A look at Wednesday morning rail news:
— The city of Palestine, Texas, is demanding a jury trial in Union Pacific’s lawsuit over an agreement requiring it to base a certain number of jobs in the community [see “UP sues to end employment provision in Texas town,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 2, 2019]. Attorney James Allison, representing the city, told the Palestine Herald-Press the case, which could determine the future of 65 jobs in Palestine, is“without foundation.”
— California assemblyman David Chu has introduced a bill which seeks to create “seamless” transit across the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, KPIX-TV reports.
— NJ.com details the overhead power issues that snarled Monday evening rail traffic from New York’s Penn Station — which was actually multiple failures at a point where catenary meets the flood gates on Amtrak’s aging tunnels under the Hudson River.
— Brown Industries LLC, a manufacturer of rail equipment, trolleys and van bodies, has opened a new plant in Minneapolis, Kan. The company said in a press release that it will move half its rail division to Minneapolis, increasing that division’s capacity, while allowing the van business to expand at an existing plant in Lawrence, Kan.
