BOSTON — The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate after one Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority light rail train rear-ended another Friday, July 30, injuring 25, including operators on both vehicles. The Boston Globe reports the accident occurred on the Green Line B Branch, on Commonwealth Avenue in front of the Boston University campus. The injured […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — With a date still to be determined for the restoration of light rail service, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is resuming alternative bus service along the light rail line as of today (Monday, Aug. 2). In a press release, the VTA said buses will operate at 30-minute intervals weekdays from […]
WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board has accepted CSX Transportation’s beefed up Pan Am Railways merger application and established a schedule for reviewing the deal that would expand CSX’s presence in New England. If the board approves the deal, Pan Am would become a fallen flag on May 1, 2022. Comments on the merger are due […]
For veteran business writer and Trains author Dan Machalaba, there was virtually nothing about transportation that wasn’t fascinating. Big-rig trucks, coal-hauling unit trains, bush planes, container ships — all of them drew his scrutiny at one time or another in a journalism career that spanned more than four decades, including 33 years at the Wall […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific is asking Kansas City Southern stockholders to vote against the railroad’s proposed merger with Canadian National. The railroad filed a proxy statement to that effect on Thursday, with Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel saying his railroad would have preferred not to appeal to the KCS shareholders, but that with a meeting […]
PULLMAN, Ill. — The grand opening of the National Park Service’s Pullman National Monument and Pullman State Historic Site Factory Grounds is set for Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-6. Free events will include tours, site visits, and historic tours at the community built for the Pullman Co’s factory and as a community for its workers, […]
WASHINGTON – A coalition representing a broad range of rail shippers has asked the Surface Transportation Board to increase competition among railroads by finalizing rules that would permit reciprocal switching. “Given the dramatic concentration of market power in the railroad industry, rethinking policies designed for a different era is both timely and smart. Reciprocal switching […]
A federal arbitration decision has ruled that train crew size is subject to collective bargaining, a major win for railroads and loss for unions in the railroads’ effort to reduce crews to a single person. The National Railway Labor Conference — representing Class I railroads — had sought to include crew size in its current […]
CHAMA, N.M. — The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad will resume full-length train rides on its 64-mile route between Chama and Antonito, Colo., as of Saturday, July 31, for the final portion of the 2021 season. For most of the season, COVID-19 restrictions have prevented the railroad from offering trips in which passengers ride the […]
NEW YORK — A former Long Island Rail Road conductor arrested earlier this year in which he allegedly pocketed tickets without punching them, then gave them to friends who used them for rides or cashed them for refunds, has pleaded guilty and paid a $1,000 fine. The New York Post reports Robert Anderson, 61, pleaded […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic remains ahead of 2020 figures, although week-to-week numbers showed a slight decline, perhaps reflecting traffic disruptions by fires on the West Coast. For the week ending July 28, U.S. railroads moved 230,095 carloads (up 7.1% from the same week a year earlier), and 273,124 intermodal units (up 2.6%) for […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific set quarterly records for revenue, earnings, and adjusted operating ratio as second quarter volume bounced back from last year’s pandemic lows. “Behind those numbers obviously is a very impressive operating performance,” CEO Keith Creel says, rattling off a list of key metrics that improved, including train length and weight and […]
