WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board is seeking candidates to fill vacancies on two of its advisory groups, the Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee and the Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council. There are nine vacancies on the energy committee, the board said: one each for a representative from CPKC, CSX, and a Class II or Class III […]
WASHINGTON – U.S. rail traffic was up 5% for the week ending July 5 compared to the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads reported on Wednesday. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 443,049 carloads and intermodal units, up 5% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads were […]
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — If a transcontinental rail merger is proposed — as has been a subject of speculation in recent months — it would be up to the Surface Transportation Board to approve or deny the request. But the STB, like most government agencies, is now smaller than it was before the start of […]
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Michelle Bouchard, executive director of Caltrain, has been elected chair of the Commuter Rail Coalition’s board of directors as part of a new leadership team announced this week by the national advocacy group for commuter rail agencies and operators. Bouchard, who previously served as the coalition’s vice chair, helped lead Caltrain’s $2.4 […]
CHICAGO – A federal court has tossed out the Surface Transportation Board’s 2024 reciprocal switching rule that would have allowed shippers who suffer from inadequate rail service to gain access to a second railroad. The STB exceeded its authority when it adopted the rule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit said in […]
CHICAGO — CSX announced Tuesday (July 8, 2025) that the final girder has been placed for the Forest Hill Flyover, a landmark moment in the portion of the CREATE’s massive 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project that will separate CSX main lines in South Chicago from tracks used by Norfolk Southern, Metra, and the Belt Railway […]
GALESBURG, Ill. — The National Railroad Hall of Fame is one step closer to having an actual Hall. The Galesburg, Ill., city council on Monday approved an agreement for a 99-year lease on approximately 25,000 square feet of land in Colton Park, near the city’s Amtrak station, for construction of the Hall of Fame, a […]
WASHINGTON — A conductor who made an incorrect cut during switching, fouling a main track, was killed when a car he was riding on sideswiped the car fouling the main during a subsequent move, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report on a fatal accident that occurred June 9, 2025, at Union […]
CALGARY, Alberta — The premiers of Alberta and Ontario have signed agreements to pursue construction of more rail lines and pipelines to tap into natural resources including Alberta oil and Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral region. At a Monday press conference in Calgary, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario’s Doug Ford announced the signing of […]
WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway wants to launch international double-stack service this week between Southern California and Salt Lake City via trackage rights over Union Pacific’s former Western Pacific route through the Feather River Canyon. Not so fast, UP says. UP says that BNSF has not provided sufficient notice so that UP can hire and train […]
BURLINGTON, Iowa — Burlington Junction Railway welcomed more than 100 employees and family members to a recent event in Burlington to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the short line in 1985. The railroad began when Steve and JoEllen Hoth of Burlington began with a single locomotive, 3 miles of track, and three […]
A Midwestern grain co-op west of Chicago has an abundance of soybeans piled high into silos with a processing plant eager to buy them across the border in Indiana. It’s a 300-mile haul. The company leases covered hoppers and transit times, including the Chicago hand-off, are palatable thanks to improved velocities. But there’s the problem. […]
