Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service to use renewable diesel fuel

Blue and silver-painted locomotive at a station platform surrounding by brown steel work and palm trees. Amtrak Pacific Surfliner renewable diesel.

LOS ANGELES ­– Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains will now operate on renewable diesel fuel, the LOSSAN rail agency, which manages the service, announced Oct. 3. Renewable diesel is chemically similar to fossil diesel but made from renewable raw materials such as used cooking oil, instead of crude oil. The Pacific Surfliner operates between San Diego, […]

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Amtrak Inspector General: Production problems plague New Acela

Streamlined blue and white high-speed passenger train crosses bridge

WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General today issued a report highly critical of a manufacturing process that has led to defects preventing Amtrak from accepting any of the 12 of 28 New Acela trainsets and 22 of 28 café cars already produced at Alstom’s Hornell, N.Y., facility. The 38-page report contains redactions of monetary […]

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Flooding batters New York subway, commuter rail lines

Debris and water in subway tunnel

NEW YORK — Half of the New York City subway system was shut down today by flooding from a storm that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called “a life-threatening rainfall event,” while Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak operations were also disrupted by the flooding. At midafternoon, the MTA was reporting that more than 7 inches of […]

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NTSB issues final report on collision between UP maintenance machine, Capitol Corridor train

Badly damaged piece of maintenance equipment

WASHINGTON — The operator of a piece of maintenance-of-way equipment moved onto unprotected track for unknown reasons, the National Transportation Safety Board said in determining the probable cause of a July 2022 collision between a Union Pacific roadway maintenance machine and an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train in Oakland, Calif. The NTSB completed its final accident […]

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Amtrak projects receive almost $200 million in CRISI grants

WASHINGTON — Amtrak received almost $200 million in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grants announced Monday, a list of awards highlighted by the more than $178 million for the restoration of Gulf Coast passenger service [see “Federal Railroad Administration awards more than $1.4 billion,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 24, 2023]. […]

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Amtrak GE P30CH locomotive

Silver-and-black Amtrak GE P30CH locomotive leads passenger train under highway bridge

  The Amtrak GE P30CH locomotive is the spiritual successor to the GE U30CG passenger locomotive of 1967. Amtrak acquired 25 of the P30CH model, Nos. 700-724, between August 1975 and January 1976. The model designation led to the units’ nickname: “pooch.”   It was essentially a U30C freight locomotive with a cowl body and […]

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$178 million in CRISI grant awarded for Gulf Coast rail

Amtrak logo.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration announced today $178 million in Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program funding to restore Amtrak service from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala. The funding will help to build a platform for the Mobile end of the service, as well as additional track upgrades. “We’ve been fighting to […]

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Amtrak goes outside for new chief commercial officer

Headshot of Amtrak executive. Amtrak goes outside for new chief commercial officer.

WASHINGTON — Seeking “to lead our continued transformation of the customer experience,” according to Roger Harris, Amtrak president, in an announcement Monday, Amtrak has hired Eliot Hamlisch to a position once held by current CEO Stephen Gardner. As the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Hamlisch will oversee corporate marketing, sales distribution, network […]

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