NEW YORK – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Wednesday announced plans to move forward with the Interborough Express as part of her 2022 State of the State address. The Interborough Express project would use the existing right-of-way of the Bay Ridge Branch, a freight rail line that runs through Brooklyn and Queens, connecting the neighborhoods […]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — David McKenna has been named president and chief executive officer of Rocky Mountaineer. McKenna began his new duties Jan. 4. McKenna has extensive experience in Canada’s tourism industry. Prior to joining Rocky Mountaineer, he was president of the Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit where he led tourism expansion and acquisition projects […]
PHOENIX — Siding extensions and intermodal-terminal upgrades highlight the capacity-improvement aspects of Norfolk Southern’s 2022 capital spending plan, as outlined Thursday by the railroad’s vice president of engineering, Ed Boyle. The railroad has not yet announced its full capital spending plan for 2022, after spending about $1.6 billion in 2021. But plans for infrastructure work […]
PHOENIX — Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz isn’t sure what direction the Surface Transportation Board will take as it considers rules for reciprocal switching, but says the decision poses real risks for the rail industry. Speaking Thursday in a “Fireside Chat” at the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association Conference, Fritz termed the proposed rule […]
WASHINGTON – Canadian Pacific today won Amtrak’s support for its proposed merger with Kansas City Southern after CP and Amtrak reached a deal to expand passenger service in the Midwest and South. CP agreed to more frequent Amtrak service on the Hiawatha route linking Chicago and Milwaukee, as well as extending the corridor to St. Paul, […]
PHOENIX — Union Pacific is nearing agreements to purchase battery-electric locomotives for tests in yard use, CEO Lance Fritz says, with plans to try the locomotives in one cold-weather location and one warm-weather site. “We think you can get an 8-hour shift out of a properly designed [battery-electric],” Fritz said during a short conversation with […]
BNSF Railway led the big six Class I railroads in growth in 2021, a year in which rail volume rebounded from the pandemic-related lows of 2020 yet struggled to overcome kinks in the global supply chain. BNSF’s traffic was up 7.4% for the year, with intermodal surging 8.3% and coal up nearly 11%. CSX Transportation […]
PHOENIX — Never underestimate the value of experience and institutional knowledge. That’s one of the many lessons from Union Pacific’s Dry Canyon Bridge reconstruction project in 2022. The project, which replaced a major fire-damaged trestle in Northern California in 2021 — about a month faster than was originally projected — has been much discussed and […]
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The state of Alabama this week announced the creation of the A-USA Corridor, a proposed $231.6 million program of rail projects to upgrade economic development infrastructure in central and southern Alabama. The first phase of the A-USA Corridor initiative involves a $71.6 million initiative to link the Port of Mobile with the McCalla […]
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. – The adoption of precision scheduled railroading may be causing railroads to downsize their locomotive and car fleets, but freight carbuilder Greenbrier Cos. still received new orders of 6,200 units valued at $670 million for the first fiscal quarter of 2022. Car orders include intermodal, boxcars, gondolas, tank cars, covered hoppers, and automobile carriers. […]
MEXICO CITY — Work to supply electric power to the Mérida-Cancún stretch of Mexico’s Maya Train will begin this month at an estimated cost of $73.7 million. Mexico’s Environment Ministry said the electrification project would require the construction of three substations from which all the electricity necessary to feed the line will be supplied. The […]
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has announced that service over the single-track Gloucester drawbridge is expected to be restored by May 2022, allowing commuter rail service to resume to the Gloucester and Rockport stations. While construction of a replacement bridge continues, the disruption in service allowed MBTA opportunity to accelerate other projects planned […]
