Thursday morning rail news in brief: Group tells STB of opposition to Uinta Basion rail project An environmental group has filed its objection to Utah’s proposed Uinta Basin Railway with the Surface Transportation Board. The letter from Chicago attorney Thomas McFarland, representing the Argyle Wilderness Preservation Alliance, asks that the STB provide at least 45 […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National will be ready to take advantage of economic changes that have been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, CEO JJ Ruest told an investor conference today. Ruest paraphrased hockey great Wayne Gretzky, saying that CN wants to head where the puck will be rather than where the puck is today. And that […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the first time in 10 years, Florida East Coast Railway has handled a train of NASA rocket boosters bound for Kennedy Space Center. Friday’s move of FEC’s “NASA-12” extra brought the Northrop Grumman solid rocket boosters for the Space Launch System Artemis 1, the first of an estimated nine such […]
More Wednesday morning rail news in brief: Alberta will study feasibility of Calgary-Banff rail line The government of Alberta announced Tuesday that it will study the feasibility of creating rail service between Calgary and the Rocky Mountain community of Banff, a project which would boost the area’s tourism industry. Global News reports the provincial government […]
Railroad volumes are beginning to show signs of early recovery after the sharp downturn that accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, executives from four Class I railroads told an investor conference on Tuesday. Officials from Canadian National, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific all said the resumption of North American auto production and its impact […]
FORT WORTH, Texas – BNSF Railway this week launched domestic intermodal service between Seattle and CSX Transportation’s Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal. “This new container-only service will initially be offered five days a week for both eastbound and westbound freight originating and terminating at our South Seattle Intermodal Facility,” BNSF said in a message to customers […]
A Union Pacific train of auto racks approaches the La Fox, Ill., Metra station. Railroads will welcome the return of auto production after a shutdown because of the COVID-19 outbreak. TRAINS: David Lassen The reopening of auto assembly plants across North America this month will give rail traffic a slight boost, railroad executives said at […]
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has ruled that federal regulations preempt a Washington state law aiming to regulate crude-by-rail moves. TRAINS: David Lassen Tuesday morning rail news: — The U.S. Department of Transportation has sided with North Dakota and Montana in a dispute with Washington state over the transport […]
The pandemic-related collapse of rail traffic in April — U.S. carload volume down 25%, intermodal off 17% — was unprecedented as large sectors of the economy shut down. The impact varied on the big six Class I systems, however, with Canadian railways faring better than their U.S. counterparts, thanks in no small part to record […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has pulled the plug on its innovative Cold Connect reefer service, which the railroad had touted as a way to return long-lost perishables business to the rails. The service linked growers in California and the Pacific Northwest with consumers in the Northeast and New England via a mammoth refrigerated warehouse […]
Editors’ note: The author and photographers are graduates of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s rail engineering program. This is their first Trains byline. In North America, the days of steam railroading are a distant memory, and coal traffic is slowly headed the way of steam. In Europe and Japan, steam enthusiasts eagerly attend steam […]
Workers from Amtrak’s Chicago Commissary deliver food to the King Majesty Ministries food bank, part of a nationwide effort by Amtrak to donate surplus food. King Majesty Ministries, via Amtrak More Tuesday afternoon rail news: — Amtrak is making donations to food banks across the U.S., offering help to those in need during the COVID-19 […]
