NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority project to bring Metro-North commuter rail service to Penn Station via Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line, while building four new stations in the Bronx, has barely begun — but is already facing notable delays. Bloomberg reports Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction and Development, told an MTA board committee […]
Train Topic: Rail Industry
B&P Tunnel to receive more than $4 billion in federal funding, Biden says
BALTIMORE — President Joe Biden today announced that the project to replace the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, a Northeast Corridor bottleneck dating to 1873, will receive more than $4 billion in federal infrastructure funding. “The structure is deteriorating. The roof is leaking. The floor is sinking. This is the United States of America, for God’s […]
CPKC offers plan to address traffic issues in Chicago-area suburbs
WASHINGTON — As part of their merger, Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern will work with a group of Chicago-area communities on voluntary measures to address traffic concerns in those communities, the railroads say in the final Environmental Impact Statement released today (Friday, Jan. 27) by the Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis. The […]
Final environmental review finds few problems with Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger
WASHINGTON — The Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger would cause few adverse environmental impacts aside from increased train noise in some locations, the Surface Transportation Board said in its final environmental impact statement today. The three-volume environmental impact statement, or EIS, incorporates comments the STB received at public hearings along CP and KCS routes in […]
NS touts industrial development projects in 2022
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern and 120 companies worked together to facilitate 159 industrial development projects along the railroad’s network in 2022, NS said in a press release, with those projects representing $3.2 billion in investment and creating more than 3,900 new jobs. “In partnership with public and private sector leaders, Norfolk Southern is a catalytic […]
Iowa legislation to limit train length takes first step forward
DES MOINES, Iowa — Legislation seeking to limit the length of freight trains in the state of Iowa passed its first legislative hurdle Thursday, moving through a subcommittee to the state House Transportation Committee. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports a three-member subcommittee voted unanimously to advance House Study Bill 88, which would limit freight trains […]
Greenbrier affiliate Gunderson to close railcar plant, laying off 101
PORTLAND, Ore. — Railcar manufacturer The Greenbrier Cos. will close its Gunderson plant this spring, laying off 101 workers as it shifts production to other factories, the Oregonian newspaper reports. Layoffs will begin in March; some production at the plant will continue until May, at which time the company expects to complete the plant closure […]
U.S. weekly rail traffic remains down in third week of 2023
WASHINGTON — The downward trend for U.S. rail traffic continued for the week ending Jan. 21, with overall traffic down 2.1% compared to the same week in 2022. Total traffic was 467,485 carloads and intermodal units. That included 230,545 carloads, up 3.3%, and 236,940 trailers and containers, down 6.7%. Traffic through three weeks of 2023 […]
CSX expects volume to increase this year as service continues to improve
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation reported strong fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday and, despite signs of an economic slowdown, said it expected to gain volume this year thanks to ongoing service improvements. “I’m particularly proud to report that our service metrics continued to show real improvement through the fourth quarter after starting a clear upward trend […]
Justice Department chimes in, again, with concerns about CP-KCS merger
WASHINGTON — No one from the Justice Department bothered to testify at the Surface Transportation Board’s September hearing on the proposed merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern. But that absence doesn’t mean the Justice Department doesn’t have concerns about the first merger of Class I railroads in two decades. In a letter to […]
Former Milwaukee Road VP Paul Cruikshank Jr. dies
BLOOMFIELD, Conn. – Paul F. Cruikshank Jr., who served as Milwaukee Road’s vice president of operations during the critical years the railroad downsized and reorganized to a profitable core system, died Jan. 17 in Bloomfield. He was 93. Cruikshank had a long and varied railroad career. He started as a brakeman for the Great Northern Railway […]
CN operations chief Ed Harris: ‘Tighter schedule adherence … is near and dear to my heart’
MONTREAL — When it comes right down to it, railroading is not a complicated business, Canadian National Chief Operating Officer Ed Harris says. It’s all about sticking to a schedule, following the operating plan no matter what, and running safely. Harris, who served as CN’s operations boss from 2005 to 2007, was named COO on […]