Brightline, FEC introduce app, other measures for Stuart bridge

Views of four iPhone screens

STUART, Fla. — Brightline and the Florida East Coast Railway have launched a schedule app and website for the St. Lucie River drawbridge, offering mariners real-time information on bridge operations. The bridge began operating under a new schedule on Aug. 15 under a new “temporary deviation” announced by the U.S. Coast Guard [see “Coast Guard […]

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News photo: Not the usual end of train

Red and black locomotive and three passenger cars on end of intermodal train

HAMILTON, Ontario — Canadian National train No. 148 passes Bayview Junction on the Dundas Subdivision on Aug. 28, with AC44C6M rebuild No. 3309 serving as the distributed power unit, followed by three cars from the railroad’s business-train fleet. Reports are the business train equipment is to operate out of Montreal later this month. — Stephen […]

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BNSF train derails near Oklahoma City

BNSF Railway logo

MOORE, Okla. — Twenty-two cars of a BNSF Railway train derailed today (Friday, Aug. 18)  in suburban Oklahoma City, blocking a grade crossing that could remain closed for several days. The derailment kept Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer from reaching its Oklahoma City terminus. The Oklahoman newspaper reports the derailment involving carloads of plastic pellets occurred about […]

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Federal court strikes down approval of Uinta Basin Railway project

Logo of Uinta Basin Railway

WASHINGTON — A federal court has struck down the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of the Uinta Basin Railway project, calling the decision allowing its construction “arbitrary and caprious.” The court also vacated the Environmental Impact Statement and a related document underlying that decision and sent the matter back to the STB. In granting the exemption […]

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Weekly U.S. rail traffic ticks further downward

Weekly table showing U.S. carload rail traffic by commodity type plus overall intermodal totals

WASHINGTON — Carload traffic showed more of a downward tick for the week ending Aug. 12, leading to a larger overall drop than has been the case recently for weekly U.S. rail traffic. The weekly figure of 472,498 carloads and intermodal units represented a 4.2% decrease from the same week in 2022, after several weeks […]

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Gotthard Base Tunnel repairs will extend into 2024

Passenger train exits tunnel and rounds curve

The Gotthard Base Tunnel sustained far more damage than had previous been believed in last week’s derailment, and it will likely be early 2024 before both bores of the world’s longest rail tunnel are back in service, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) announced today (Aug. 16). The tunnel has been closed since Aug. 10, when […]

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Second utility customer praises BNSF Railway’s coal service

orange locomotive and train comes around curve in Wyoming

WASHINGTON — A Michigan electric utility company has praised the improvement in BNSF Railway’s coal train service this year, as well as the railroad’s “accurate and timely communication” during service problems last year. Consumers Energy Co., based in Jackson, Mich., told the Surface Transportation Board this week that coal train cycle times have improved by […]

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