OMAHA, Neb. – Union Pacific says the results of the Federal Railroad Administration’s focused inspections of its freight cars and locomotives raised more questions than answers. “Typically, inspections by the FRA include a focused audit close out with clear findings and action steps, as well as a meeting to discuss any findings and mitigation approaches,” […]
WASHINGTON – The track circuit for a California siding where Union Pacific had stored empty well cars for more than eight months shifted between occupied and unoccupied nearly two dozen times in the nine hours before a stack train was routed into the siding with fatal results [see “UP train in fatal collision hit cars […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific’s freight car and locomotive inspection and maintenance practices pose a “significant risk to rail safety,” the head of the Federal Railroad Administration said in a letter sent Friday to top railroad executives. FRA Administrator Amit Bose said the agency conducted a focused inspection of UP’s mechanical operations and rolling stock in […]
WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a safety advisory calling on railroads to use wheel impact load detectors to properly identify and replace freight car wheels that could significantly damage track and lead to derailments. The advisory was issued yesterday in response to the Feb. 21 derailment of a Union Pacific coal train […]
Second of two parts Part one of this report appeared Tuesday, Sept. 5 EFFINGHAM, Ill. —The latest round of tests investigating ways to ensure trains always activate track circuits — the process known as “shunt” — involves shunt-enhancing antennas mounted on both trucks of a state-owned locomotive in Amtrak service in California. Here’s how the […]
HOUSTON – Union Pacific and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are seeking residents’ permission to conduct soil testing on their properties this month as part of the railroad’s ongoing effort to clean up contamination from the former Southern Pacific crosstie treatment plant in the Fifth Ward. The Houston Health Department independently conducted some additional soil […]
First of two parts EFFINGHAM, Ill, —What happens when electrical current connected with signal systems doesn’t reliably travel from one rail to another when a train passes? Dispatchers “lose” the train — it disappears from their screens — and warning lights don’t flash or gates don’t lower at highway crossings as the train approaches. The […]
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have put a hold on their final environmental assessment of Union Pacific’s proposed 6-mile branch to a new industrial park being built outside Phoenix. The Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis, in a decision released on Thursday, said it was delaying a decision indefinitely due to the discovery of “significant […]
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has suspended BNSF Railway and Union Pacific from its Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program. The railroads’ certification was suspended for 90 days effective Aug. 22, BNSF and UP said in customer advisories. “We continue to work with our partners to ensure safety procedures are followed and that […]
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Union Pacific says its investigation into the disappearance of 30 tons of a chemical from a hopper car earlier this year indicates the material was lost in transit because of a leak during the trip from Cheyenne to California, KGWN-TV reports. The hopper loaded with ammonium nitrate — used as a fertilizer […]
EL PASO, Texas — Approximately 13 cars of grain derailed on a Union Pacific train in central El Paso this afternoon, closing an exit of Interstate 10, KFOX-TV reports. Three of the cars overturned, spilling a load reported to be soybean meal. No injuries are reported and no hazardous materials are involved, El Paso Fire […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has asked a federal court to declare that the railroad has no obligation to handle Canadian Pacific Kansas City grain trains via trackage rights between Beaumont, Texas, and the ports of Houston and Galveston. UP, which filed the complaint on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of […]
