Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service to use renewable diesel fuel

Blue and silver-painted locomotive at a station platform surrounding by brown steel work and palm trees. Amtrak Pacific Surfliner renewable diesel.

LOS ANGELES ­– Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains will now operate on renewable diesel fuel, the LOSSAN rail agency, which manages the service, announced Oct. 3. Renewable diesel is chemically similar to fossil diesel but made from renewable raw materials such as used cooking oil, instead of crude oil. The Pacific Surfliner operates between San Diego, […]

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Bellevue: Norfolk Southern’s Midwest Powerhouse

Bellevue Yard It’s over 5 miles long. It’s capable of serving a hundred trains a day. It’s the center point of five of Norfolk Southern’s busiest lines. Officially known as Moorman Yard, Norfolk Southern’s Bellevue hump yard is one of the largest in the railroad’s system. Centrally located in the northern Ohio heartland, it’s a […]

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CN computer network outage halts GO Transit, VIA trains

Canadian National logo

MONTREAL — Canadian National Railway is experiencing a systemwide computer network failure affecting operations of GO Transit and VIA Rail Canada, as well as CN’s customer service. The railroad said in a post on Facebook this afternoon (Tuesday, Oct. 3) that it was experiencing “an internet connectivity and Electronic Data Interchange issue.” GO and VIA […]

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Amtrak Inspector General: Production problems plague New Acela

Streamlined blue and white high-speed passenger train crosses bridge

WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General today issued a report highly critical of a manufacturing process that has led to defects preventing Amtrak from accepting any of the 12 of 28 New Acela trainsets and 22 of 28 café cars already produced at Alstom’s Hornell, N.Y., facility. The 38-page report contains redactions of monetary […]

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Federal employment commission sues Union Pacific over train crew vision tests

CHICAGO – Union Pacific violated federal law when it terminated conductors and locomotive engineers on the basis of perceived disability, used unlawful qualification standards to screen out individuals with disabilities, and subjected the employees to unlawful medical examinations and inquiries, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims in a lawsuit filed against the railroad on Monday. […]

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October 2023

In every issue News, p. 6 Union Pacific names a new chief executive officer, and regulators seek train length and tonnage data Bill Stephens p. 10 CPKC-CSX interchange deal realizes Mike Haverty’s vision from 20 years ago Preservation p. 44 You never know what adventures are waiting for you when traveling by train Travel p. […]

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