LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s Transportation Department will seek $20 million to $25 million in federal grants to repair bridges on a state-owned line used by Amtrak services. Capital News Service reports the funds would be used to repair four bridges between Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, according to Peter Anastor, director of the transportation department’s Office […]
CHICAGO — Lack of standby equipment and the inability of Amtrak mechanical forces to sufficiently prepare cars and locomotives for service led to the cancellation of one pair of Chicago-based trains and departure delays to 11 others on Thursday, Feb. 2. The cancellation of one Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha round trip, and the cumulative delays to the […]
SACRAMENTO — A $600 million award to L.A. Metro for its East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Corridor project heads the more than $2.5 billion in funding announced this week by the California State Transportation Agency for transit projects, most of them rail-related. The awards are to 16 projects, including funding announced earlier this […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has included more than $5 million in funding for a second Chicago-Twin Cities passenger train in his recommendations for the state’s 2024-24 budgets. The La Crosse Tribune reports the recommendations include increases in the state funding in capital projects to reflect inflation, as well as funds to […]
CHICAGO — Citing “ongoing equipment issues,” Amtrak has cancelled one round trip of Wolverine service between Chicago and Detroit on Thursday, following similar cancellations today (Wednesday, Feb. 1), as well as other disruptions because of a Canadian National derailment Tuesday night in Detroit. Equipment problems are also being cited for a series of delays on […]
Amtrak F40PH locomotives are considered the standard passenger motive power for the 1980s and early 1990s. The four-axle, 3,000-hp units are mechanically identical to the much more common GP40-2 freight locomotive, which also use the 16-645E prime mover. In fact, the F40PH was EMD’s first production passenger locomotive to use this prime mover. (Other F40PH […]
NEW YORK — On a second consecutive day highlighting plans to support rail infrastructure projects, President Joe Biden said today (Tuesday, Jan. 31) that the federal government would provide $292 million in grants for the early stages of the effort to build new rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River to connect New York and New […]
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority project to bring Metro-North commuter rail service to Penn Station via Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line, while building four new stations in the Bronx, has barely begun — but is already facing notable delays. Bloomberg reports Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction and Development, told an MTA board committee […]
GOLETA, Calif. — Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner resumed service between Goleta and San Luis Obispo on Monday, Jan. 30, following a two-week suspension. The updated schedule of service to and from San Luis Obispo is available here. Operations north of Goleta had been suspended while Union Pacific repaired a storm-damaged trestle on the grounds of Vandenberg […]
BALTIMORE — President Joe Biden today announced that the project to replace the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, a Northeast Corridor bottleneck dating to 1873, will receive more than $4 billion in federal infrastructure funding. “The structure is deteriorating. The roof is leaking. The floor is sinking. This is the United States of America, for God’s […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has asked the Surface Transportation Board to order mediation in response to Amtrak’s request for an investigation into its handling of the Sunset Limited, and says the current Sunset schedule is the root cause of the train’s problems. In a Friday filing with the STB, UP asserts that the Sunset schedule […]
BALTIMORE — President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Baltimore this afternoon to announce funding and labor agreements for the project to replace the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, the 150-year-old route into Baltimore Penn Station that is a major bottleneck on the Northeast Corridor. Biden is scheduled to speak about 2:45 p.m. EST, WMAR-TV reports. […]
