HOUSTON — A Texas jury has awarded a woman $557 million in damages after she was struck by a Union Pacific train and suffered major injuries while the woman was reportedly sitting on railroad tracks in downtown Houston in March 2016. The verdict was handed down Friday, March 3, in Harris County 129th District Court. […]
WASHINGTON — The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority aims to return to automated operation of DC Metrorail trains systemwide by this December, the Washington Post reports, reactivating a system shut off after a fatal 2009 collision. The return of Automatic Train Operation will end problems with operators running past red lights, missing stopping points at […]
Rail consulting firm FMW Solutions and several heritage railways combined to recreate a 1970s-era commuter train for the recent Tom Hanks film “A Man Called Otto,” which makes use of equipment and locations of the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railway, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, and Washington D.C. chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. The film’s […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen ratified have ratified a contract agreement with Kansas City Southern and the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern in the event of a KCS-Canadian Pacific merger, and with Pittsburgh’s Union Railroad. Ratification of both agreements was announced March 3. The KCS and DM&E agreement is […]
Installing sensors on freight cars is the only way to prevent another disastrous derailment like the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern hazardous materials wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, a wheel bearing expert says. Constantine Tarawneh, a mechanical engineering professor who heads the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak has begun offering coach passengers on the Empire Builder, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight, and Sunset Limited the opportunity to buy meals in those trains’ dining cars, a practice that began March 1. Since mid-2021, these are the only long-distance trains offering breakfasts, lunches, and dinners prepared to order for sleeping-car […]
What is your history with Trains? Carl Swanson: I hired on with Kalmbach twenty-five years ago after previous stints with another publisher where I was editor of Passenger Train Journal and RailNews magazines. In 1999, I became an associate editor with Trains Magazine. For a lifelong railfan, and long-time reader of Trains, this was a dream […]
East Broad Top Railroad passenger cars have been vital to the narrow gauge railroad’s 150-year history. Today’s fleet is a mixture of old and new, waiting for you to climb aboard the next time you visit this National Historic Landmark in Rockhill, Pennsylvania. Coach passenger cars Since the beginning of passenger service on August 30, […]
Norfolk Southern will take several steps to improve its wayside defect detector network in the wake of the National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report on last month’s disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. NTSB officials say the Feb. 3 wreck of train 32N was likely caused by the catastrophic failure of a wheel bearing on […]
ORLANDO — A Brightline train has hit speeds of 130 mph in testing on passenger operator’s corridor between Orlando and Cocoa, Fla., the company announced this morning (March 6, 2023), making it the fastest train ever to operate in Florida and the southeastern U.S. The 35-mile route paralleling the Beachline Expressway (State Route 528) is […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak will take a portion of one track out of service on of its Hell Gate Line between Penn Station and New Rochelle, N.Y., and adjust most Northeast Corridor schedules as of today (Monday, March 6) as part of its effort to cooperate with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Penn Station Access project, […]
BISMARCK — North Dakota’s Attorney General said during a State Historical Board Friday that BNSF Railway owns the Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge, the first time the attorney general’s office has weighed in on the ownership issue contested by a group that wants to preserve the 140-year-old bridge, which BNSF wants to replace. The Bismarck Tribune reports […]
