Funding dispute continues over Twin Cities commuter rail service

Trains at station with baseball stadium in background

MINNEAPOLIS — A dispute over funding continues for the Twin Cities-area Northstar commuter rail service, which continues to operate on a significantly reduced schedule introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports Anoka County — one of the entities which funds the 40-mile line between Minneapolis and Big Lake — says its $1.95 million […]

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Biden names Presidental Emergency Board, preventing rail strike

Man climbing on front steps of orange locomotive

WASHINGTON — Preventing a national rail strike that could have begun Monday, July 18, President Joe Biden has established a Presidential Emergency Board to investigate the ongoing dispute between railroads and workers. Biden will name the members of the three-person board, whose members can not have any financial or other interest in either a rail […]

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More rail strikes called in Britain

Silver train with blue trim approaches station

LONDON — Britain is bracing for additional rounds of rail strikes after unions announced planned strike dates later this month and in August. The Guardian reports the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) has called strikes for August 18 and 20; those strikes will involve about 40,000 RMT members at infrastructure company […]

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CP and KCS say their merger should get green light from regulators

Train with red, yellow, and black locomotives

WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern — responding to critics, skeptics, and opponents — told federal regulators this week that their proposed merger is in the public interest and should be approved. The railroads, in a three-volume, 4,374-page filing, argued that the first merger of Class I railroads in two decades should sail through […]

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Carload Considerations: Filling Class I railroad jobs in rural locations will help customers everywhere

Freight train with two yellow locomotives rounds curve

CHICAGO — Class I railroads appreciate moving large volumes of traffic across long routes. There’s efficiency and carload profitability gains by running fewer trains for longer distances on relatively consistent schedules. When this is successful, customers see their shipments make great strides across chunks of a Class I railroad’s network. But some customers’ locations aren’t […]

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Two Canadian Pacific trains derail in Canada

Canadian Pacific Railway beaver logo

BASSANO, Alberta — About a dozen cars of a Canadian Pacific grain train derailed Wednesday afternoon in Bassano, about 85 miles southeast of Calgary, the CBC reports. It was one of two derailments involving CP grain trains on Wednesday. The other occurred in Kamloops, British Columbia. An eyewitness told the CBC about a dozen cars […]

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BNSF claims CP-KCS merger will throw Houston terminal into gridlock

Kansas City Southern train leaves terminal

A Kansas City Southern intermodal train heads for the Union Pacific Brownsville Subdivision at Robstown, Texas, in November 2017. Bill Stephens WASHINGTON – Projected traffic increases from the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger will put the critical Houston terminal into gridlock, BNSF Railway has warned federal regulators this week, citing a new analysis. CP and […]

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Virginia short line railroad expands into tourist railroading

Logo of the Buckingham Branch Railroad

STAUNTON, Va. — Virginians will soon enjoy a regularly scheduled tourist train. The commonwealth’s Buckingham Branch Railroad, a 275-mile short line freight railroad, has expanded into tourist railroading with the launch of its Virginia Scenic Railway. Diesel-powered climate-controlled passenger trains will join local freight, overhead CSX Transportation trains, and Amtrak’s triweekly Cardinal on the scenic […]

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U.S. rail traffic remains below 2021 figures

Weekly table showing U.S. rail traffic by commodity type, plus total intermodal traffic

WASHINGTON — Weekly U.S. rail traffic remains below 2021 figures in the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. Both carload and intermodal traffic were down for the week ending July 9, with 207,450 carloads, a 1.3% decline from the corresponding week in 2021, and 230,150 containers and trailers, a 4.7% drop. The combined […]

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