Since late last year BNSF Railway and Union Pacific have been busy handling a surge of containers from West Coast ports as U.S. companies pulled forward their imports in order to beat potential tariffs. But now with a trade war under way — and tariffs as high as 145% on goods made in China — […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, will retire effective May 1, 2025, the union has announced. Hall, BLET president since Jan. 1, 2023, announced his retirement at an April 23 meeting of the union’s Advisory Board in New Orleans. His decision was announced today (April 24). Mark […]
WASHINGTON — Rail safety organization Operator Lifesaver Inc., in partnership with the Federal Railroad Administration and Pittsburgh’s Posner Foundation, has awarded more than $219,000 for rail safety awareness campaigns in 11 states, OLI announced today (April 24, 2025). “We are thrilled to announce this year’s grant recipients, whose innovative approaches are advancing rail safety education,” […]
DOVER, Del. — Dozens and dozens of steam locomotives have been revived over the past 60-plus years, and many bear the fingerprints, often literally, of Wesley “Wes” Camp, one of the guiding lights of steam engineering and practice, a man who dedicated his professional life to what many thought would be a lost art. That […]
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — GATX, the rail equipment leasing company that owned one of the railcars in the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, will not have to pay a portion of Norfolk Southern’s $600 million settlement with residents. After a trial that lasted more than three weeks, a federal jury in Youngstown on Wednesday found GATX Corp. […]
The Gulf Coast continues to wait for its long-awaited Amtrak service. But at least now it knows the name for the trains between Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. The two daily round trips will be known as Amtrak Mardi Gras Service, the company announced today. No date for the start of service was announced beyond […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific reported flat quarterly earnings today (April 24, 2025) as a decline in fuel surcharge revenue offset record freight revenue that flowed from industry-leading volume growth. “We had a solid start to the year … we delivered record first quarter operating performance,” CEO Jim Vena told investors and analysts on the […]
ANDOVER, Mass. — New Hampshire’s Bartlett Roundhouse Preservation Society is the recipient of this year’s H. Albert Webb Memorial Railroad Preservation Award, the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts have announced. The Enthusiasts, who administer the grant created by member Leigh Webb, also have awarded $65,000 to 19 projects as part of their 2025 Railroad Preservation Grants […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the first time in decades, it’s possible to see three Northern Pacific steam locomotives gathered in a roundhouse, thanks to the efforts of the Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM). The museum is exhibiting two NP 4-6-2s and a 4-6-0 at its former Great Northern Railway Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. […]
WASHINGTON — Weekly U.S. rail traffic continues to run ahead of 2024 levels, with increases in both carload and intermodal traffic. Statistics from the Association of American Railroads for the week ending April 19 shows total traffic of 496,053 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 4.5% over the same week a year ago. The […]
WASHINGTON — The probable cause of a rear-end collision between two Norfolk Southern freight trains near Easton, Pa., last year — an incident that involved three trains in all — was the engineer’s failure to follow restricted speed requirements, the National Transportation Safety Board said today (April 23, 2025). But the lack of positive train […]
TORONTO — April 24,1955, was what Canadian Pacific publicity mavens characterized as a “Red Letter Day,” because that was when its new silver flagship, the Canadian, debuted with daily departures from Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Seventy years later, VIA Rail Canada commemorated the occasion with a high-profile sendoff of its version of the train — […]
