PORT COLBORNE, Ontario — The Canadian government will invest up to C$22.7 million to rebuild three long-idle wharves along the Welland Canal on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Port Colborne, generating marine traffic that will move by rail or truck, Transport Canada has announced. The federal funding will be backed by $22.6 million from the […]
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FAIRPLAY, Md. — Cleanup continues after 26 cars of a 96-car Norfolk Southern merchandise train derailed Wednesday night near Fairplay, the Hagerstown Herald-Mail reports. The derailment was reported to NS dispatchers about 8:50 p.m. and to Washington County, Md., Emergency Dispatch at 9:17 p.m. No injuries or hazardous materials were involved. Estimates were that it […]
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Rail traffic is expected to have another tough year as intermodal, carload, and coal traffic will all struggle to show growth. That’s the view of Todd Tranausky, vice president of rail and intermodal at freight forecasting firm FTR Transportation Intelligence. North American rail traffic was down 1.9% overall last year, according to the Association of […]
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PALESTINE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a lower-court ruling that Union Pacific is no longer bound by an agreement requiring it to maintain a certain number of employees in the city of Palestine, which dates to an 1872 contract with one of the railroad’s predecessors. The railroad filed suit in […]
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WASHINGTON — Amtrak has reduced the price of its USA Rail Pass from $499 to $299 through Jan. 20. The unusually large discount affords travelers interested in covering a lot of ground or booking multiple-stop itineraries a cost-effective way to get around, as long as they can forego upgrades to sleeping car accommodations or business […]
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BOSTON — A Boston jury has acquitted a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority light rail operator of negligence for a July 2021 collision that injured 27 people, the Boston Globe reports. After just 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Owen Turner, 51, not guilty of a misdemeanor count of negligence for the July 30, 2021, […]
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NEW YORK — Ventilation-fan issues are continuing to delay the opening of the Long Island Rail Road’s new Grand Central Madison station in Manhattan, with a January start to operations now in jeopardy. The New York Daily News reports Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber said Wednesday that a January start is “possible. But I’m […]
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INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has sworn in a new executive committee and elected eight new members to its advisory board, the union announced. Edward A. Hall became the union’s new national president Jan. 1. He is joined on the executive committee by first vice president Mark L. Wallace and […]
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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A recent public briefing by Sierra Northern Railway and local non-profit Valley Vision on Sierra Northern’s hydrogen locomotive project is now available for review online. The program outlined the project’s ability to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve quality of life in lineside communities. The briefing is available […]
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WASHINGTON — A double-digit drop in intermodal traffic dragged down U.S. rail volume for the first week of 2023, according to statistics for the Association of American Railroads. For the week ending Jan. 7, overall traffic was 416,489 carloads and intermodal units, a 5.5% drop from the corresponding week in 2022. That included 212,962 carloads, […]
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Dirt the Cat ELY, Nevada — Dirt, who became a celebrity in 15 years as the shop cat at the Nevada Northern Railway, has died, the railroad has announced on its Facebook page. The orange and white male cat was adopted as a stray kitten by shop crews in 2008 and became famous for his […]
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Control cars Always looking for more effective ways to be a railroad, Union Pacific in the early 2000s experimented with what was perceived as a better method of performing switching using remote-control locomotives. Traditionally, a regular locomotive is outfitted with remote-control equipment and assigned to those duties. That’s all well and good until the equipped […]
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