South Dakota official sees Amtrak service as unlikely

Map of proposed passenger rail route from Denver to Minneapolis-St. Paul via South Dakota

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s transportation secretary has injected a note of reality into discussion of possible Amtrak service in the state. That discussion gained life in February with the inclusion of two routes serving South Dakota among the 15 in a Federal Railroad Administration report on its ongoing Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study [see […]

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Amtrak seeks information on zero-emissions replacements for diesel fleet

Amtrak logo.

WASHINGTON — Amtrak on Tuesday announced it has released a Request for Information seeking information on zero-emission technologies for the company’s rail fleet as a step toward eliminating its current diesel locomotive fleet. “Finding the cleanest technologies to carry customers across our vast network will be transformative as we deliver a new era of rail,” […]

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Amtrak, NJ Transit service restored on Northeast Corridor

NEW YORK — Amtrak has restored service between Philadelphia and New York’s Penn Station following the issues that disrupted operations Monday night, the company announced in a service advisory at 7:15 a.m. ET today (Tuesday, April 16). NJ Transit is offering limited service on the Northeast Corridor. Along with what the company is calling “residual […]

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Parts issues leads to Amtrak Midwest cancellations (second update)

Train with four matching Siemens Venture passenger cars

CHICAGO — Amtrak has cancelled a series of state-supported trains in the Midwest on Friday and today (Saturday, April 13) because of issues involving parts for its Siemens Venture equipment. Responding to an inquiry from Trains News Wire, Amtrak’s Beth Toll wrote in an email, “A supply chain backlog from key vendors has delayed replacement […]

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Four-mode trains enter service in Europe

Blue, green, and white multiple-unit passenger trainset on display at trade show.

Italian national rail company Trenitalia launched its latest hybrid passenger trains earlier this month on the scenic route from Taranto to Reggio Calabria on the nation’s southern coast. The trains, built by Hitachi in Italy, are claimed to be the world’s first four-mode hybrid trains — and while they are the first to enter service, […]

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Amtrak chooses contractor for Unified Operations Center in Wilmington

Corner view of office building

WILMINGTON, Del. — Wohlsen Construction Co. has been awarded the contract for Amtrak’s Unified Operations Center project in Wilmington, Del., the company announced on Friday. The project, expected to cost more than $53 million, will built a 24-hour operations center for national operations, including fleet and onboard crew assignments and coordination of the response to […]

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Superliner shortage limits Illinois eclipse viewing ridership potential

Passenger train crosses road and approaches signal

CARBONDALE, Ill. — For a few hours Thursday, travelers along Illinois’ Chicago-Carbondale Amtrak corridor could book a daytime round trip to next Monday’s solar eclipse “path of totality,” thereby avoiding monumental traffic jams along parallel highways that occurred during a similar event in August  2017. But that window of opportunity closed when seats that briefly […]

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