LONDON — Two rail operators in the United Kingdom are testing a new fare system that will replace paper or digital tickets with a pay-as-you-go system based on Global Positioning System passenger tracking. The UK government’s Department for Transport says up to 4,000 passengers can sign up to use the system, which launched on Monday […]
In the 1910s, Lawson Billinton of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway was tasked with designing a successor to the E1 Class 0-6-0T steam locomotives, designed by William Stroudley in 1874. The “answer” became the E2 Class 0-6-0T that would go on to have a complicated legacy during its flawed career and after its […]
MEXICO CITY — Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize plan to create a working group to study the creation of rail connections between the three nations, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday. The plans were announced following a Friday, Aug. 15, meeting between Sheinbuam, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and Belizean Prime Minister John Briceño. The business news […]
BERLIN — The CEO of Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s troubled national rail company, has been fired. Broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports Richard Lutz, who had been CEO since 2017 and had a contract through March 2027, was dismissed by Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder today (Aug. 14, 2025). A DB representative said Lutz would continue as a caretaker […]
UPDATE: Authorities say at least three people have been killed and several others injured in the train derailment in southwestern Germany.https://t.co/RID5AMMFoW — DW News (@dwnews) July 27, 2025 RIEDLINGEN, Germany — Two train crew members and one passenger died in a derailment near Stuttgart on Sunday, an incident police say was caused by an overflowing […]
SHILTON, England — Officials in the United Kingdom have announced a new feature for the 200th anniversary of the first modern steam railway in September: A newly restored replica of the Stockton & Darlington Railways original locomotive, Locomotion No. 1, will operate on sections of the original railway on Sept. 26-28, part of a weeklong […]
PITTSBURGH — Wabtec will further expand its digital rail inspection and detection business, announcing today (July 7, 2025) that it will acquire Austrian-based Frauscher Sensor Technology Group for €675 million ($792 million). The acquisition of Frauscher — an international supplier of rail detection, wayside object control, and axle-counting products — comes just days after Wabtec […]
Every time an acquaintance or travel writer returns from Europe and sets foot on American soil, you’ll hear the same refrain: “Oh, if only we had passenger trains like that.” What they mean, of course, is that Amtrak cannot possibly compare. Not on frequency, not on speed, not on equipment, not on stations, not on […]
Railroads around the world might look and operate differently, but the challenges of keeping the public safe around passenger platforms and at grade crossings (called level crossings outside of North America) are more or less the same everywhere. No one knows these challenges better than the international community of railroad officials from industry, government, and […]
Senior Editor David Lassen is now scheduled to serve as the Trains Magazine host on the Trains/Special Interest Tours “UK Celebration Steam Bicentennial Tour,” a 10-day, nine-night event set for Sept. 23-Oct. 2, 2025. Space remains available for the tour, which begins in London and ends in Manchester. It includes private-car excursions on the Ffestiniog […]
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s troubled deal with China’s CRRC for rapid-transit equipment has a new problem: components have been confiscated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. Public broadcaster WGBH reports railcar shells and other parts manufactured in China for completion at a plant in Springfield, Mass., have been seized by customs […]
LONDON — The private train of Britain’s royal family will be retired, King Charles has decided. The first royal train, with special cars commissioned by Queen Victoria, dates to 1869. The current version’s equipment dates to 1977 and was last upgraded in the 1980s; its stock would need to be replaced, and storage and maintenance […]
