WASHINGTON — Amtrak says its additional analysis shows its proposed Gulf Coast passenger service will cause “no unreasonable impairment” on the proposed route between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., and argues that the case for such impairment by host railroads CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern “has failed.” Those contentions are included in the passenger railroad’s […]
Sometimes big stories hide in plain sight. One of them is the jaw-dropping way BNSF Railway has outgrown the other three big U.S. Class I railroads. Over the past two decades, BNSF has owned all of the tonnage growth on the big four U.S. systems. Its gross ton-miles are up 71% since 1996, BNSF’s first […]
PEORIA, Ill. — Officials from Peoria and nearby communities have announced results of a feasibility study for a Chicago-Peoria passenger rail corridor over former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific tracks that last saw passenger trains in 1978. The clear intent of last week’s announcement is to compete for $1.8 billion in the Federal Railroad Administration’s […]
BALTIMORE — CSX Transportation is suing the City of Baltimore and Maryland Transit Administration over a broken water main that flooded the Howard Street Tunnel in 2019, leading to a derailment. The Maryland Daily Record reports the suit in federal court seeks $2.5 million in damages resulting from the water-main break, as well as court […]
BALTIMORE — A state agency has cited CSX Transportation for violation of air pollution regulations in the December 2021 explosion at the railroad’s Curtis Bay Coal Piers, referring the matter to the state attorney general’s office for further action. WJZ-TV reports the Maryland Department of the Environment claims the coal-dust explosion at the facility caused […]
TAMPA, Fla. — A long-discussed proposal to launch commuter rail service in the Tampa Bay area is unlikely to advance after CSX Transportation told local officials it is not interested in selling two rail lines in the area. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the railroad — which indicated seven years ago that it would […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation’s second-quarter earnings improved despite ongoing crew shortages that have snarled operations and forced the railroad to turn away traffic. At the current pace of hiring and training new conductors, CSX expects to hit the magic number of 7,000 active train and engine crews by the end of September, which will […]
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — It just may be that CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote is a bit weary of hearing about the evils of Precision Scheduled Railroading. In his customary blunt style, Foote gave that impression Tuesday when speaking to the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers about ongoing service issues for his railroad and the […]
WASHINGTON – The Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad family is growing. Next month the New York state railroad will acquire a controlling interest in neighboring short line Ontario Midland Railroad, it said in a July 13 filing with the Surface Transportation Board. Ontario Midland operates 47 miles of trackage east of Rochester, N.Y., and connects […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern — responding to critics, skeptics, and opponents — told federal regulators this week that their proposed merger is in the public interest and should be approved. The railroads, in a three-volume, 4,374-page filing, argued that the first merger of Class I railroads in two decades should sail through […]
A Kansas City Southern intermodal train heads for the Union Pacific Brownsville Subdivision at Robstown, Texas, in November 2017. Bill Stephens WASHINGTON – Projected traffic increases from the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger will put the critical Houston terminal into gridlock, BNSF Railway has warned federal regulators this week, citing a new analysis. CP and […]
BALTIMORE — CSX Transportation has been cited for nine “serious” violations by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and faces more than $120,000 in fines, as a result of an explosion at a railroad coal terminal last December. The Baltimore Sun reports the railroad was cited for allowing workers to enter […]
