PHILADELPHIA – The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has awarded a $185 million contract for 45 new double-deck commuter cars to CRRC MA Corp., a Chinese-owned company with a new plant in Springfield, Mass., at a board meeting on March 23. Delivery of the cars will begin in 2019. The Chinese company underbid Bombardier, the other […]
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CHICAGO — Metra is starting the next phase of its in-house railcar rehabilitation program in which the agency will restore more than 300 Nippon Sharyo passenger cars. The bilevel commuter cars were delivered to the agency between 2002 and 2008. Metra workers plan to rehab about 35 passenger cars per year until 2020, when the […]
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A southbound VRE commuter train arrives at Alexandria, Va., in August 2013. Alex Mayes ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Managers at Virginia Railway Express have decided to table further studies on extending commuter rail service to Gainesville or Haymarket in northern Virginia, Inside Nova reports. Instead, the agency is shifting its efforts on a rehabilitation of its […]
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A Connecticut Department of Transportation GP40 leads a westbound Shore Line East train at Clinton, Conn. Scott Hartley MT. VERNON, Ill. — National Railway Equipment will overhaul six Connecticut Department of Transportation GP40-2H locomotives, according to an NRE press release. The release states that NRE will produce over 90 percent of the locomotive content in […]
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DURANGO, Colo. — Rail Events Inc., the company which licenses Polar Express events, is suing Iowa Pacific Holdings for unpaid royalties. Attorneys for Rail Events allege in court filings in Colorado that Iowa Pacific has failed to pay royalties on events hosted on several of the railroads that it operates as subsidiaries, including the Texas […]
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FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art Santa Fe passenger train No. 1, the westbound ‘San Francisco Chief,’ is seen at Dearborn Station in Chicago in December 1970, just a few months before the creation of Amtrak. FULL SCREEN John Bjorklund, collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art A […]
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MTH HO scale New York City subway cars The MTH model includes working headlight, marker lights, and local and express indicators. The lead car in the four-car set is powered and houses the Digital Command System and Proto-Sound 3.0 electronics. The unpowered cars have a rudimentary interior and overhead lighting. Next stop, Dyer Avenue! You […]
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The Hoosier State passenger train with its Iowa Pacific consist. Don Nickel INDIANAPOLIS — Iowa Pacific Holdings is dropping its popular Hoosier State passenger train after only 20 months of operation. Amtrak will take over the service on March 1, according to Amtrak officials and the Indiana Department of Transportation. Officials said that Iowa Pacific […]
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Amtrak ACS64 No. 627 shortly after it crashed into a maintenance-of-way backhoe that was fouling a track on the Northeast Corridor near Chester, Pa., in April 2016. National Transportation Safety Board WASHINGTON — Faulty communication between maintenance workers appear to have played a significant part in last year’s fatal collision between an Amtrak train and […]
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A bilevel passenger car mock-up stands gleaming under shop lights at the Nippon Sharyo’s Rochelle, Ill., plant in May 2014. Bob Johnston ROCHELLE, Ill. — Another 100 workers have lost their jobs at Nippon Sharyo’s Rochelle manufacturing plant leaving an unknown, but likely small, number of workers at the facility. “This difficult decision is the […]
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The side of one car in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Red unit train in April 2010. Chase Gunnoe CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Small town America, the faces of smiling kids, and experiencing the nation’s beauty from a railcar are lifetime highlights for former workers on board the ‘Greatest Show on Earth.’ Trains News Wire […]
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