SEPTA to miss latest FRA repair deadline because of wire shortage

Men in high-visibility safety clothing looking at equipment under commuter railcar

PHILADELPHIA — A shortage of thermal wire will prevent the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority from meeting a deadline today (Dec. 5) for ongoing repairs to its fleet of Silverliner IV electric multiple-unit cars. The agency is about 7,000 feet short of the wire needed to add additional fire-detection measures to the 1970s railcars, the subject […]

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Mardi Gras service is off to a fast start, Amtrak says

Short passenger train on bridge

NEW ORLEANS – Ridership on Amtrak’s Mardi Gras service — launched in August to link New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. — has exceeded expectations in its first three-plus months of operation along the Gulf Coast. Amtrak on Thursday said that more than 46,000 passengers have ridden the twice-daily roundtrips since the long-awaited service launched using […]

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Amtrak, VRE adjust schedules for Long Bridge work

Passenger train at station with large number of people boarding

WASHINGTON — Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express have adjusted their schedules to make way for morning work blocks that will be in effect for the next five years between Washington and Alexandria, Va., to permit construction of a second two-track Long Bridge across the Potomac River. After months of negotiations, stakeholders have reached an agreement […]

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NTSB probing death of Union Pacific conductor in grade-crossing incident

National Transportation Safety Board logo

WASHINGTON — A Union Pacific conductor was fatally injured on Wednesday in a grade-crossing accident near Ontario, Calif., the National Transportation Safety Board said today. “NTSB is sending a team to investigate Wednesday’s accident involving a Union Pacific Railroad conductor fatally injured while conducting a reverse movement when the train collided with a combination vehicle […]

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BNSF asks STB to review UP’s compliance with UP-SP merger conditions

WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway has asked the Surface Transportation Board to review Union Pacific’s compliance with conditions that the board imposed to preserve competition after UP’s 1996 acquisition of Southern Pacific. Due to considerable overlap between the UP and SP systems, the STB granted BNSF the ability to serve customers at so-called 2-to-1 locations, where […]

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Rio Grande Southern No. 20 visits Durango

Steam locomotive on a flatbed trailer in a mountain pass.

DURANGO, Colo. — Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 recently traveled from its home at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The trip, aboard a semitruck, took the locomotive over Colorado’s 10,222-foot-high Lizard Head Pass, where it once operated. No. 20 last crossed this pass in the […]

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