WASHINGTON – Nearly 400 railroads earned Jake Safety Awards from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association – including 357 that had zero reportable injuries in 2024. To achieve a Jake Award, an ASLRRA member railroad must perform better than the average Federal Railroad Administration reportable injury frequency rate per 200,000 person-hours worked at […]
MIAMI — The finances of Brightline’s Florida operation have produced cautionary action by bond-rating agencies on Wall Street, which have downgraded the company’s bonds and notes over concerns about its ability to service its debt. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports in a paywalled article that Fitch Group and Kroll Bond Rating Agency downgraded more […]
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 and the railroad’s diesel honoring Abraham Lincoln will make a round trip between Cheyenne and Denver in July, with a public whistle-stop appearance in Greeley, Colo., in each direction. The railroad will also auction off four cab rides to support the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in […]
Mexico’s Maya Train — built to attract tourists to sites on the Yucatan Peninsula — has little chance of becoming profitable without the development of freight traffic on the route, the operation’s general director said this month. The news site Infobae reports that, at a seminar of the Mexican Railway Association earlier this month, Gen. […]
CHICAGO — Sellouts in coach and high prices in sleeping cars, if space is available at all, are the rule rather than exception in a News Wire survey of Amtrak long-distance trains as summer arrives. Travelers will often face limited inventory for the rest of the summer despite marginal increases in equipment deployment. In a […]
MONTREAL — VIA Rail Canada workers represented by Canadian union Unifor have authorized a strike that could come as soon as June 22, the union announced Monday, May 26. Some 97.5% of workers represented by Unifor Council 4000 and Local 100 voted in favor of strike authorization. “This strike vote is not just a number […]
ROANOKE, Va. — Norfolk Southern’s Norfolk & Western heritage locomotive, ES44AC No. 8103, will take part in the 75th anniversary celebration for Class J 4-8-4 No. 611 at the Virginia Museum of Transportation, the museum has announced. The event is set for May 30-31, 2025, at the museum in Roanoke. “This is a powerful homecoming,” […]
MARHOWRA, India — Wabtec Corp. and Rio Tinto SimFer on Monday (May 26) unveiled the first locomotive in an order for TransGuinéen Railway, part of an order to serve Africa’s Simandou iron ore project. The Evolution Series ES43ACi locomotive is part of a $277 million order placed in 2024 by SimFer, a joint venture of […]
WORTHINGTON, Ohio — The 2025 National Train Day on May 10 became the perfect opportunity for the Ohio Railway Museum (ORM) to unveil its plans for the future. In a presentation by ORM President William (Bill) DeVelin, the new development plan titled “Vision for the Future” showcased an initiative to revitalize both the current and […]
A look at international rail news of note: ‘Locomotion’ set for Greatest Gathering Locomotion No. 1, the first steam locomotive to operate on a public railway, has been added to the equipment slated to appear at ‘The Greatest Gathering,’ the three-day festival of historic equipment that is part of the United Kingdom’s Railway 200 celebration. […]
JUNEAU, Alaska — A resolution calling for federal funding for two extensions of the Alaska Railroad network is dead for this year after failing to advance out of a Senate committee. The Senate Rules Committee voted 14-6 on May 20 against advancing House Joint Resolution 14. Features of the resolution include a call for the […]
WASHINGTON — Minnesota Republicans in the House of Representatives on Friday (May 23) announced an effort to eliminate federal funding for three rail programs: the Northstar commuter service; Blue Line light rail extension in the Twin Cities, and the proposed Northern Light Express between the Twin Cities and Duluth. The four legislators — Tom Emmer […]
