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WASHINGTON — Two days of testimony that made up the second week of the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on Amtrak Gulf Coast service delved into the intricacies of traffic modeling and its data inputs, and made clear both that Amtrak had no role in that modeling, and that consideration of changes to freight operations were […]
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Union Pacific is recalling furloughed workers to reopen its locomotive shop in Pine Bluff, Ark., the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. UP spokesman Mike Jaixen told the newspaper that he did not have information on the number of workers being recalled, but noted that open positions in Pine Bluff include boilermakers, electricians, mechanics, […]
JUPITER, Fla. — Replacing a 96-year-old, bascule drawbridge while keeping both rail and river traffic moving requires round-the-clock activity and lots of compromise. This was obvious Sunday, April 10, with the latest step in the project to replace a Florida East Coast Railway bridge over the Loxahatchee River at Jupiter, improving both operational reliability and […]
WASHINGTON — Last week’s fourth day of testimony at the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on Amtrak Gulf Coast service focused on two questions: — “Where did the data used for traffic modeling come from?” — “What constitutes a train that can cause ‘unreasonable impairment’ to freight operations” if two passenger round trips are introduced between […]
RALEIGH, N.C. — The fire that destroyed four former Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey circus railcars in March may have been arson, a law enforcement officer told a state legislative committee on Thursday. The Raleigh News and Observer reports Chief Deputy Brandon Medina of the Nash County Sheriff’s Office told the Joint Legislative Transportation […]
RICHMOND, Va. — Norfolk Southern has donated its complete collection of documents and archives from predecessor Norfolk & Western Railway to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, NS announced on Wednesday. Along with the collection, which dates to the 1840s, the company will donate $750,000 in support digitization, cataloging and preservation of the materials. […]
WASHINGTON — Norfolk Southern’s view of the impact of potential Amtrak service was a focal point of Wednesday’s third day of hearings on the passenger carrier’s effort to launch two daily round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. Testifying in the Surface Transportation Board’s online hearing, Randall Hunt, the railroad’s senior director of interline […]
ORLANDO — The plan for Brightline service from Orlando and Tampa is evolving into concept that would take advantage of federal infrastructure funding by extending SunRail commuter service to the Orlando Airport, the Orange County Convention Center, and the Disney World area. Brightline would would lease rights to use that trackage and build its own […]
WAVERLY, Tenn. — Seventeen people, relatives of those killed in an Aug. 21, 2021, flood in Waverly are suing CSX Transportation for up to $450 million, saying debris that backed up behind a railroad culvert led to the deadly flooding. The Associated Press reports the suit was filed Tuesday in Humphreys County Circuit Court. A […]
RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation will again attempt to sell a group of former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus railcars, about a month after four of the cars were destroyed in a fire. The Statesville Independent Tribune reports the state has steeply discounted its asking price for five remaining […]
WASHINGTON — The slow pace of the Surface Transportation Board hearing on Amtrak Gulf Coast service continued Tuesday, the proceeding’s second day, when just one additional witness testified and was questioned. But the appearance of that witness, CSX Senior Vice President of Mechanical and Engineering Ricky Johnson, provided significant insight into how CSX operates on […]
Saluda Grade future possibilities are murky. Nearly 22 years have passed since freight trains descended Southern Railway’s Saluda Mountain. Kudzu vines conceal the right-of-way in many places and heavy Appalachian rains have washed away sections of track. Although shrubs and small trees are reclaiming North America’s steepest main line in rural western North Carolina, Norfolk […]
