WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have adopted a final rule that will streamline the process railroads follow when applying for emergency temporary trackage rights. The new Surface Transportation Board rule, adopted in a decision today, eliminates a required 30-day notice period. Instead, the trackage-rights exemption would become effective within five days. The rule will make it easier […]
WASHINGTON — Score one small win for Amtrak in its ongoing effort to launch service along the Gulf Coast. The Surface Transportation Board on Monday issued a decision honoring Amtrak’s request for an order allowing it access to CSX Transportation’s Choctaw Yard in Mobile, Ala., to conduct a survey to determine a possible site for […]
NEW YORK — Wabtec is on a mission to help railroads wean themselves off the diesel-electric locomotive to reduce and ultimately eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. “We are absolutely taking a moonshot at zero emissions,” Gina Trombley, Wabtec’s executive vice president of sales and marketing and chief commercial officer, told the RailTrends 2021 conference this month. […]
WASHINGTON — In a departure from the post-Thanksgiving “Track Friday” sale that Amtrak has staged since 2016, this year’s version is only available from Maine to Virginia in the Northeast instead of on most routes nationwide. Through today (Monday, Nov. 29) the company is offering “Buy One, Get One Free” companion fares between Jan. 4 […]
HIRAM, Ga. — Two crew members suffered minor injuries Saturday night as three locomotives and at least seven cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed late Saturday night. The lead locomotive and seven cars overturned, while the other two locomotives remained upright. WSB-TV reports the railroad said in a statement that the crew members “have […]
BALTIMORE — CSX CEO Jim Foote and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan head the list of those those scheduled to take part today (Monday, Nov. 29) in a groundbreaking ceremony for the start of work on the long-sought Howard Street Tunnel project in Baltimore. The 1 p.m. ceremony will be at the former Mount Royal Station […]
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific’s Keith Creel has been named 2021 CEO of the Year by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail’s Report of Business Magazine. A profile in the magazine focuses on the 53-year-old Creel’s skill as a strategist in efforts to merge CP with Kansas City Southern. The magazine recognized other CEOs for leadership, […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Railroads are benefiting from China’s continued appetite for U.S. coal as America exports coal to China in volumes unseen in much of the past decade. American coal producers are supplying China for electricity generation and steelmaking due to a now year-long unofficial ban China imposed on Australia. In late 2020, China quit […]
Orders at Clare At the joint Chesapeake & Ohio-Ann Arbor depot in Clare, Mich., the engineer on Toledo–Frankfort freight TF-1, behind two GP35s, reaches to pick up orders in May 1966. John S. Ingles photo, Brian Schmidt collection […]
WASHINGTON – Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman today asked Norfolk Southern CEO Jim Squires to explain the railroad’s deteriorating performance metrics and rising number of shipper complaints. “I am requesting that you provide the Board with a review of the current state of NSR’s network, and your assessment of what factors are affecting NSR’s […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific says it expects to have its main line between Vancouver and Kamloops, British Columbia, reopened by midday today as a result of more than a week of around-the-clock work to repair damage from Nov. 14 flooding. The railroad says 30 locations on its Thompson and Cascade subdivisions sustained flood damage […]
NEW YORK — Train crew shortages that have affected service on Class I railroads this year also have cropped up on short lines, as rail workers seek greener pastures and new hires are hard to find. Genesee & Wyoming, the largest shortline holding company, saw the number of employees leaving the railroad double in the third […]
