HYDE PARK, Mass. — Damage from a fire caused by a downed Amtrak catenary wire could disrupt service on three Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail lines for several weeks, the MBTA’s contract commuter rail operator said this week. The Aug. 1 incident set fire to a “key signal bungalow” at Read Interlocking, where the […]
Facts and features Name: Boston & Maine Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 13′-0″ x 34′-9″ Prototype: Boston & Maine Locale: Five villages of Wakefield, N.H. Era: 1909 Style: around-the-walls Mainline run: approximately 90 feet Minimum radius: 18″ Minimum turnout: No. 4 Maximum grade: Less than 1% Benchwork: manufactured truss joists with 1 x 4 L-girders and […]
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the Port Authority-Trans Hudson fire that sent nine people to the hospital today (Monday, Aug. 4, 2025). The fire broke out under an eastbound PATH train at the Newport station in Jersey City about 6:20 a.m. The news site Gothamist reports 13 people were […]
WASHINGTON — Marcus Molinaro, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives from New York, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. Molinaro was confirmed by a 71-23 vote on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. Results of the roll-call vote are available here. “I applaud the U.S. Senate […]
NEW YORK — The Interborough Express, the planned Metropolitan Transportation Authority light rail line linking Brooklyn and Queens, has entered the engineering and design phase. The MTA board this week selected a joint venture of Jacobs and HDR to oversee the project, which will be built along a currently freight-only, 14-mile Long Island Rail Road […]
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board has reluctantly approved a 10% fare increase for Metro-North Railroad trips beginning or ending in Connecticut — an increase requested by that state’s Department of Transportation to address an $11 million shortfall in the budget passed in June. The same increase — 5% effective Sept. 1, 2025, […]
BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Streetcar Museum has received $165,000 in city funding for its project to develop a new campus at a former Maryland & Pennsylvania roundhouse near its current location. The museum said in a Facebook post that the money, in fiscal 2026 and 2027 from the City of Baltimore Cultural Spaces Capital Support […]
BREAKING: SEPTA train on fire at Paoli station. @NBCPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/ciJ68Oq2eh — Matt DeLucia (@MattDeLucia) July 23, 2025 PAOLI, Pa. — A Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority employee and a firefighter were injured when a Regional Rail train caught fire late Tuesday (July 22, 2025). No passengers were on board at the time. WTXF-TV reports two cars […]
NEW YORK — New York City Transit rolled out its latest generation of subway equipment, the R211 car, on the B Line on Monday (July 21, 2025), marking the fourth route to receive the new railcars and meaning the equipment is now operating in all five boroughs. “I’m thrilled that B train riders from the […]
NEW YORK — The Federal Railroad Administration will conduct an independent review of operations at New York’s Penn Station to determine whether expansion of the number of station tracks is needed as part of renovation plans, Amtrak’s Andy Byford said Friday. Byford made his first public comments since being named to oversee the project at […]
An article about the Pennsylvania Railroad’s new Keystone train in October 1956 Trains magazine (reprinted in 2015 in Classic Trains’ special edition More Trains of the 1950s) was titled “The Ankle-View Train” because of the unusual perspective the low-profile coaches afforded their riders when stopped at high-level platforms. This scene at Newark, N.J., explains all. Pennsylvania Railroad photo […]
BOSTON — The Trump administration has rescinded a $327 million grant awarded in 2023 or the Allston Multimodal Project, which calls for realignment of Interstate 90 and a new Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail station and layover facility, among other features. The funding termination follows President Donald Trump’s signing of a bill that eliminated […]
