MBTA removes 11 speed restrictions with Green Line work

Men working in subway tunnel

BOSTON — Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority work on the rapid transit Green Line in February and March removed 11 speed restrictions and made unnecessary a planned suspension of service on the C Branch this fall, the MBTA said on Monday. The C Branch outage this fall is no longer needed because work eliminated a slow […]

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News photos: Metro-North debuts Penn Central unit

Blue locomotive with yellow nose on commuter train

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Metro-North Railroad has unveiled the fourth locomotive in its heritage series, this time wrapping P32AC-DM No. 217 in Penn Central colors. The locomotive made its debut today on a Hudson Line train departing Croton-Harmon at 7:58 a.m. and arriving at Grand Central Terminal at 8:55 a.m. “Every new wrapped locomotive reminds […]

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No injuries reported as MBTA Green Line train derails

Detail from MBTA rail transit map

BOSTON — No injuries were reported when a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line B Branch light rail train derailed today (Saturday, March 9) just west of Kenmore Station. The incident occurred hours after the line reopened after an 18-day shutdown for track maintenance. WCVB-TV reports the derailment occurred about 8:55 a.m. and led to […]

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Interim Strasburg chief named after president resigns (updated)

Steam locomotive at small shelter-type station

STRASBURG, Pa. — Strasburg Rail Road has named Eric Hoerner, a Lancaster, Pa., business executive, as its board chairman and interim president, following the Feb. 26 resignation of the steam tourist line’s president and general manager, Jim Hager. Hoerner becomes the fifth person since 2018 to lead the 192-year-old short line. He is founder, partner, and […]

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Western New York & Pennsylvania mothballs 70 miles of track

Map of railroad in western New York and Pennsylvania

MEADVILLE, Pa. — The Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad is discontinuing operation on about 70 miles of railroad between Saegertown, Pa., and Jamestown, N.Y., the Meadville (Pa) Tribune reports. Company president Bob Babcock told the newspaper that the railroad generated just three carloads of traffic over that segment last year. A “handful” of employees […]

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GG1s at Baltimore

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Just south of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Baltimore station in September 1954, GG1 4875 emerges from the B&P Tunnel with a Washington–New York mail and express train as three sister Gs wait to forward Northern Central passenger trains down to Washington. Beyond the waiting Gs, under the Baltimore & Ohio’s plate-girder bridge, Pennsy P5b 4702, the […]

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Ancora board nominees attack NS on safety after Pennsylvania accident

Derailed tank cars next to river

CLEVELAND — Continuing attacks on current management at Norfolk Southern, board nominees of investor Ancora Holdings have issued a “white paper” on last Saturday’s three-train NS collision in Pennsylvania in which they outline what they say would be safety upgrades at the railroad and question the current operating culture. The investment group launched a proxy […]

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Three-train NS incident unfolded in less than a minute, NTSB investigator tells township council

Locomotives on riverbank after derailment

LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A National Transportation Safety Board investigator has filled in town officials on additional details of last weekend’s incident collision and derailment involving three Norfolk Southern trains, saying a total of nine railcars derailed in the incident, WFMZ-TV reports. Ruben Payan, who is leading the NTSB team looking at train operations, […]

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Bill to end cuts to railroad unemployment insurance advances in Senate

Trains Washington Watch logo

WASHINGTON — The Senate Budget Committee has unanimously voted to advance a bill that would permanently exempt railroad workers’ unemployment and sickness insurance benefits from sequestration cuts, and end current cuts. Industry and labor groups had jointly written members of the committee earlier this week asking for support for S.1274, the Railroad Employee Equity and […]

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