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The U.S. Class I railroads’ recurring crew shortages, related bouts of service problems, and a lack of meaningful volume growth are intertwined. You can lay the blame for all three problems at just one place: Wall Street. BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific are in the midst of the mother of all […]
BOSTON — Federal safety directives have led to service cuts for some Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway lines. The website Streetsblog Mass reports that as of today (Monday, June 20), weekday service on the Red, Orange, and Blue lines is being reduced to weekend levels. Trains will run every 7 to 8 minutes on the […]
MONTREAL — Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have gone on strike against Canadian National Railway in Canada. The 750 signal and communications workers walked out as of 11 a.m. local time on Saturday, a union official confirmed to the CBC. The union had previously given the railroad a 72-hour notification of its […]
WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board on Friday ordered Union Pacific to live up to service commitments it has made to deliver corn to a large California poultry and feed producer. The emergency service order, issued in response to a plea this week from Foster Farms, directs UP to give preference and priority to unit […]
WASHINGTON — The largest chicken producer in the western U.S. has asked federal regulators to issue an emergency service order that would direct Union Pacific to prioritize corn shipments that thousands of dairy cattle and millions of chickens and turkeys depend upon. ”The point has been reached when millions of chickens will be killed and […]
BARRE, Vt. — Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express will extend service from its current northern endpoint of Rutland to Burlington, Vt., with additional stops in Vergennes and Middlebury, as of July 29, 2022, the Vermont Agency of Transportation has announced. The extension follows extensive work to upgrade track infrastructure between Rutland and Burlington to accommodate higher train […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National has received a 72-hour strike notice from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. CN said the union, which represents about 750 signals and communications employees in Canada, notified the railroad of its intent to strike as of 11 a.m. Eastern Time this Saturday, June 18. “CN has negotiated with the union […]
CHICAGO — Water spray splashing the wheels of Lincoln Service train no. 300 coming off the Chicago River bridge Wednesday morning has nothing to do with Amtrak’s need to wash Windy City trains, and everything to do with making sure hot weather doesn’t sideline them. With temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees as they did […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has asked federal regulators to dismiss a shipper’s complaint that claims the railroad violated its common-carrier obligations by providing unreliable service and unilaterally reducing local service from five days per week to three. The shipper, Sanimax, brought the case to the Surface Transportation Board in November 2020. It asked the board […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Transit Administration has issued four special directives to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, giving the transit agency periods ranging from 24 hours to 30 days to address safety concerns. Those concerns address procedural issues revealed by a series of five runaway-train incidents in yards since February 2021; maintenance procedures and programs; […]
WASHINGTON — The National Mediation Board will end mediation between railroads and their unions over the long-running negotiations for a new national contract, moving the contract process closer to intervention by President Joe Biden. The organization representing railroads in the negotiations, the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, said in a press release that it was “disappointed […]
WASHINGTON — An engineer’s failure to operate his train in accordance with restricted speed rules, and his prohibited use of a personal electronic device, were the probable cause of a fatal collision with track maintenance equipment on the Alabama Export Railroad in November 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board said in an accident report issued […]
