FRAZEE, Minn. — BNSF Railway is estimating it will reopen the first of two tracks at the site of Thursday’s two-train derailment in Frazee by midnight today (Friday, Feb. 18), the railroad says in an update to customers on its website. Track 2 will be the first to reopen. A time for reopening Track 1 […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern is now offering starting bonuses of up to $5,000 for conductor trainees at what it terms “priority locations,” and $2,500 at other locations. The railroad identified the priority locations as Binghamton and Buffalo, N.Y.; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky: Manassas and Roanoke, Va.; Harrisburg and Conway, Pa; Birmingham and Sheffield, Ala.; Chattanooga, Tenn; […]
FRAZEE, Minn. — Clean-up is under way after a BNSF train derailed and hit a second train on an adjacent track Thursday morning near Frazee. BNSF said in a statement the accident occurred about 9 a.m. No injuries were reported. Becker County Sheriff Todd Glander told KVRR-TV that the second train appeared to have been […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Dry weather in South America is negatively affecting global soybean supply, driving up prices and putting more pressure on U.S. farmers. This could be an opportunity for soybean-hauling railroads to seem carload gains months from now as farmers plant more soybeans this spring. These circumstances are building on momentum from an already […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has named Paul Duncan as vice president, network planning and operations. Duncan will succeed John Friedmann, who previously announced his retirement after 27 years at NS. Duncan is currently vice president of service design and performance at BNSF Railway. He joined BNSF in 2002. In an email announcing the hire, Chief […]
WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads is asking for public support for its position opposing the reciprocal switching proposal to be considered by the Surface Transportation Board. The AAR, on its website, is asking people to sign a letter to the STB in which it says the reciprocal switching rule — which it has […]
WASHINGTON — For the first time this year, weekly U.S. rail traffic has exceeded 2021 levels. According to statistics from the Association of American Railroads, carload and intermodal traffic for the week ending Feb. 12 was 504,483 units, a 5% increase over the corresponding week in 2021. That includes 236,457 carloads, an 11.9% increase, and […]
WASHINGTON — Questions raised by Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman and other board members Wednesday, during the second day of a hearing over Amtrak service on the Gulf Coast, pointed to the key issues on which the case will likely be decided. Following Wednesday’s conclusion of the public-comment portion of the case, which featured […]
WASHINGTON – Active cross-examination by Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman and other board members marked almost eight hours of testimony Tuesday on the first of two days of public comment on the ramifications of two proposed daily Amtrak round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. Some 45 witnesses spoke Tuesday. While most repeated […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Passenger and freight railroad projects will benefit from federal surface transportation dollars made available in President Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in November. But freight railroads should also see residual value from increased carloads of construction-related materials as highway and infrastructure-heavy projects ramp up. This […]
LOS ANGELES — Parallel Systems, the company seeking to build autonomous battery-powered intermodal rail vehicles, has received a $.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development of its technology. The grant is part of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, program, developed to advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies. It […]
Amtrak will square off against CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Port of Mobile, Ala., during Surface Transportation Board hearings this month and next regarding proposed Gulf Coast passenger service. Technically, this is about Amtrak’s disagreement with the freight railroads over starting a pair of daily round trips between Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. But […]
