WASHINGTON — Amtrak has announced it expects ridership to top 2019 — pre-COVID — levels this year and reach a new all-time record high even though it currently has less capacity. Ridership is reported 20% higher in the first 8 months of Amtrak’s budget year that began Oct. 1, 2023. Ticket revenue is showing a […]
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The George H.W. Bush Presidential Center officially opened the new pavilion that houses Union Pacific SD70Ace No. 4141 on Thursday, which would have been the president’s 100th birthday. The 29,000-square-foot pavilion on the Texas A&M campus also includes a helicopter that was frequently used as Marine One to carry the president […]
DENVER – OmniTRAX, a supply-chain and logistics provider that operates 26 short line railroads, has promoted John Bradley to executive vice president of operations. The 30-year rail veteran leads an operational team that posted multiple company records in service, safety, and productivity while adding three new railroads to the OmniTRAX network. Under Bradley’s tenure, the […]
WASHINGTON – Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are contracting out dispatching of the Alameda Corridor to a neutral third party. The 16.1 mile grade-separated corridor, which leads to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., handled an average of 31 trains per day in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Alameda […]
WASHINGTON – Total U.S. weekly rail traffic for the week ending June 8 was up 4.1% compared with the same week last year thanks to a spike in intermodal volume. Carloads declined 4.4% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was up 12.2%, the Association of American Railroads reported. Six […]
NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority replaced the first section of the 130-year-old Park Avenue Viaduct in Manhattan without disrupting Metro-North service over the weekend, the transit agency said yesterday. The Park Avenue Viaduct carries four Metro-North Railroad tracks and serves all Metro-North trains traveling into and out of Grand Central Terminal, totaling 750 […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Canadian Pacific Kansas City for violating the Clean Water Act following two derailments that resulted in oil spills in Maine. The derailments on the former Central Maine & Quebec occurred in 2022 and 2023 following washouts. Nearly 15,000 gallons of contaminants were spilled into nearby […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX is flattening the hump and demolishing the hump tower at its yard in Cumberland, Md., and building a classification yard ladder to make flat-switching more efficient. Similar moves are under way at the railroad’s yards in Hamlet, N.C., and Willard, Ohio, where the humps were decommissioned in 2017 as CSX shifted […]
WASHINGTON — Aside from the revelation that Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner was granted $620,000 in bonuses on top of a $500,000 salary last year, very little new ground was covered at today’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Rail Subcommittee hearing. The hearing, “Amtrak and Intercity Passenger Rail Oversight: Promoting Performance, Safety and Accountability,” was abruptly […]
LAREDO, Texas — With SD70ACU No. 7013 and two FP9 diesels at the head end, Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 No. 2816 pulled into Laredo on June 11 after recrossing the Rio Grande at the International Railway Bridge, reentering the United States. Roughly 2 weeks prior on May 30, The Empress led the three diesels and office […]
BALTIMORE — The Port of Baltimore’s main shipping channel reopened Monday. The channel had been blocked after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River, when it was struck by the container ship Dali on March 26. The reopened shipping lane will allow Norfolk Southern and CSX to resume normal intermodal operations through […]
FERNLEY, Nev. – The Port of Nevada, an inland port near Reno, is now offering international intermodal service to and from the Port of Oakland, Calif., thanks to a partnership with Union Pacific and CMA CGM Group. “Direct rail access between Reno and the West Coast significantly increases the amount of cargo freight that can […]
