Former Kansas City Southern CEO Patrick Ottensmeyer — who led the cross-border railroad through turmoil over free trade, the transition to a Precision Scheduled Railroad operating model, and its historic merger with Canadian Pacific — died July 26. He was 67. “Pat’s vision and leadership played a monumental role in the great history of Kansas […]
GULL LAKE, Sask. — Approximately 18 cars of a CPKC freight train derailed Sunday evening about a mile east of the town of Gull Lake on Sunday evening. The Regina Leader-Post reports there were no injuries and no hazardous materials involved, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which reported the incident about 7:40 p.m. […]
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada’s labor minister, Seamus O’Regan, announced today (Thursday, July 18) that he is stepping down from that position and will not seek reelection to parliament. His resignation from the cabinet position is effective Friday, but he will continue to serve as an MP from the St. John’s South-Mount Pearl riding in Newfoundland […]
MONTREAL — The Canada Industrial Relations Board aims to make a ruling by Aug. 9 on the question of essential services that has put a potential Canadian rail strike or lockout on hold, Canadian National Railway says. In a Friday update, the railroad said it the board will provide another update in the event another […]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are summoning executives from the six Class I freight railroads to a rare public hearing to explain how their companies plan to invest in and grow their business amid concern over recent negative volume trends. In a notice published today (Friday, July 12), the Surface Transportation Board said it also welcomes […]
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state has begun work on a new rail bridge across the Hudson River in Albany to replace a structure with portions dating to 1865, and also awarded funding to tear down a deteriorating, vacant warehouse that led to interruptions of rail service in 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced today. The […]
BORDULAC, N.D. — All railcars containing hazardous material have been removed from the site of Friday’s derailment of a CPKC train near Bordulac, and operations on the railroad’s Carrington Subdivision have resumed, according to a company spokesman. The cars were safely removed on Sunday, spokesman Patrick Waldron said in an email reported by the Jamestown […]
Class I railroads’ volume trends in the second quarter varied considerably, with Norfolk Southern traffic up 5.1% and Canadian Pacific Kansas City down 4.2%, according to the railroads’ Association of American Railroads carload reports. Norfolk Southern’s volume was boosted by 8.2% year-over-year growth in intermodal traffic. Its carload volume, less coal, was up 1.7%. Coal […]
Union Pacific and BNSF Railway shut down their operations in the Houston area Sunday in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall today (Monday, July 8) as a Category 1 storm. Beryl, which was downgraded to a tropical storm this morning, came ashore at Matagorda, Texas, about 90 miles southwest of Houston. Beryl is expected […]
BORDULAC, N.D. — The fire at the site of a CPKC derailment in North Dakota has mostly been extinguished, with cleanup and infrastructure repair work continuing today (Sunday, July 7). KFGO Radio reports first responders remain on scene as the fire occasionally flairs up as the derailed railcars are moved. The process is now underway […]
BORDULAC, N.D. — Derailed cars of a CPKC train continued to burn as of early today (July 6) in Foster County, N.D., with an official saying the goal is to extinguish the fire in the next 12 to 18 hours. CNN reports Foster County Emergency Management Director Andrew Kirking said a voluntary evacuation recommendation had […]
Trains contributor Steve Smedley put together this video of Canadian Pacific Hudson No. 2816 in Iowa on the return leg of the Final Spike Steam tour to accompany his earlier photo gallery of the July 1 move from Davenport to Dubuque, Iowa [see “‘The Empress’ and its train make the trip back to Canada,” Trains.com, […]
