SALT LAKE CITY — Rail equipment manufacturer Stadler will receive a tax break from a Utah agency as part of the expansion of its Salt Lake City plant, the Swiss-based company’s only U.S. facility. The Utah Inland Port Authority said last week that it has awarded a 10% break on property taxes, once the expansion […]
CHICAGO – Amtrak continues to reshuffle its equipment to address the loss of its Horizon car fleet, sidelined suddenly earlier this week because of corrosion issues. That effort has decreased the number of train cancellations. The hardest-hit area remains the Pacific Northwest, where six of seven Amtrak Cascades round trips have been replaced by buses […]
BOSTON — The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division has reached a tentative five-year agreement with Keolis Commuter Services, the union announced on Friday, March 28. Keolis is the contract operator of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail services. The agreement, retroactive to July 1, 2023, will include 5% raises […]
WASHINGTON — In the wake of the departure of its CEO and discussions of the company’s potential privatization, Amtrak is considering cuts to management and other cost-cutting moves, the company has confirmed. “Given the current environment, the Executive Leadership Team and the Board have determined that we must act now,” Amtrak said in a statement […]
A newly tooled Budd dome coach is now available in N scale from RailSmith Models. The injection-molded plastic lightweight car features tinted dome window glazing, metal wheel stubs mounted on plastic axles, and truck-mounted Accumate knuckle couplers. Prototype history The RailSmith car is based on a dome coach built by the Budd Co. in 1955 […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Resumption of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail service will be delayed until Monday, March 31, because of theft of copper wire along the light rail system, KGO-TV reports. VTA light rail and bus service have been halted since March 10 because of a strike by 1,500 workers. Bus operations […]
HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s legislature is considering a bill that would use a tax on railroad cars to help provide funding for the organization seeking to revive passenger service on the former route of the North Coast Hiawatha. House Bill 848, introduced by state Rep. Denise Baum (D-Billings) earlier this month, initially sought to direct […]
Louisville & Nashville 4-8-2 No. 407 on Cincinnati–Birmingham train 7 passes 2-8-0 No. 1212 on a northbound freight on double track 10 miles south of Louisville in November 1948. C. William Streit photo […]
SEATTLE — Sound Transit has hired Dow Constantine, the current King County (Wash.) executive, as its next CEO. The Sound Transit board approved the choice of Constantine today (March 27) by a 15-0 vote. Constantine has been a member of the board since 2006, but had recused himself from the board’s process of considering CEO […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A judge has ordered an end to the strike by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers. The San Jose Mercury News reports Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya on Wednesday issued an injunction ordering the 1,500 members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 back to work, saying the […]
NEW YORK — A Metro-North Railroad employee has been arrested by Metropolitan Transportation Authority police and charged with second-degree grand larceny for allegedly stealing more than $200,000 in money from ticket vending machines. The MTA says that Tom Shabani, a cashier with responsibility for handing the vending machine money and a 24-year employee based in […]
BUSSNANG, Switzerland — No one has ever thought of cog railways as fast. Stadler and the meter-gauge Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn railway are working to change that. The two companies on Tuesday unveiled what they say is the world’s fastest rack-and-pinion railway, operating on the MGB branch line connecting Andermatt and Göshenen, Switzerland. The Stadler Orion […]
