MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Dieselization came late to the Milwaukee County Zoo’s railroad, but it has arrived. The zoo announced today (Thursday, March 14), that it has sold the two steam locomotives for its 1.25-mile, 15-inch gauge railroad — No. 1916, the Henry J. Grant, a 4-4-2 built in 1961, and No. 1924, a 4-6-2 built […]
WASHINGTON — Projects in Illinois, Louisiana, and North Carolina have received a total of $900,000 in planning and development funding under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Interstate Rail Compacts grant program, the FRA announced today (Thursday, March 14). Compacts are agreements between two or more states to support development of intercity passenger rail services that can […]
ST. LOUIS — Siemens Mobility will build 55 new battery hybrid S200 high-floor light rail vehicles for the Metro Transit system, replacing the oldest vehicles in the MetroLink light rail system, the company has announced. Bi-State Development, operator of Metro Transit, selected Siemens, which previously built the system’s SD400 and SD460 LRVs in orders beginning […]
WATERLOO, Iowa — The city of Waterloo has received a $750,000 grant to begin preparations for possible relocation Canadian National Railway’s yard from downtown Waterloo to outside of town, along with other rail projects to improve safety, traffic flow, and pedestrian access. The project will be funded from the Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota bill to limit the length of freight trains has cleared its first legislative hurdle, passing a committee of the state’s House of Representatives on Tuesday. HF3499, introduced by Rep. Jeff Brand (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, St. Peter, Minn.), would limit trains to 8,500 feet, with penalties escalating from as little as […]
CHICAGO — Upgrading speeds and capacity or simply keeping tracks well-maintained for passenger trains has tradeoffs that often compromise a rail corridor’s ability to provide meaningful mobility while the work is going on. An example will occur in Michigan beginning May 6, when Amtrak and the state of Michigan jointly made the decision to suspend […]
Santa Fe’s Kansas City Chief, the top overnight train to its namesake city, awaits departure time at Chicago’s Dearborn Station in the mid-1960s. Jim Boyd photo […]
MINNEAPOLIS — Metro Transit will resume Northstar commuter train service for 38 Minnesota Twins home games this season, the transit agency announced Friday, March 8. Trains will run for the Twins’ home opener April 4, for all Saturday and Sunday games, week day day games, and on Memorial Day and July 4. A complete game […]
HOMEWOOD, Ill. — The Homewood station on Metra’s Electric District will close from April 1 to May 20 to replace the single stairway leading to the station platform, Metra has announced. The station has been undergoing a $20.7 million reconstruction since May 2023, and has remained open during the project, but must close during this […]
AKRON, Ohio — A federal court has ruled against Norfolk Southern in a suit seeking to share cleanup costs for the February 2023 East Palestine derailment with railcar owners and the maker of the vinyl chloride involved in the incident. In a decision filed Wednesday, Judge John R. Adams of the U.S. District Court for […]
High-mounted St. Louis-San Francisco 2-8-0 1262 heads into a siding with a freight at Neosho, Mo., in 1934. The tower in the background and split-rail derail in the foreground protect the Frisco’s crossing with a Kansas City Southern line. Harold K. Vollrath collection […]
WASHINGTON — The controlled burn of vinyl chloride following last year’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was unnecessary, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told a Senate hearing today — and might have been avoided with better communication. Homendy, testifying at a Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on NTSB investigations, said in […]
