MADRID — Spain’s transportation secretary and the head of national rail operator RENFE have resigned following an order for new regional trains that has become a national scandal. Transportation Secretary Isabel Pardo de Vera and RENFE President Isaías Táboas quit their jobs Feb. 20 in the wake of public and political criticism of a delayed […]
PHILADELPHIA — The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will purchase 130 new light rail vehicles from Alstom under its Trolley Modernization program under a contract approved Thursday by SEPTA’s board. The $714.2 million contract also includes an option for an additional 30 of the low-floor, ADA-compliant vehicles, intended to replace the entire current SEPTA trolley fleet. […]
WASHINGTON — The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is considering a redesign of its planned 8000-series cars for DC Metrorail service to include an open-gangway design that would allow passengers to walk from car to car, the Washington Post reports. General Manager Randy Clarke told a WMATA board meeting that the open-gangway design has “significant […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Transportation Museum will repaint its former Great Northern Railway SDP40 No. 325 into GN’s simplified orange and green color scheme, the museum announced to members. A museum member has agreed to fund the over $60,000 cost to have the engine repainted. MTM also has a large collection of GN […]
MONTREAL — Quebec’s public pension management fund says it is considering mounting a bid to develop the High Frequency Rail project for Transport Canada. The Montreal Gazette reports that Charles Emond, CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, told reports Thursday that his organization is “looking at this actively, with a lot of […]
Lehigh Valley passenger trains remembered: All through February 2023, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in upstate New York. The LV was a smaller Class I railroads in its day, but still had interesting passenger trains as you can see from this photo gallery selected from the […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway has become the fourth of the seven Class I railroads to announce an agreement for paid sick leave with some unionized workers, reaching agreement with the Transportation Communications Union and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers. The TCU agreement applies to insourced intermodal equipment operators, which represent a […]
Norfolk Southern is inspecting all of its nearly 1,000 wayside hotbox detectors in the wake of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that safety investigators say was caused by a wheel bearing failure. NS also has confirmed that detectors in the East Palestine area were all operating properly when merchandise train 32N rolled […]
WASHINGTON — Norfolk Southern hot box detectors recorded increasing wheel bearing temperatures on the car suspected of causing the disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the National Transportation Board said today in its preliminary report on the Feb. 3 wreck. But the temperature readings never reached the critical threshold that would have tripped an alarm […]
Car Swap Project Part 4: Railroad herald design class: Gerry Leone, Seth Puffer, and David Popp all model freelanced railroads, and each has created names, heralds, and graphics for their fictitious lines. The car swap project spans three different time periods during the 20th Century, so to make cars that work for each other’s railroads, […]
LYONS, N.Y. — The board of supervisors in Wayne County, N.Y., is set to consider potential transfer of ownership of the county-owned rail lines operated by the Ontario Midland Railroad at a meeting today (Thursday, Feb. 23), the Finger Lakes Times reports. The county owns 52 miles of rail line in two segments that are […]
ABILENE, Kan. — Sometimes, paperwork can be a good thing. The Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad has received positive news for its 2023 operating plans, learning it has one more year to operate its 1919 Baldwin 4-6-2, Santa Fe No. 3415, before the locomotive is sidelined for two years to undergo its federally mandated 15-year […]
