SAN FRANCISCO — New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its commuter railroads received six of the 12 honors in the American Public Transportation Association’s Rail Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Awards, handed out at APTA’s annual rail conference on Tuesday (July 1), 2025. In Rail Safety, the MTA’s New York City Transit received a gold […]
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 […]
THOMASTON, Conn. — No injuries resulted when the Naugatuck Railroad’s restored New Haven FL9 locomotive, No. 2019, derailed during a Sunday, June 29, excursion — an incident captured on video and circulating on social media. The locomotive sustained “significant damage,” the Railroad Museum of New England said in a statement. Thirty-five passengers were on board […]
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Regional Transit has adopted a fiscal 2026 budget calling for a 35% reduction in service, layoffs of 38% of staff, a 25-cent fare increase to $3, and the elimination of service after 11 p.m. The action on Friday, June 27, came as the PRT board faced a June 30 deadline to adopt […]
WASHINGTON — Mark Ratto has been promoted to staff director of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) has announced. Ratto joined the committee staff in July 2022 and is credited with helping to draft key sections of the Promoting Innovation in Pipeline Efficiency and […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The battery-electric versions of the Siemens Charger locomotives to be built for MTA’s Metro-North Railroad will be known as the Charger B+AC, Siemens said today (June 27, 2025). In emphasizing the new locomotive’s suitability for commuter operations, the company also announced it will be available in additional power options. Metro-North had announced […]
PHILADELPHIA — The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority board has approved a fiscal 2026 budget including a 45% cut in service and a 21.5% fare increase to address a $213 million deficit. “This is a vote none of us wanted to take,” SEPTA Board Chair Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. said in a press release following the […]
WASHINGTON — Members of the Transport Workers Union have ratified a new five-year contract with Conrail including a 17.5% wage increase, the union has announced. Journeyman carmen will make more than $100,000 a year by the end of the contract. TWU International President John Samuelsen called the deal “a big win for TWU railroad workers” […]
KINGSTON, N.Y. — Two pieces of maintenance-of-way equipment for the Catskill Mountain Railroad were damaged in a June 19 incident, the railroad reported this week — an incident the tourist line, embroiled in a disagreement over rail vs. trail use of county-owned right-of-way, is characterizing as “sabotage.” Damage to the equipment includes cutting of electrical […]
BALTIMORE — Expanded weekday and weekend operation and extension of two of the system’s three lines are among changes proposed for MARC commuter train service in a report released Wednesday (June 25, 2025) by the Maryland Department of Transportation. The 76-page MARC Growth and Transformation Plan includes five-year, 15-year, and “unconstrained” (longer-term) plans. “Thanks to […]
Former P42 locomotive No. 184 has been transformed into non-powered cab car No. 9700, shown seen here trailing southbound Empire Service train 244 at Garrison, N.Y. Amtrak is beginning to utilize these new conversions instead of aging converted F40 locomotives and ex-Metroliner cab cars, dating from the 1960s, to facilitate push-pull service. Conversion of the […]
Amtrak has experienced a series of train cancellations because of “equipment unavailability,” as well as due to heat issues, in the Midwest and East on Tuesday and today (June 25, 2025), according to the company’s social media feeds. In the Midwest, Wolverine Train No. 355, a 5:28 pm. departure from Pontiac, Mich., to Chicago, has […]
