PITTSBURGH — New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved the use of new Wabtec battery-diesel hybrid locomotives for maintenance operations across its subway network, the manufacturer has announced. The MTA ordered 25 of the R255 locomotives in 2020 to replace diesel locomotives built in the 1960s and ’70s; to date, four have been delivered, beginning […]
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri joined local officials and workers just outside of Bakersfield on Monday, Jan. 6, to mark the start of track laying on a 22-mile stretch of the state high-speed project. The event — which included officials driving spikes into a ceremonial […]
CHICAGO — Railroads are navigating the start of the New Year with a far-reaching winter weather system that resulted in measurable snowfalls from central Kansas to Maryland’s eastern seaboard. Kansas City received more than 12 inches of snow over the weekend and 6 to 12 inches of snow fell across much of central Illinois, Indiana, […]
QUINCY, Mass. – RailState, which monitors rail traffic using a network of sensors placed on public property along main lines, has provided a snapshot of long trains rolling along BNSF Railway and Union Pacific main lines in the Southwest during December. Although only 1% of freight trains in the U.S. exceed 14,000 feet, RailState data […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — SunTrain, a San Francisco company, is designing a method to transport power by rail, moving containerized batteries between solar and wind farms in Colorado to existing rail-served power plants in the Denver area. The concept is that batteries, inside standard 20-foot containers and loaded onto 89-foot railcars, are charged at originating solar […]
BRUSSELS — The organization that issued a report in December ranking Europe’s major rail operators has revised its findings, to the significant detriment of Switzerland’s federal rail company, SBB. Corrections on SBB’s ticket prices led to the company dropping to 11th in the rankings of 27 companies by clean-transportation advocacy group Transport and Environment, from […]
The Big Four U.S. Class I railroads all showed year-over-year traffic growth in 2024, while Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City experienced volume declines. Looking longer term, however, CSX is the only railroad whose 2024 volume rebounded to pre-pandemic levels of 2019. CSX’s traffic was up 0.6% last year compared to 2019, due largely […]
NEW YORK — New York’s congestion pricing plan will begin Sunday, Jan. 5, after a judge turned down New Jersey’s last-ditch effort to block the program. Gothamist reports U.S. Judge Leo Gordon said New Jersey’s request to delay the program was “in a nutshell, denied,” in a Friday evening ruling clarifying a 72-page decision earlier […]
BETHESDA, Md. — An official in Montgomery County, Md., has blasted management of the ongoing and much-delayed Purple Line light rail project, saying it will “probably end up being the most expensive light rail project per mile in the world.” The 16-mile, 21-station from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George’s County […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic remained ahead of year-earlier levels for the final week of 2024, the Association of American Railroads reported today (Friday, Jan. 3, 2025). For the week ending Dec. 28, 2024, total volume was 389,700 carloads and intermodal units, a 5.1% increase over the same week in 2023. That included 184,028 […]
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Train and engine service workers at the Utah Central Railway have voted to join the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union has announced — the seventh short line to join the union since 2023. The vote, certified by the National Mediation Board in December, was unanimous, the union said in […]
Matthew Ray, a welder in CSX’s mechanical department, watched helplessly at his waterfront home as Hurricane Helene’s storm surge came barrelling into his neighborhood in Apollo Beach, Fla. “The water came up like no one’s ever seen it here before,” Ray says. “It was incredible how fast it came up. From the time it came […]
