PUEBLO, Colo. — A broken rail is believed to have caused the derailment of a BNSF coal train near Pueblo on Sunday that led to the death of a truck driver on Interstate 25, according to preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety Board. The Colorado Sun news site reports NTSB investigators determined the broken […]
WASHINGTON — A broken rail caused the derailment and subsequent fire involving a BNSF Railway train in Raymond, Minn., according to a National Transportation Safety Board memo in the investigation docket of the March 30, 2023, incident released Monday. Twenty-three cars derailed in the incident, 10 of which were carrying ethanol; material was released from […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — The driver of a semi truck was killed when a bridge collapsed Sunday as a result of a BNSF coal-train derailment that has closed Interstate 25, Colorado’s main north-south highway, near Pueblo. An image from a Colorado State Patrol post on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, shows the train derailed […]
PIERRE, S.D. — Eight railroads and government agencies have made their pitches to the South Dakota Railroad Board for more than $58 million available in infrastructure project funding from the Federal Railroad Administration. KELO-TV reports that the board is administering $58.9 million in Special Transportation Circumstances grants, part of $139 million in funding announced earlier […]
BISMARCK, N.D. — Three organizations have received a total of more than $250,000 to fund historical exhibits about the Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge, KFYR-TV reports. BNSF Railway is providing funding through the State Historical Society for the exhibits under an agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard. The North Dakota State Railroad Museum in Mandan will […]
A cut of cars ran away downgrade on BNSF Railway’s Slaton Subdivision in the Texas Panhandle on Sunday morning and collided with the lead locomotive of a westbound train, demolishing its cab. The crew was warned ahead of time and was able to move to safety. Images online showed a flatcar carrying steel pipe crashed […]
FORT WORTH, Texas – BNSF Railway has opened two new sections of main line trackage on the Southern Transcon: A third main track on the Needles Subdivision in California and a second main track on the Emporia Subdivision in Kansas. Last week BNSF opened an additional 8-mile segment of the third main between Homer and […]
DELTA, British Columbia — The British Columbia government has provided environmental clearance for expansion of the container port at Roberts Bank, B.C., the Canadian Press reports, saying it could not prohibit the project from going forward in light of earlier federal approval. The C$3.5 billion Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project was approved by the Canadian […]
I wrote last month about working grain trains west as a young brakeman. This month’s story, entitled “Trust me,” is from late 2008 when I was working as a locomotive engineer. In my 42 years on the railroad, the last 30 as an engineer, I took pride in being qualified on three mountain-grade territories: Stampede […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) have reached an agreement to allow for more predictable scheduling and paid sick days for all ground service employees, the parties have announced. Thursday’s announcement says the tentative agreement, after several months of negotiations, follows […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board has called for development of new standards for gaskets used by tank cars in flammable-liquid service as a result of investigation into a January 2022 derailment and fire involving a BNSF Railway Train in Oklaunion, Texas. The NTSB released a synopsis of its final report on Thursday. [The […]
CHICAGO — BNSF Railway reached a settlement last week in a biometric data privacy case in which it had initially been assessed a $228 million penalty, only to have that award thrown out on appeal. Reuters reports that the railroad reached a settlement with a group of truck drivers over claims that BNSF illegally collected […]
