CHICAGO — The family of a Metra passenger killed in a May 11 grade-crossing accident has filed suit against the commuter agency and BNSF Railway, as well as the moving company whose truck was involved in the accident and the driver of the truck. The Daily Herald reports the suit filed Wednesday in Cook County […]
WASHINGTON — A major grain shipper opposes Canadian National’s effort to force Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to divest the KCS line linking Springfield, Ill., and Kansas City. Earlier this year CN asked the Surface Transportation Board to condition approval of the CP-KCS merger on divestiture of KCS’s Springfield Line. CN promises to spend […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a lower-court ruling striking down an Oklahoma law allowing railroads to be fined for blocking grade crossings longer than 10 minutes. The Oklahoman newspaper reports the court turned down without comment Oklahoma’s appeal of a decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which […]
The U.S. Class I railroads’ recurring crew shortages, related bouts of service problems, and a lack of meaningful volume growth are intertwined. You can lay the blame for all three problems at just one place: Wall Street. BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific are in the midst of the mother of all […]
CLARENDON HILLS, Ill. — A truck struck by a Metra commuter train was rotated by the impact, causing substantial damage to the train’s cab car and resulting in the death of a passenger, according to a preliminary report issued Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The preliminary report sets out basic facts of the […]
WASHINGTON — A BNSF Railway conductor was working in an area “with insufficient walking space available … to perform trackside duties” when he was struck and killed during a switching move, the National Transportation Safety Board said in describing the probable cause of an April 2021 accident in Louisiana, Mo. The NTSB accident report, completed […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board, making clear its unhappiness with service recovery plans filed by the four largest U.S. Class I railroads, will require those railroads to correct deficiencies in service recovery plans submitted to the board, and to provide additional information on how they plan to improve service and communication with customers. At […]
DEL MAR, Calif. — The California Coastal Commission has approved the San Diego Association of Governments’ stabilization plans for the Del Mar Bluffs, despite objections to parts of the project from the North County Transit District as well as residents. The San Diego Union reports that at a Wednesday, June 8, meeting, the commission unanimously […]
Overall on-time performance for the big four U.S. Class I railroads has fallen from a pre-pandemic average of 85% to just 67% in the last week of May 2022, as crew shortages continue to plague rail service. The extent of the service decline was revealed in historic on-time performance data that BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, […]
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The San Bernardino City Council has certified the environmental impact report for a BNSF Railway project to add 4.3 miles of a fourth main line through the city, closing two gaps to serve the railroad’s intermodal facility in the city. “We’re pleased that this project is moving forward, as it reflects […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Santa Fe No. 5704, the SD45-2 locomotive cosmetically restored to its bicentennial paint scheme, will be displayed at Union Station Kansas City June 14-19 to coincide with the convention of the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society on those dates in Overland Park, Kan. The locomotive, which has been donated […]
WASHINGTON — The four largest U.S. Class I railroads have told federal regulators that their conductor training programs and hiring pipelines are full as they try to restore service to normal levels amid widespread crew shortages. The railroads’ service recovery plans, submitted to the Surface Transportation Board on Friday as required, outlined the steps BNSF […]
