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SLOUGH, England — File this under “knowledge I could have done without:” home COVID-19 tests are far less expensive in the UK than the U.S. I know this because I needed to take one, tested positive, and am now self-quarantining on the outskirts of London while the Trains/Special Interest Tours UK Steam trip moves on […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has proposed building a new five-mile branch line to reach a petrochemical plant in Bay City, Texas, that is currently served only by rival BNSF Railway. UP, in a Sept. 24 filing, asked the Surface Transportation Board to exempt the project from regulatory review, as is common for relatively small projects. […]
Of all the bylines to grace Trains magazine’s pages over its 85-year history, likely none matches the record of transportation journalist and railfan Don Phillips, whose monthly column ran in the publication in two separate stints between 1977 and 2018, and whose feature stories covered everything from the creation of Amtrak and Conrail to Staggers […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic declined 2.2% in the week ending Sept. 20 compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Total carloads were down 1.8% compared with the same week in 2024, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was down 2.5% compared to 2024. Two of the 10 […]
OTTAWA — Transport Canada and Canadian Pacific Kansas City have submitted their final application to the Canadian Transportation Agency related to construction of a proposed bypass around Lac-Megantic, Quebec, the site of a 2013 Montreal, Maine & Atlantic oil train runaway and derailment that killed 47 people. The application includes technical documents, reports, and monitoring […]
WASHINGTON — The federal government may be headed for a shutdown if 60 U.S. Senators can’t agree on a path forward by the end of the month, but late last week the upper chamber’s lawmakers did vote to confirm Pennsylvania Republican Robert Gleason to a 5-year term on Amtrak’s board of directors [“Senate confirms Robert […]
LONDON — Greetings from St. Pancras station in London — and I do mean that literally, since our hotel is in the station.] Tonight was the official start of the Trains/Special Interest Tours UK steam tour, with the group assembling for introductions and dinner. Tomorrow, there’s a bus tour of London (which I may miss; […]
NEW YORK — Metro-North Railroad will launch “super express” trains next month between Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Grand Central Terminal. The trains will cut travel time to less than 90 minutes each way, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said today. The first “super-express” trains will run on Monday, Oct. 6. “Delivering better, faster Metro-North service to Hudson […]
CHICAGO — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has reached a tentative agreement with Metra that would provide 93 BLET members with 3.5% general wage increases, the union said today. The agreement covers BLET members employed by Metra who operate on the Metra-UP Lines and are represented by the Union Pacific Northern Region General […]
SEATTLE—Though most state-supported and long distance trains across Amtrak’s far-flung network have been operating with minimal delays, a number of significant disruptions occurred over the weekend which continue to underscore the shortage of sufficient serviceable equipment Pacific Northwest cancellations Problems for Amtrak’s Cascades began Friday afternoon, Sept. 19, when Portland, Ore., to Vancouver, B.C. train […]
ASHWAUBENON, Wis. — The National Railroad Museum has opened its new Fox River Expansion, a 21,000 square foot, climate-controlled exhibit hall, which faces the waterway running along the museum campus. The $17 million project is the first of four museum expansion phases and has been nearly 10 years in the making. The new facility, says […]
WASHINGTON — Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs provided an update today on recent actions to facilitate and expedite the resolution of several outstanding board proceedings. They include: Lake Providence Port Commission—Feeder Line Application—Line of Delta Southern Railroad Located in East Carroll & Madison Parishes, La. (FD 36447). This longstanding proceeding involves efforts by LPPC, […]
