‘California Zephyr,’ Missouri trains disrupted by floods

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CHICAGO—Flooding in eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, and northwest Missouri has caused delays, truncations and outright cancellations to the Chicago-Emeryville, Calif., California Zephyr and two state-sponsored Missouri River Runner round-trips between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. Today’s eastbound Zephyr is cancelled entirely out of California; Amtrak has blocked sales east of Denver until at least […]

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Nebraska, Iowa floods inundate railroads NEWSWIRE

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Darrell Wendt BNSF lines out-of-service map as of March 15 BNSF Railway MILWAUKEE — Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are halting trains and assessing damage to hundreds of miles of rail lines threatened or damaged by rising flood waters in the Missouri River valley. Rapidly warming temperatures in the past two weeks have led to […]

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Amtrak inspector general: company has trouble identifying employee drug, alcohol issues NEWSWIRE

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WASHINGTON — Amtrak has difficulty in identifying and addressing issues of drug and alcohol use among its employees, “a longstanding challenge for the company,” Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General says in a new report. The report issued Wednesday summarizes the following issues with the company’s program for employees in “safety-sensitive positions:” — Testing requirements were […]

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Coal train derails, burns in southern Minnesota NEWSWIRE

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MANKATO, Minn. – Emergency crews are responding to a derailed Union Pacific coal train and subsequent fire in Ottawa, about 18 miles north of Mankato along the Minnesota River in southern Minnesota. The line, connecting the Twin Cities with Sioux City, Iowa, was previously part of the Chicago & North Western system. The derailment, which […]

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