EMD’s GP20 Electro-Motive Division’s GP20 was the company’s first four-axle model to be fitted with a turbocharger, but its roots trace back to one of EMD’s customers, Union Pacific. Union Pacific began experimenting with several turbocharger models in the mid-1950s on a number of its GP9 and GP9Bs, creating the first GP20s in-house. As UP’s […]
WASHINGTON and MIAMI — Rail passengers who are able to lock down travel plans in advance can benefit from two pre-Black Friday sales now underway at Amtrak and Florida’s Brightline. Amtrak Winter Sale Through this Wednesday, Nov. 15, Amtrak is offering “flash sale” advance purchase fares for travel Dec. 4, 2023, through March 15, 2024, […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Amtrak has reached a tentative contract agreement with its more than 1,400 locomotive engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has announced. If ratified, the agreement would run through 2028. Features include retroactive payments retroactive to 2022, a 30% wage increase (34.12% compounded); 10 weeks of paid parental leave; increased away-from-home […]
LOS ANGELES — Commuter rail operator Metrolink is expanding service on its San Bernardino Line in response to the closure of a portion of Interstate 10, a major route into downtown Los Angeles traveled by some 300,000 cars per day. Metrolink will add three additional round trips between L.A. Union Station and its Covina station […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak service will be disrupted on its New York-Albany route on Tuesday for a third straight day, according to an updated service advisory on Amtrak’s website, although the service suspension is now officially between Penn Station and Croton-Harmon. According to the advisory posted at 5 p.m. EST, service will be much as […]
NORTH WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Metro-North Railroad has unveiled the third in its series of wrapped heritage locomotives to mark its 40th anniversary, this one wearing the classic two-tone gray “lightning stripe” scheme of New York Central. The scheme has been applied to P32AC-DM No. 211, which is set to make its operational debut Tuesday […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway and J.B. Hunt are shifting their Mexico intermodal service to Ferromex via the Eagle Pass gateway, a route they say is a day faster than the current BNSF-Canadian Pacific Kansas City routing via Laredo, Texas. The cross-border service will move to Eagle Pass on Jan. 1, BNSF and J.B. […]
ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — The East Broad Top Railroad has helped deliver a long-lost gravestone that had been sitting unclaimed in the time-capsule railroad’s freight office for more than 118 years. The headstone was placed at the grave of Civil War veteran Andrew Gamble during a Friday ceremony in Burnt Cabins Cemetery, which is near […]
HARTFORD, Wis. — A weekend of operations for Soo Line steam locomotive No. 1003 stretched from its home in Hartford to as far as Fairwater, Wis., approximately 50 miles northwest. The Mikado-type 2-8-2 is in its 110th year, having been constructed in March 1913 by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, N.Y. Making the most […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board is creating an advisory panel that will guide the board on passenger and commuter rail issues. The Passenger Rail Advisory Committee will have 18 voting members that will include representatives from Amtrak, commuter rail agencies, intercity operators other than Amtrak, a state that provides funding for Amtrak service, a […]
WASHINGTON, Pa. – Capping a seven-year campaign that was delayed and made 40 percent more expensive by the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum opened its $15 million, 21,000-square-foot Welcome and Education Center here last week. Featuring history exhibits, interactive kiosks, a theater, a classroom, a store, offices and event rooms, the facility is the centerpiece […]
WINDSOR, Ontario — The mayor of Windsor, Ontario, released a “fact sheet” to local media last week which outlines a $44 million plan to convert a daily Wolverine Corridor Amtrak round trip and a Southwest Ontario VIA Rail Canada round-trip from Toronto into a Chicago-Toronto train. First reported in an interview with radio station CKLW […]
