WASHINGTON — Five of the seven Class I railroads operating in the U.S. last year were revenue adequate in 2022, the Surface Transportation Board said today. Being revenue adequate means a railroads achieved a rate of return equal to or greater than the board’s calculation of the average cost of capital to the freight rail […]
Type of Train: Freight
Federal regulators pause controversial rule allowing shipment of LNG by rail
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have suspended a rule that would have allowed the shipment of liquefied natural gas in railroad tank cars. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration, last week said the rule adopted in 2020 would be shelved until whichever comes first: June 30, 2025 or […]
GM&O Jack Local
[…]
Caboose Week | September 3-9, 2023
Caboose, van, wagon, cabin car, bobber, or even crummy…Call it what you like, Trains.com commemorates all of them, large and small, during CABOOSE WEEK…Sept. 3rd to 9th, 2023! […]
Passenger equipment from Britain, US heads to Mexico
Some of Britain’s iconic High Speed Train locomotives and cars are currently in transit across the Atlantic to Mexico for use on a rail line being rebuilt for the Mexican government in a project led by the country’s Navy. The British HST equipment, along with two Spanish built ‘tram-train’ light rail vehicles previously used for […]
CSX: Norfolk Southern lawsuit over Pan Am matters is now moot
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX Transportation says Berkshire & Eastern’s operation of Pan Am Southern, which began today, should moot the concerns that Norfolk Southern raised last month in a lawsuit alleging that CSX was hampering its access to New England. NS asked a Delaware court for an expedited preliminary injunction that would bar CSX and […]
AAR says STB erred in decision ordering BNSF Railway to haul more coal from Montana mine
WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads has filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing BNSF Railway in its appeal of the Surface Transportation Board’s decision ordering the railroad to haul more export coal from a Montana mine to tidewater in British Columbia. The brief, filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, […]
Regulators pause environmental review of proposed Union Pacific line near Phoenix
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have put a hold on their final environmental assessment of Union Pacific’s proposed 6-mile branch to a new industrial park being built outside Phoenix. The Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis, in a decision released on Thursday, said it was delaying a decision indefinitely due to the discovery of “significant […]
News Photo: A quiet finale for Pan Am Southern
Pan Am Southern quietly wrapped up operations on Thursday. Shown is one of the final trains, EDBF, making a late-afternoon departure from the former Boston & Maine yard at East Deerfield, Mass., for to Bellows Falls, Vt. Effective today (Sept. 1, 2023), Pan Am Southern lines in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York […]
Latest weekly figure shows U.S. rail traffic down by 5.9%
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic showed its largest single-week drop in several weeks for the week ending Aug. 26, with volume down 5.9% compared to the same week in 2022. The total volume of 472,525 carloads and intermodal units included 226,679 carloads, down 3.9% from the corresponding week a year ago, and 245,846 containers and […]
Short line derailment in South Dakota leaves railcars dangling above roadway
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. — A D&I Railroad train derailed on BNSF Railway trackage in North Sioux City today (Aug. 30), damaging a bridge and leaving derailed cars suspended over a roadway. KCAU-TV reports the derailment occurred about 4 p.m., and that BNSF confirmed the train involved belonged to D&I, the subsidiary of concrete, paving, […]
Customs agency suspends BNSF and Union Pacific from anti-terrorism partnership
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has suspended BNSF Railway and Union Pacific from its Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program. The railroads’ certification was suspended for 90 days effective Aug. 22, BNSF and UP said in customer advisories. “We continue to work with our partners to ensure safety procedures are followed and that […]