PETALUMA, Calif. — Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will add five weekday round trips beginning June 13 as part of a new schedule restoring service discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new schedule includes three added morning trips in each direction — from Sonoma County Airport at 4:39, 6:38, and 7:42 a.m., and from Larkspur at […]
FILLMORE, Calif. — Following on the heels of a successful freight photo train April 22, Sierra Northern Railway’s Ventura Division operated a second train, this time with seven streamlined passenger cars between Fillmore and Santa Paula, on Thursday, May 5. The train was stopped numerous times for the railroad’s company photographer. The train was significant […]
CALGARY — ATCO Group will build two hydrogen production and refueling facilities for Canadian Pacific’s program developing hydrogen fuel-cell locomotives, ATCO announced. The facilities in Calgary and Edmonton will each include a 1 megawatt electrolyzer, compression, storage, and fuel dispensing. The Calgary facility will be powered in part by a solar power facility at CP’s […]
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Western Railroad, the newest short line of Jaguar Transport Holdings, began operations Monday, May 2, as contract operator on 13 miles of track owned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “We are excited for the opportunity to establish our first operation in North Carolina and the southeastern US,” Jaguar CEO […]
WASHINGTON — In theory, any organization’s board of directors must possess enough expertise in the business it oversees to analyze and pass judgement on whether management’s policies fulfill the organization’s goals. In Amtrak’s reauthorizing Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act enacted last November, Congress was clear it now requires board members exercising such oversight to possess […]
WAPELLA, Ill. — Short line Illinois Terminal Belt Railroad has added to its fleet of former Illinois Central Gulf Paducah rebuilds with the addition of Midwest Locomotive Leasing (MWLX) No. 602, a former GATX Rail Locomotive Group diesel built as Illinois Central Railroad No. 9130 in January 1956. The 65-year-old locomotive was rebuilt as ICG […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern President Alan Shaw spent his first two days as CEO visiting railroaders across the system and vowing to restore service to normal levels. On Sunday, when he added chief executive to his title as president, Shaw headed to DeButts Yard in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he spent time in the main tower, […]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Brightline and the Florida Department of Transportation will seek a $25 million federal grant to help fund a $45 million project to address ongoing grade-crossing accidents along the passenger operator’s route in South Florida. The Palm Beach Post reports in a paywalled article that the project would make improvements at […]
SHELTON, Neb. — Fifteen cars of a Union Pacific train derailed Friday evening near Shelton, Neb., temporarily closing the railroad’s main line on the Kearney Subdivision. The Grand Island Independent reports the derailment occurred about 5:45 p.m. about a mile west of Shelton along U.S. Route 30. No injuries were reported, and no hazardous materials […]
Amid lot of talk, just what is Precision Scheduled Railroading? It began with a simple lesson. In the late 1960s E. Hunter Harrison was working in the tower in Frisco’s Tennessee Yard in Memphis when Bill Thompson, the railroad’s operations chief, dropped by. Thompson pointed to the yard tracks, chocked full of freight cars, and […]
Let’s set aside the railroad industry’s current bout of temporary service problems and discuss something more important. Class I railroads’ local service — which ranges from OK to downright embarrassing — for years has been where the rubber meets the road. Shippers divert rail shipments to trucks when a local regularly fails to show up, […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court split 4-4 on a case involving an injury suffered by a Union Pacific employee in a decision announced Thursday, meaning a lower court ruling stands that absolves the railroad in the case. The case involved UP engineer Bradley LeDure, who was injured when slipping on oil on the walkway […]
