Still more Monday morning rail news: Former FRA administrator Batory joins R.J. Corman board Ronald Batory, whose term as administrator of the Federal Railroad Adminstration ended concluded with the change of presidential administrations in January, has been named to the board of directors of the R.J. Corman Railroad Group. Batory’s 46-year career in the railroad […]
NORFOLK, Va. — After idling the humps at six yards over the past two years under its shift to a Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model, Norfolk Southern now is turning its focus to further boosting train length. The changes aim to help NS close the operating ratio gap with the rest of the industry by reducing […]
More Wednesday morning rail news: CP derailment knocks out power in Field, B.C. The community of Field, B.C., was at risk of running out of electricity Tuesday night after a Canadian Pacific grain train derailed earlier in the day, knocking out power. The CBC reports the train derailed about 1:40 a.m., taking out a power line. CP […]
WASHINGTON —Amtrak CEO William Flynn has outlined his company’s “top five priorities that we ask Congress to address” in a letter sent to legislators last week. The letter, released by Amtrak, says those priorities are: — Emergency funding: $1.541 billion of COVID relief this year “to sustain and restore operations and recall employees” through September 30 […]
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Winchester & Western, the 100-mile short line with trackage in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey, was able to grow last year despite the pandemic. Traffic on the railroad, which short line holding company OmniTRAX acquired in September 2019, was up a shade over 9% last year. That was below railroad […]
More Tuesday morning rail news: OmniTRAX names Piacente as new CEO Short line and transportation company OmniTRAX has named Dean Piacente as its new CEO, effective Feb. 1. Piacente has more than 20 years’ experience as a commercial executive at CSX Transportation, and brings more than 30 years of financial planning, analysis, and expertise in […]
More Monday morning rail news: BNSF intermodal train derails in Arizona, stopping Southwest Chief No injuries were reported when a BNSF intermodal train derailed Sunday afternoon near Joseph City, Ariz., KPHO-TV reports. Photos show several double-stack well cars off the tracks, with containers overturned. The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office says the accident was reported about 1 […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The coronavirus pandemic has hit Kansas City Southern de Mexico particularly hard, with up to 15% of the railroad’s train crews out on leave due to COVID-19. On a typical day, about 5% of train crews systemwide mark off due to coronavirus on both sides of the border, KCS executives said […]
AKRON, Ohio — William B. “Bill” Benson, who was deeply involved in a number of steam railroading activities in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Jan. 16. He was 80. He was a co-founder of Steam Tours Inc, and owned former Reading T-1 No. 2102, operating it on a number of excursions in the Midwest […]
The publicly traded Class I railroads will begin reporting their fourth-quarter and full-year financial results Thursday, when Union Pacific and CSX Transportation release their earnings. As a group, earnings for the six Class I systems are expected to rise 5.5%, according to I/B/E/S consensus estimates. That’s far better performance than is anticipated for the large […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board took a victory lap last week over the implementation of positive train control, the landmark safety system that it first recommended after the head-on collision of two Penn Central commuter trains in 1969. “Over the next five decades we investigated one crash after another that could have been […]
More Monday morning rail news: Avon, Colo., officials approve paying half of fees for legal challenges to Tennessee Pass plan Officials in Avon, Colo., have agreed to having the town of 6,500 pay half the fees to any legal challenge to a plan to revive rail service over Tennessee Pass. The Vail Daily reports Eagle […]
