CHICAGO — As predictions of high winds and subzero temperatures move east, Amtrak has cancelled all service on some regional and long-distance routes while maintaining reduced service on others. Amtrak had originally planned to maintain full service on Friday, Dec. 23, after projecting cancellations for Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday [see “Amtrak cancels Empire Builder, thins […]
WASHINGTON – Genesee & Wyoming aims to merge four of its Southeastern short lines into two railroads early next year. The largest shortline holding company told regulators on Wednesday that in a pair of transactions it proposes to merge Chattahoochee Bay Railroad into The Bay Line Railroad, and the Fordyce and Princeton Railroad into the […]
Trains News Wire continues our review of the top stories of 2022. We’ll count down the Top 10 stories of the year, as voted on by Trains editors, columnists, and correspondents, beginning Dec. 26. As a prelude, we’ll be looking at major stories that didn’t make that list. Today: Passenger rail. Service expansion, VIA Rail […]
COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. — Injured crew members have been released from the hospital and a Norfolk Southern rail line has been reopened after Tuesday’s derailment of a train that hit a 134-foot concrete bridge beam being transported by truck, WRCB-TV reports. The rail line reopened Wednesday morning, while the grade crossing that was the site of […]
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced plans to award a $382 million design-build contract to begin reconstruction of the Park Avenue Viaduct in East Harlem, a project with huge implications for Metro-North commuter train operations. All Metro-North trains to Grand Central Terminal — which represent 98% of all the commuter railroad’s trains […]
HAMILTON, Ontario — Railcar manufacturer National Steel Car has been fined C$140,000 in a case involving the death of a crane operator in 2020, Global News reports. A worker later identified by the United Steelworkers Local 7135 as 51-year-old Fraser Cowan was killed in a Sept. 2, 2020, incident in which an object fell on […]
SAN DIEGO — Transportation officials in San Diego are studying what it would take to revive operations on a long-dormant 70-mile segment of the former San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway to provide a direct freight link from San Diego to eastern markets, bypassing Los Angeles, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The so-called Desert Line […]
AVENTURA, Fla. — Brightline passenger service from the new Aventura station north of Miami, which was slated to begin Wednesday (Dec. 21) after ceremonies Tuesday marking its completion, has been postponed over delays in final construction inspections, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Brightline spokeswoman Vanessa Alfonso told the newspaper the issue involved the stations’s elevator […]
CHICAGO — Commuter rail operator Metra will operate a modified Saturday schedule on most lines Friday, Dec. 23, as blizzard conditions are forecast for the Chicago area and many commuters will already have begun their Christmas holiday. Regular schedules are planned for today (Thursday, Dec. 22), although passengers are advised to allow extra travel time […]
WASHINGTON — Sound Transit will receive $583 million for two of its light rail expansion projects as part of the Fiscal 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced Wednesday. The Federal Way Link extension will receive $329.14 million, while the Lynnwood Link extension will receive $254 million. The Federal Way money means […]
WAUKESHA, Wis. — The staff of Trains Magazine and all other Kalmbach Media employees will begin an extended break for the Christmas holiday at the close of business today (Thursday, Dec. 22). With Christmas falling on a weekend, we will be closed on Friday, Dec. 23, to observe Christmas Eve, and on Monday, Dec. 26, […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic is heading toward the end of the year on a down note, with weekly volume down 5.5% from the same week in 2021, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. U.S. railroads moved 476,232 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Dec. 17. That includes […]
