News Photo: Battery-electric locomotive set to leave Erie

Wabtec FLXDrive battery-electric locomotive

Wabtec’s FLXDrive battery-electric locomotive is reportedly set to leave the company’s Erie, Pa., locomotive plant to begin its trip to California, where the unit is scheduled to begin testing on the BNSF Railway. The locomotive was spotted outside the plant today, accompanied by two new BNSF diesels. Since its announcement in September 2019, plans have […]

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Digest: Report sets goal of extended Amtrak, commuter service, more freight trains through San Diego

a train on a bridge

Friday midday rail news: Transit district’s report sets goals for expanded commuter, passenger, freight service in San Diego
 Coaster commuter train and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service would be extended southward from their current endpoint at San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot, and more slots would be created for freight trains, under the San Diego Pathing Study […]

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Onboard analysis: ‘Coast Starlight’ is busy overnight

Amtrak train at Jack London Square Station

Third in a series OAKLAND, Calif. — The Los Angeles-Seattle Coast Starlight was a 1971 Amtrak concoction cobbling together three trains: Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight and overnight Cascade, even though the SP trains hadn’t connected at the time, and the unnamed Portland, Ore.-Seattle Burlington Northern or Union Pacific “pool trains.” Originally, and ambitiously, the south […]

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