KANSAS CITY — Service and labor issues are generally the defining issues for current public appearances by railroad officials, and so it was Tuesday when BNSF Railway CEO Katie Farmer spoke to the North American Rail Shippers conference. Less than two weeks after officials from BNSF and other Class I railroads were called to testify […]
WASHINGTON — Cross-examination of Jim Blair, Amtrak’s senior director of host railroads, consumed the full 8-hour, 28-minute session Monday as the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on the effort to launch passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., resumed after an almost three-week hiatus. Blair was questioned by lawyers from Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, and […]
PHILADELPHIA – The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has issued a request for proposals regarding the final-design stage of its Norristown High-Speed Line expansion. The project will add a 4-mile branch extending to King of Prussia, Pa. The grade-separated line extends 13.4 miles southeast from Norristown, Pa., to 69th Street Terminal, with connections there to Center […]
CUMBERLAND, Md. – On Friday, May 6, before the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad’s first 2022 public excursion behind Baldwin 2-6-6-2 No. 1309, the railroad celebrated the life of steam railroading luminary, Jack Showalter. Inside the former Western Maryland Railway’s Cumberland station, officials and guests saluted the people behind No. 1309’s recent restoration, and shared memories […]
KANSAS CITY — The 40 or so union rail employees picketing outside the site of the National Rail Shippers Conference, unhappy over their lack of a new national contract, might have been surprised by the message delivered inside by CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote. They might have welcomed it, too, if not for the adversarial […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The prospect that the Surface Transportation Board will require specific, operational moves by the rail industry to address its ongoing service issues appears unlikely, and board member Patrick Fuchs spells out why it is not the regulators’ preferred option. “To the board, carriers are clearly in the best positions to identify […]
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Two construction barges broke loose on the flood-swollen Potomac River, with one of them striking the 1904 Norfolk Southern deck truss bridge here before hanging up further east. Both runaway vessels were engaged in work at a section of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park to the north along the […]
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The new seasonal rail service between Pittsfield, Mass., and New York City is scheduled to operate during summer weekends this year and again in 2023. Amtrak and local transportation officials will evaluate the demand, determining if the pilot project should be continued. “We are pleased to work together with our partner agencies […]
BISMARCK, N.D. — The state of North Dakota has declined for a second time to issue an opinion on the ownership of the Bismarck-Mandan rail bridge, and the U.S. Coast Guard is indicating it will move ahead with the process which would allow BNSF Railway to demolish and replace the bridge. The Bismarck Tribune reports […]
OTTAWA, Ontario – Class I railroads operating in Canada would be required to report additional performance and staffing metrics under a proposal Canadian regulators unveiled on Friday. Transport Canada’s move was announced on the same day that the Surface Transportation Board said it will temporarily require the big railroads to provide more detailed operational and […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — The new operator of a half-century-old Colorado rail testing facility has begun the transition to full operations at the site. In March 2021, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded ENSCO a 20-year contract to operate and maintain the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado. Perhaps confusingly, another company, previously named TTCI, owned […]
LONDON — Locomotive and equipment manufacturer Stadler has won a major order to build new powerful dual-mode — electric and diesel — locomotives for British rail freight company GB Railfreight. The new units will begin the process of replacing an extensive fleet of EMD-built Class 66 (model JT42CWR) locomotives, derived from the SD40 design. The […]
