WASHINGTON — Cross-examination of Jim Blair, Amtrak’s senior director of host railroads, consumed the full 8-hour, 28-minute session Monday as the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on the effort to launch passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., resumed after an almost three-week hiatus. Blair was questioned by lawyers from Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, and […]
KANSAS CITY — The 40 or so union rail employees picketing outside the site of the National Rail Shippers Conference, unhappy over their lack of a new national contract, might have been surprised by the message delivered inside by CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote. They might have welcomed it, too, if not for the adversarial […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The prospect that the Surface Transportation Board will require specific, operational moves by the rail industry to address its ongoing service issues appears unlikely, and board member Patrick Fuchs spells out why it is not the regulators’ preferred option. “To the board, carriers are clearly in the best positions to identify […]
OTTAWA, Ontario – Class I railroads operating in Canada would be required to report additional performance and staffing metrics under a proposal Canadian regulators unveiled on Friday. Transport Canada’s move was announced on the same day that the Surface Transportation Board said it will temporarily require the big railroads to provide more detailed operational and […]
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have ordered Class I railroads to provide more detailed operational and staffing metrics and will require the big four U.S. systems to submit service recovery plans in light of widespread service problems that were spotlighted during hearings last week. The Surface Transportation Board, in a decision issued on Friday, said “immediate […]
MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Union Pacific has suffered “multiple washouts” in the Muskogee area following torrential rains early Thursday, the railroad said in a notification to customers. Repair efforts were on hold until waters receded, UP said in the notification posted later that day. Limited reroutes were available, but customers were advised to expect delays of […]
ORLANDO, Fla. — Businesses who would have been bypassed by Brightline’s original route between Orlando International Airport and Disney World have pledged $125 million toward a project which would serve them through a joint route used by both Brightline and commuter operator SunRail. Accounts of the meeting were provided in a paywalled Orlando Sentinel report […]
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 […]
