WASHINGTON — The AFL-CIO today became the latest organization to oppose an activist investor’s bid to gain control of Norfolk Southern. “In our view, Ancora’s business plan to reduce Norfolk Southern’s operating ratio while improving safety and service is not realistic. Railway labor unions, shippers, and federal regulators have warned that Ancora’s plans may jeopardize […]
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – CSX today debuted its first hydrogen fuel-cell locomotive, which was converted from a conventional four-axle unit using a kit supplied by Canadian Pacific Kansas City. The locomotive, GP38H2 No. 2100, was built at CSX’s Huntington Locomotive Shop in West Virginia, which is handling hydrogen fuel cell conversions under a partnership with CPKC. […]
Nebraska’s U.S. Route 30 LOCATION: Trains Columnist Don Phillips prescribed driving Nebraska’s U.S. Route 30 along the Union Pacific main line as an antidote for the 1970s railroad blues (“Solace on Highway 30,” October 1978). For all that has changed in 45 years, the railroad is still Union Pacific and it always puts on a […]
WASHINGTON — The Brotherhood of Railway Carmen has reached a sick-leave agreement with Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the union announced today. The union becomes the first with a sick-leave agreement with every Class I railroad. In line with other agreements with Class I railroads, the agreement provides for four days of paid sick leave and […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak has restored service between Philadelphia and New York’s Penn Station following the issues that disrupted operations Monday night, the company announced in a service advisory at 7:15 a.m. ET today (Tuesday, April 16). NJ Transit is offering limited service on the Northeast Corridor. Along with what the company is calling “residual […]
MILTON, Ontario — GO Transit will add more than 300 trains per week beginning April 28, the largest expansion of the Toronto-area commuter rail service in more than a decade, the Ontario government announced Monday. The UP Express service between downtown and Pearson Airport will also see changes, with every other train non-stop between Union […]
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board has named Patrick Warren as director of its Office of Railroad, Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Investigations, and selected Mike Budinski as deputy director of the NTSB Office of Research and Engineering. Warren previously was chief safety and security officer for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority for more than […]
Trains sat down with Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and new Chief Operating Officer John Orr today to discuss the railroad’s strategy and response to activist investor Ancora Holdings. Ancora has launched a proxy battle to gain control of the Norfolk Southern board, and wants to appoint former UPS executive Jim Barber Jr. as CEO […]
Jamie Boychuk, the activist investor candidate aiming to lead operations at Norfolk Southern, says improvements the railroad has made in recent weeks under new Chief Operating Officer John Orr — like increasing train velocity, reducing dwell, and removing 75 locomotives from active service — are low-hanging fruit that will help reduce the operating ratio by […]
FOLKSTON, Ga. — Three CSX crew members have been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after an intermodal train struck a standing rock train in Folkston, the railroad said in a statement this afternoon. The collision occurred about 1:24 p.m. Two locomotives, two intermodal cars, and two rock cars derailed as a result, and […]
GE’s B30-7 In the late 1970s, General Electric introduced the B30-7, a 16-cylinder, 3,000-hp, four-axle locomotive designed for road service. Virtually identical externally to the B23-7 model offered at the same time, the B30-7 ended up with less orders, though it did sell more variations than its 12-cylinder, 2,250-hp cousin. The launch customer for the […]
Railroad fusees My first memory of using railroad fusees [flares] for signaling was on an early winter morning in 1978. Coming back from lunch on the midnight shift at Auburn yard, the scenery had turned very foggy. Lanterns, while not useless, were hard to see at a distance in that kind of weather. During those […]
