A Viewliner sleeper on the Lake Shore Limited in 2018. Amtrak is holding a sale on sleeping-car accommodations. Bob Johnston WASHINGTON — Amtrak is holding a sale on sleeping-car accommodations through Monday, June 10 — but this time is including bedrooms and family rooms in the promotion. The sale waives companion rail fares when two […]
LOS ANGELES — The leading consultant on California’s high speed rail project has been suspended after a state agency began investigating a possible conflict of interest in his approval of a multimillion-dollar contract, the Los Angeles Times reports. Roy Hill, deputy chief operating officer for the California High Speed Rail Authority and an executive at […]
ST. LOUIS — Amtrak’s suspension of Missouri River Runner operation between St. Louis and Kansas City will drag into a fourth week, with the latest extension to last through at least Monday, June 10. Rerouted Union Pacific freight traffic, the result of flooding elsewhere in the Midwest, continues to lead to track congestion resulting in […]
An arriving Metro Gold Line train passes a Metrolink train awaiting its afternoon departure on Feb. 21, 2017. TRAINS: David Lassen This article is the second of five on transit in the U.S. and North America. Read parts One, Three, Four, and Five online. Transit agencies are beginning to see their role as greater than just getting people from station […]
Metra has opened its new station at Prairie Crossing on the Milwaukee North line, shown in April before the completion of landscaping. TRAINS: David Lassen The new Illinois budget includes more than $1 million for new pedestrian walkways at the Hanover Park Metra station on the Milwaukee West line. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Metra […]
Rocky Mountaineer’s GoldLeaf class equipment displays an open platform at Jasper, Alberta, in August 2009. Steve Hobson You may no longer be allowed to experience platform riding and open vestibules on Amtrak routes, but these amenities still appear frequently on tourist railroads and other passenger trains across North America. Several tourist railroads in the U.S. […]
Blue Line train from O’Hare to downtown Chicago travels along the center divider of Interstate 90, the Kennedy Expressway, on April 13, 2019. TRAINS: David Lassen This article is the first of five on transit in the U.S., and North America. Read parts Two, Three, Four, and Five online. Across the U.S., cities have added […]
Amtrak’s Illinois Zephyr passes through Lisle, Ill., on the BNSF Railway on May 25, 2019. Among items in the new Illinois budget is funding for two additional state-supported Amtrak trains and extension of BNSF commuter service into Kendall County. TRAINS: David Lassen SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — In a surprise Saturday session, the Illinois General Assembly passed a […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined a request from the Association of American Railroads to review a lower-court ruling regarding the authority of Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to establish on-time performance metrics and standards for Amtrak operation on host freight railroads. The convoluted legal history of the case has seen a […]
ST. LOUIS — Amtrak’s suspension of Missouri River Runner operation between St. Louis and Kansas City has been extended again, this time through at least Wednesday, June 5. Rerouted Union Pacific freight traffic, the result of flooding elsewhere in the Midwest, continues to lead to track congestion resulting in the suspension. Chartered buses are substituting […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Efforts to advance proposed Amtrak service between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth-Superior will have to wait another year after the Minnesota legislature failed to address a bill which included funding for the proposed Northern Lights Express. The proposed $550 million cost of starting the service, including adding capacity to BNSF’s main line, […]
Connecticut Department of Transportation M2 No. 8705 leads a weekend Metro-North New Haven-Grand Central terminal train at West Haven, Conn., March 7, 2015. This M2 set would be one of the last of the fleet to operate until the end of 2018. Scott A. Hartley NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After more than 44 years of […]
