CHICAGO — The first of 17 Venture coach-café cars built by Siemens for Midwest States has finally debuted on one daily Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service round-trip. Trains News Wire sampled the new entry out of Chicago to Bloomington-Normal, Ill., last week on train No. 305, a 5:20 p.m. departure. The trainset returns the next morning […]
WILMINGTON, Calif. — Pacific Harbor Line and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer and Trainmen, Division 214, have ratified a three-year extension to their current labor agreement, extending that contract through Sept. 20, 2027. The extension covers 145 of PHL’s 180 employees. It was ratified July 12 by a record number of eligible BLET members, with […]
Amazon, the Internet shopping giant, is also intermodal’s uncommon carrier. To understand what makes it different, a brief overview of railroad intermodal operations is in order. In the early days of large-scale U.S. railroad intermodal operations, described more accurately at that time as “Piggyback”, or TOFC (Trailer On Flat Car), the identification of these vehicles […]
ABILENE, Texas — Thirty-two cars of a Union Pacific train derailed today (Sunday, July 14) on the west side of Abilene, KTAB/KRBC-TV reports. The derailment was reported to Abilene police shortly after 10 a.m. No injuries were reported, and no hazardous materials were involved. A Union Pacific representative told the station the railcars involved were […]
MONTREAL — The Canada Industrial Relations Board aims to make a ruling by Aug. 9 on the question of essential services that has put a potential Canadian rail strike or lockout on hold, Canadian National Railway says. In a Friday update, the railroad said it the board will provide another update in the event another […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board on Friday released the final report on the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment and hazardous chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio — a document finalized by the June 25 meeting held by the board in East Palestine. As indicated at that meeting [see “NTSB issues 31 new […]
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state has begun work on a new rail bridge across the Hudson River in Albany to replace a structure with portions dating to 1865, and also awarded funding to tear down a deteriorating, vacant warehouse that led to interruptions of rail service in 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced today. The […]
CHICAGO — Amtrak’s stretched-thin and aging fleet is encountering significant challenges to reliability across the entire system this week as national network trains remain sold out for many segments. Sunset cancelled With Tropical Storm Beryl causing widespread flooding in the Houston area early in the week, Amtrak truncated the eastbound Sunset Limited at San Antonio, […]
ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 has reached the westernmost point of its current tour, beginning the first of two days of public display today in Roseville. Information on the display is available here. Here are a few images catching up on recent days of the “Westward Bound” tour, with Elrond Lawrence […]
WOODWARD, Okla. — Eighteen cars of a BNSF train derailed Thursday, July 11, in downtown Woodward, briefly leading to an evacuation order until it was determined the contents of the train posed no public safety hazard. KOCO-TV reports BNSF said in a statement that the derailment occurred about 5:30 p.m. and the cars involved carried […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has postponed the start of a plan by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific to contract out dispatching of Southern California’s Alameda Corridor. In a decision announced Thursday, the board postponed the move — which was to be effective today (Friday, July 12) — “to provide sufficient time for evaluation […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX has become the fourth Class I railroad to join RailPulse, the telematics joint venture that aims to put GPS equipment and sensors on freight cars to monitor their location and health in real time. The announcement, made today, leaves BNSF Railway and Canadian National as the only major systems sitting on […]
