OmniTRAX begins Santa Maria Valley Railroad joint venture

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – OmniTRAX yesterday began operations on the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, the short line holding company’s 29th rail operation. The operation is a joint venture partnership with Coast Belle Rail Corp., the local owner of the 114-year-old Santa Maria Railroad for the past two decades. “This joint venture brings our companies’ collective […]

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Florida’s Tri-Rail to end late-night service pilot program

View from bridge of commuter train at station

MIAMI — Commuter operator Tri-Rail will discontinue a pair of trains that had been launched as a pilot program to determine demand for late-night operations. Trains P650 and P651, and their connection trains to downtown’s MiamiCentral station, P650X and P651X, will end on June 30, WTVJ-TV reports. The service was launched in August 2024. P650 […]

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U.S. weekly rail traffic dips below 2024 level

Weekly table showing U.S. carload rail traffic by commodity type, plus overall intermodal volume

WASHINGTON — The shipping “pause” that developed when tariffs slowed container traffic from China appears to have finally caught up with U.S. rail traffic. With container traffic down by 4.9%, overall U.S. rail traffic for the week ending June 7 was 1.3% below the same week in 2024, according to the Association of American Railroads. […]

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Engineers ratify new agreement with CSX

Train with one engine under blue sky with white clouds

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation engineers have ratified a new five-year contract, the railroad and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen announced today (Wednesday, June 11, 2025). The union said 53.6% of those returning ballots voted in favor of the contract. The BLET represents about 3,500 CSX employees. The agreement, which runs through Dec. 31, […]

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FRA introduces new rail safety data website

Image of website

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has launched a new public safety data website, which it says is a more user-friendly site replacing two older sites, one dating to the 1990s. The updated site is available here. Required under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, it was designed by a group including representatives […]

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Uinta Basin Railway backers set hearing on bonds

PRICE, Utah — The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, the governmental body behind the Uinta Basin Railway project, has scheduled a public hearing for Thursday, June 12, on its intent to seek $2.4 billion in private activity bonds for construction of the 88-mile rail line. The coalition last week approved a plan lto seek the funding […]

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DC Metrorail still seeking cause of automated operation overruns

Rapid transit train in underground station

WASHINGTON — Expanded DC Metrorail operations using Automatic Train Operation have gone smoothly, but the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission says more testing is still needed to determine the cause of station overruns. WUSA-TV reports that commission members were told during a meeting on Tuesday (June 10) that there were 25 overruns in the first 10 […]

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Union Pacific worker killed in Texas (updated)

Union Pacific logo without slogan. UP Bailey Yard explosion appear to be accidental.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — A Union Pacific employee was killed Monday (June 9) in an incident near a grade crossing, the Nacogdoches Police Department reports. KETK-TV reports that police responded to a report of an individual struck by a train about 3:28 p.m. Union Pacific, in a statement to the station, said, “We are saddened by […]

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Manitoba wildfires threaten remote Keewatin Railway

Smoke and fire along railway

THE PAS, Manitoba — Keewatin Railway Co. employees are part of a continuing effort to save the bridges on the remote Manitoba railroad from the wildfires ravaging the province, the CBC reports. Manitoba is under a state of emergency as 29 wildfires, 10 of them out of control, continue to burn, forcing evacuations of 27 […]

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