Until Texas Central became a zombie company over the past couple of years, its plan to link Dallas and Houston with a fleet of Japanese bullet trains was the country’s best shot at finally getting true high-speed passenger rail. Texas Central’s concept — operate proven 205-mph Shinkansen trains on a dedicated right-of-way with no grade […]
Dieselmotive Co, Inc. of Turlock, Calif., has purchased two former Gettysburg Railroad F7s last operated in 2013, with an eye toward returning the locomotives to freight service. The two units, last used by the Pioneer Lines short line in Gettsysburg, Pa., in 2013, are en route to a short line in Kansas for evaluation and […]
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — VIA Rail Canada is in the midst of spending more than C$80 million to preserve and upgrade four heritage stations across its network, the company said last week. That includes C$25 million at Winnipeg, where work is expected to be completed later this year. That money is being spent between 2020 and […]
COOS BAY, Ore. — The Port of Coos Bay, Ore., is once again making a bid for a U.S. Department of Transportation Mega Grant, after its bid for an intermodal project was not selected a year ago. The project seeks to create a new intermodal gateway capable of handling 1.2 million containers per year. Oregon […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is preparing to buy the first trainsets for its high speed rail system. The California High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors last week approved a Request for Qualifications for the purchase of six trainsets for use on the initial 171-mile, Merced-to-Bakersfield section of the long-delayed LA-San Francisco high speed system. “Our […]
RICHMOND, British Columbia — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has expressed concerns about fire risks posted by distributed-power locomotives as part of its final report on a July 2021 incident involving a Canadian Pacific freight train at Elko, B.C. In a press release accompanying Thursday’s release of the final investigation report, the TSB says […]
WAYCROSS, Ga. — CSX has released its latest heritage diesel, this time honoring predecessor Louisville & Nashville. The ES44AH locomotive will wear number 1850, which the railroad explains signifies the year the L&N was chartered by the state of Kentucky. The railroad later became part of the Seaboard Coast Line, then part of Chessie System […]
BOSTON — The delivery schedule for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway cars being built by Chinese firm CRRC remains undetermined, but MBTA and Massachusetts officials believe the company will eventually complete its troubled order for the railcars. CommonWealth Magazine reports that MBTA CEO Phillip Eng told a Thursday board meeting that he, MBTA Deputy […]
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The contract worker killed in a maintenance-of-way accident earlier this month on state-owned tracks operated by the Housatonic Railroad has been identified as Rodolfo G. Rocha, 51, of Los Fresnos, Texas, the Berkshire Eagle newspaper reports. Survivors include a wife and son. Rocha was hit by track equipment while working in […]
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City operations have returned to normal in wildfire-ravaged British Columbia, where a fire halted rail traffic for a day last week, according to RailState, a company that tracks freight rail movements across Canada. The Kookipi Creek Fire shut down the railroads’ directional running zone in the Fraser River Canyon […]
WASHINGTON — Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD), has been named to the Surface Transportation Board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council. Ferguson, who joins the RSTAC as an at-large member, has nearly 30 years in the rail industry, having begun his career as a conductor. […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific furloughed 94 mechanical employees at shops across the system this week due to soft traffic volumes and a higher number of locomotives placed in storage. “As a routine part of business, we constantly examine our resources against volume needs. While some targeted furloughs are occurring in a handful of mechanical […]
