer […]
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