CHICAGO — Two unrelated incidents made for a bumpy evening commute Thursday for riders on Metra’s BNSF line. First, trains were stopped briefly after a truck struck a bridge near Western Avenue about 3:30 p.m. Trains were moving again by 4 p.m. with residual delays of 20 to 25 minute, WMAQ-TV reported. Later, a locomotive […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway has placed in service another section of quadruple main line on its Southern Transcon route, this time on the Seligman Subdivision near the California-Arizona border. The four-mile section of fourth main line through Needles, Calif., went into service recently, BNSF said in a June 7 customer advisory. The Needles […]
BURLINGTON, Iowa — BNSF Railway’s Ottumwa Subdvision has felt the wrath of the Mississippi River, as its waters have covered tracks in downtown Burlington, Iowa. Trains have continued to operate, although at a greatly reduced speed. The river crested at 24.45 feet on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. That same day, a […]
BNSF Railway flooding map BNSF Railway Union Pacific flooding map as of May 31 Union Pacific LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas River flooding has closed portions of the Union Pacific in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere in the Midwest, while BNSF Railway has restored Midwestern service and remedied a brief Friday shutdown in Missouri of its […]
CHICAGO — BNSF Railway and CREATE have announced the completion of a CREATE project on the Western Avenue Corridor, the fourth of eight projects completed on that section of the project to improve Chicago rail traffic flow. Overall, 30 projects are now complete of the 70 that make up the entire program. The newest project, […]
An inbound Metra BNSF train stops at the Route 59 station in Aurora, Ill. Metra’s board has approved spending $4.7 million in federal funds to study extension of the BNSF line beyond Aurora into Kendall County, Ill. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — A longstanding effort to extend Metra’s BNSF line service beyond Aurora, Ill., west […]
BNSF Railway CEO Carl Ice Bill Stephens SAN ANTONIO, Texas — BNSF Railway CEO Carl Ice refused to criticize Precision Scheduled Railroading at a shipper conference on Thursday, saying it inevitably leads to the misperception that his railroad doesn’t care about efficiency. “That’s not true. We do,” Ice says. “And our history shows we care […]
CHICAGO – Metra will schedule a new train during morning and evening rushes on its busy BNSF Line to address overcrowding issues that developed as a result of positive train control implementation, CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski says. Both trains will be included in a new BNSF Line schedule to be unveiled in June, […]
FORT WORTH, Texas – BNSF Railway’s pre-tax earnings climbed 10% in the first quarter as higher revenue per carload and intermodal unit more than offset a 5% decline in traffic volume, the railroad reported on Saturday. BNSF, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, said that operating income was up 2%, to $1.7 billion, as revenue increased 2%, […]
A westbound BNSF Railway intermodal train passes through La Grange, Ill., on April 20, 2019. Warren Buffett, chairman of BNSF parent Berkshire Hathaway, says the company is closely watching Union Pacific as it adopts Precision Scheduled Railroading. TRAINS: David Lassen OMAHA, Neb. – Berkshire Hathaway is monitoring Union Pacific as it adopts Precision Scheduled Railroading and […]
DULUTH, Minn. — A February derailment of 40 cars of a loaded coal train near Cloquet, Minn., was caused by a broken wheel, BNSF Railway has determined. The Duluth News Tribune reports that the railway determined the cause through its own investigation and reported the findings to the Federal Railway Administration. The FRA and National […]
Signal problems caused delays for Metra BNSF trains at Chicago Union Station on Thursday morning. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Metra BNSF line trains experienced delays arriving and departing from Union Station on Thursday morning because of Amtrak signal problems, WGN-TV reported. Delays of 30 to 45 minutes were reported during the morning commute. “Trains […]
