MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — The city council of a St. Louis suburb on Thursday approved construction of a facility for shipping automobiles by rail, despite the decision of its planning commission not to recommend the project and the objections of residents in the community of Maryland Heights and a neighboring city. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch […]
FRAZEE, Minn. — BNSF Railway is estimating it will reopen the first of two tracks at the site of Thursday’s two-train derailment in Frazee by midnight today (Friday, Feb. 18), the railroad says in an update to customers on its website. Track 2 will be the first to reopen. A time for reopening Track 1 […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern is now offering starting bonuses of up to $5,000 for conductor trainees at what it terms “priority locations,” and $2,500 at other locations. The railroad identified the priority locations as Binghamton and Buffalo, N.Y.; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky: Manassas and Roanoke, Va.; Harrisburg and Conway, Pa; Birmingham and Sheffield, Ala.; Chattanooga, Tenn; […]
TRENTON, N.J. — NJ Transit is progressing with some of the largest infrastructure programs in its history, including a series of projects aimed at helping avoid a disruption related to extreme weather on par with the one following 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. The five core projects of NJ Transit’s “Resilience Program” — the Raritan River Bridge […]
OAKLAND, Calif. — After a pause of more than a year, Bay Area Rapid Transit has resumed accepting delivery of its “Fleet of the Future” railcars, saying the manufacturer has sufficiently resolved reliability issues. BART stopped receiving new railcars on Jan. 8, 2021 [see “Digest: BART, citing reliability issues, says it will stop accepting delivery […]
WASHINGTON — A contract employee working with a Norfolk Southern track gang was standing between the rails when he was struck and killed by a piece of maintenance-of-way equipment in a December 2021 accident in Pennsylvania, according to a preliminary report released this week by the National Transportation Safety Board. The accident occurred Dec. 8, […]
FRAZEE, Minn. — Clean-up is under way after a BNSF train derailed and hit a second train on an adjacent track Thursday morning near Frazee. BNSF said in a statement the accident occurred about 9 a.m. No injuries were reported. Becker County Sheriff Todd Glander told KVRR-TV that the second train appeared to have been […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Dry weather in South America is negatively affecting global soybean supply, driving up prices and putting more pressure on U.S. farmers. This could be an opportunity for soybean-hauling railroads to seem carload gains months from now as farmers plant more soybeans this spring. These circumstances are building on momentum from an already […]
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington state Senate has passed a proposal that would provide $150 million in funding for the creation of a high speed rail line connecting Vancouver, British, Columbia, to Portland, Ore. KING-TV reports the funding is part of a $16 billion transportation bill, Senate Bill 5974. That legislation passed by a 29-20 vote […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has named Paul Duncan as vice president, network planning and operations. Duncan will succeed John Friedmann, who previously announced his retirement after 27 years at NS. Duncan is currently vice president of service design and performance at BNSF Railway. He joined BNSF in 2002. In an email announcing the hire, Chief […]
FOLSOM, Calif. — For the first time since a 1957 farewell excursion, a steam-powered locomotive will operate in the community of Folsom. The Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad, a non-profit organization based in Folsom, about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento, Calif., plans to fire up Santa Cruz Portland Cement No. 2, an oil-burning 0-4-0T locomotive […]
WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads is asking for public support for its position opposing the reciprocal switching proposal to be considered by the Surface Transportation Board. The AAR, on its website, is asking people to sign a letter to the STB in which it says the reciprocal switching rule — which it has […]
