New York MTA purchases more Wabtec hybrid locomotives (with video)

Blue locomotive with end cab and green, red, and white striping

PITTSBURGH — New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has exercised an option with Wabtec to purchase 45 additional R255 hybrid locomotives for subway system maintenance work. The battery-diesel hybrids improve working conditions for maintenance crews, especially in tunnels, eliminating emissions with the ability to run on their approximately 500 kilowatt-hours of battery power for several hours. […]

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New York, MTA say first year of congestion pricing is a success

Man speaking at podium

NEW YORK — New York City’s congestion pricing program has reduced vehicular traffic in lower Manhattan by 11% and increased transit ridership by 7%, officials said on Monday as they marked the first anniversary of the tolling program that helps fund Metropolitan Transportation Authority capital projects. The congestion tolling, which began on Jan. 5, 2025, […]

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Suspect arrested in locomotive fire at Catskill Mountain Railroad

KINGSTON, N.Y. — A 25-year-old Kingston man has been arrested and charged in connection with the Jan. 1 fire that damaged an out-of-service Catskill Mountain Railroad locomotive. The Kingston Police Department said in a press release that John J. Dwyer had charged with criminal mischief in the third degree, a felony, and arson in the […]

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Weather leads to some Amtrak issues during holiday period

passenger train on track just barely above water

CHICAGO — Despite challenging weather conditions on both coasts and in the upper Great Lakes region, Amtrak trains generally reached their destinations unscathed during the holiday travel period. “Mechanical assessments,” however, did continue to impact service throughout the network during the period ending today (Sunday, Jan. 4). Starlight and Builder disruptions Amtrak’s long-distance operations generally […]

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New York village drops suit over NS crew-change facility

Norfolk Southern logo

VOORHEESVILLE, N.Y. — The village of Voorheesville has dropped the remainder of its lawsuit against Norfolk Southern after a court ruling in December that allowed the railroad to proceed with construction of a crew-change facility. The Altamont Enterprise reports the attorney for the village informed Judge Paul Evangelista in a Dec. 30 letter that Voorheesville […]

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Fire damages locomotive at New York heritage railway

KINGSTON, N.Y. — The cause is under investigation after an out-of-service locomotive of the Catskill Mountain Railroad caught fire early New Year’s Day. A fire involving Alco RS1 No. 400 was reported about 3 a.m.; the Kingston Fire Department said it took about two hours to bring the incident under control. No injuries resulted. The […]

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News photo: Last train on the Central New England Railroad

Green locomotive passes black locomotive at small railroad yard

EAST WINDSOR, Conn. — After 30 years of operation on 14 miles of state-owned former New Haven Railroad track, Central New England Railroad operated its last train on the final day of 2025, as Genesee & Wyoming’s Connecticut Southern prepared to take over the line on Jan. 1, 2026. GP9 No. 3760 moved a single […]

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Trains’ top stories of 2025, No. 2: NextGen Acelas debut

Nine years after Amtrak inked a $2.45 billion contract with Alstom, builder of France’s TGV, to build 28 trainsets in the U.S., the new equipment debuted on Aug. 27 with a media trip from Washington Union Station to Boston’s South Station. Beginning the next day, the five Next Generation trainsets that had been accepted began […]

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Trains’ top stories of 2025: No. 3, CSX’s big projects

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX made headlines in the fall when it completed a pair of massive projects within weeks of each other: The opening of the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore after a long-awaited double-stack clearance project, and the rebuilding of the hurricane-damaged Blue Ridge Subdivision in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. CSX shut […]

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Alco and Baldwins at Rutland, Vt.

A vintage black and white photograph of a diesel locomotive in a switching yard

Lots of switching occurs around the slow-speed trackage at the junction between the Green Mountain line to Bellows Falls (left) and the former Bennington branch in Rutland, Vt. Note the Delaware & Hudson Baldwin Sharknoses at right. Karl Zimmermann photo […]

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