Norfolk Southern opens new headquarters

Office building at night

ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has opened its new headquarters building in Atlanta following a Wednesday ceremony featuring Gov. Brian Kemp, Sen. Raphael Warnock, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, NS employees, and city civic and business leaders. The 750,000-square-foot building is on a 3.4-acre campus in Tech Square, featuring two glass towers connected with a campus-style hub; […]

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CSX offers scorching response to Amtrak request to compel cooperation

Station platform, with tracks running under building

WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s request for cooperation from CSX has received a harsh response from the freight railroad. A CSX filing with the Surface Transportation Board says the passenger railroad is seeking “unrestrained access” to the route of proposed service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., and wants “a blank check to perform whatever work it […]

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News photo: Brightline service returns

Passenger train on curve with city skyline in background

MIAMI, Fla. — After an absence of about 20 months, Brightline service resumed between Miami and West Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday, with the passenger operator offering discount fares, gearing up its door-to-door service plan [see “‘Brightline+’ app to enable door-to-door trip ticketing,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 27, 2021]. Opening-day service was marred by a […]

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Nashville Steam to host open house for No. 576 project

Boiler of disassembled steam locomotive

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Nashville Steam Preservation Society’s fall 2021 open house will be this Saturday, Nov. 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Steam locomotive No. 576, formerly on display in Nashville’s Centennial Park for more than 60 years, has been undergoing a complete mechanical overhaul at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum since March […]

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Regional Rail to operate Port Manatee Railroad

Blue and yellow genset locomotive with freight cars

PALMETTO, Fla. — Pennsylvania-based Regional Rail LLC has signed an agreement to operate the short line at Port Manatee in Palmetto, Fla. The agreement runs through at least 2036 with options through 2051. The railroad, which began operation in 1970, includes more than 7 miles of track with a connection to CSX Transportation. It has […]

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CSX, NS say Gulf Coast passenger service would ‘devastate’ freight operations (updated)

CSX logo

WASHINGTON — CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern say addition of Amtrak trains along the Gulf Coast would cause a “systematic failure” in their ability to provide freight service, based on traffic modeling, and would “devastate first-mile last-mile service to freight customers in the region,” according to a filing with the Surface Transportation Board. But while […]

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CP and KCS project dramatic rise in daily train counts

Map of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern systems with details from merger document

WASHINGTON – Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern say their proposed merger will generate significant traffic growth, with daily train counts on the combined system’s north-south spine projected to more than double within three years. The traffic details were among those included in the railways’ 4,342-page, 1-gigabyte merger application filed with U.S. regulators late Friday. […]

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Passenger Geep

Nose of diesel locomotive in black and white

Passenger Geep Southern Railway GP7 No. 2164 was in local service in eastern North Carolina when this image was made in September 1965. Note the steam generator exhaust stack to the right of the bell. Curt Tillotson Jr. photo […]

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‘Brightline+’ app to enable door-to-door trip ticketing (updated)

Man in suit behind the wheel of bright yellow car

MIAMI — In what company President Patrick Goddard characterizes as “one of the most significant innovations in multimodal mobility,” Florida passenger rail operator Brightline is offering travelers the ability to arrange travel from their point of origin to their ultimate destination, not just buy a train ticket. The first stage of this door-to-door travel will […]

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‘Silver Meteor’

Passenger train going around curve

Silver Meteor The northbound Amtrak Silver Meteor from Miami rounds Honeymoon Wye on the way into Jacksonville, Fla., on June 16, 1976. A single EMD SDP40F leads the consist on this day. Jack M. Turner photo […]

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Norfolk Southern to donate Southern Railway archives

Logo of Southern Railway, with "Look Ahead — Look South" slogan

ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern is donating the archives of predecessor Southern Railway to the Atlanta History Center as NS prepares to mark the opening of its new Atlanta headquarters. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the archives include hundreds of thousands of pages of correspondence, more than 20,000 photographs, reports, plans, and minute books. The donation […]

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Tri-Rail to restore service to pre-pandemic levels on Oct. 25

Commuter train with blue locomotive and bilevel cars

MIAMI — South Florida commuter rail operator Tri-Rail will restore service to full pre-pandemic levels as of Monday, Oct. 25, operating 25 round trips on weekdays and 15 on weekends. The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority announced the schedule change on Wednesday. WFOR-TV reports Steven Abrams, the authority’s executive director, said, “Tri-Rail has had one […]

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