OmniTRAX becomes partner in Arizona commerce park

DENVER — Shortline holding company OmniTRAX has acquired Central Arizona Commerce Park’s rail infrastructure and remaining park acreage. With the acquisition, OmniTRAX becomes the exclusive infrastructure partner of the 679-acre industrial park located in Casa Grande, which is midway between Phoenix and Tucson. This move marks OmniTRAX’s third rail transaction in the past six months […]

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BNSF Railway launches program to improve interchange with short lines

Man climbing on front steps of orange locomotive

FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway has launched a Shortline Select program designed to improve interchanges and service while deepening the commercial ties between the Class I and its short line connections. The first participating short line is Genesee & Wyoming’s 339-mile Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway (AGR), which interchanges with BNSF at Armory, Miss. […]

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Port of LA plans $52 million on-dock rail upgrade

Aerial view of on-dock rail facilities at port

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. container port arms race is moving by rail. The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Thursday said it has approved a lease amendment that finalizes plans for $52 million to improve the on-dock rail capacity at the Port of Los Angeles Pier 300. Pier 300, the second-largest terminal at Los Angeles, […]

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Jacksonville Terminal N scale container flatcar

A 60-foot intermodal container flatcar has joined Jacksonville Terminal Co.’s growing N scale freight car lineup. The newly tooled car features Very Real Knuckle (VRK) couplers and insulated metal wheelsets. Prototype history The sample we received is decorated as Trailer Train car VTTX 91927. The proto­type VTTX cars were a mix of Pullman-Standard 60-foot bulkhead […]

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G&W train dispatchers vote to join union

Genesee & Wyoming train dispatchers have voted to join the American Train Dispatchers Association, the union said this week. Based at the American Rail Dispatching Center in St. Albans, Vt., the 34 G&W dispatchers control railroad traffic in 43 states on more than 13,000 miles of shortline track. The center handles dispatching for nearly all […]

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Short line founder Gene Blabey II passes away

Eugene (Gene) H. Blabey II, who founded several short lines during a 50-year railroading career, died on Sept. 2. He was 85. Blabey was among the first railroaders inducted into the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s Short Line Railroad Industry Hall of Fame. “Gene was a legend in our industry and a leading […]

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Norfolk Southern and final SMART-TD general committee reach tentative agreement

Crew member riding on locomotive steps

ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has reached a tentative agreement with its final general committee SMART-TD union that represents conductors. SMART-TD (the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division) is the largest labor union on NS, and two of its three general committees on the railroad had already backed tentative contract deals. […]

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