ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The parent agencies of Virginia Railway Express have approved a $155 million agreement to help purchase the commuter operator’s Manassas Line from Norfolk Southern. The nonprofit news site Virginia Mercury reports the boards of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and the Potomac and Rappahannock River Transportation Commission approved the agreement in separate […]
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Eight months after it was devastated by a flood, the Sioux City Railroad Museum has reopened. The museum reopened on Saturday, March 1, and is currently open Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Its website notes that restoration and renovation is […]
TEMPLETON, Iowa — Cleanup continues after a BNSF train derailed Thursday, March 6, in west-central Iowa, WOI and KCWI-TV report. The derailment occurred about 3:24 p.m. near Templeton. Video on the stations’ website shows heavy equipment working in deep snow around three locomotives; no information was available on the number of railcars involved, but BNSF […]
CHICAGO — In the latest twist in Union Pacific’s long-running effort to exit Chicago commuter rail operations, commuter agency Metra has asked the Surface Transportation Board to require UP to allow Metra to continue operating on the three UP lines it serves. Metra’s filing today (March 7, 2025) asks the board to provide terminal trackage […]
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division is investigating Norfolk Southern and Virginia terminal railroad Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line for alleged anticompetitive conduct against CSX at a major Norfolk container terminal. CSX, which says NPBL operates like an alter ego of NS, disclosed the investigation in a filing with the Surface Transportation Board last […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The union representing workers at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has informed the agency of an intent to strike as of 12:01 a.m. on Monday, March 10. The VTA was informed of the strike plan by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 at a board meeting on Thursday, March 6, KNTV […]
CHICAGO — The registration deadline is approaching for the 117th annual dinner of the Traffic Club of Chicago, one of the nation’s oldest associations for the transportation and logistics industry. The event will be held May 15 at the Aon Grand Ballroom at Chicago’s Navy Pier. It will be preceded on May 14 by the […]
WASHINGTON — A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line train was speeding and passed a red signal before colliding with a parked train in a Feb. 9 incident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board preliminary investigation report released today (March 6, 2025). Two passengers and four crew members suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the collision […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has granted Land Rush Rail Corp., part of Farmrail, permission to lease and operate 37.26 miles of track in Oklahoma and Kansas previously operated by the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad. The route, from Wellington, Kan., to Blackwell, Okla, is owned by the Blackwell Industrial Authority and the Oklahoma Department […]
BEAR, Delaware — Amtrak is adding color coding at the entries to its railcars to guide passengers to the correct location to board its trains. The first cars introducing this system — which uses green near the doors to denote coach, blue for business class, and red for first class — were to be released […]
NEW YORK — The United Railroad Historical Society’s popular Hudson River Rail Excursions are done — for the time being. The last of the day trips between New York Penn Station and Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y., billed as “Farewell (For Now),” ran Sunday, March 2 [see “East River tunnel work to sideline …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. […]
The union that represents conductors says it will ask the Federal Railroad Administration to deny CSX’s request to become the first railroad to use Trip Optimizer’s Zero-to-Zero feature, which allows the advanced cruise-control system to automatically start and stop trains. After a round of tests in 2020 and 2021, CSX initially sought FRA permission to […]
