SAN JOSE, Calif. — Demolition crews are tearing down the light rail maintenance building where six Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers died in a mass shooting in May 2021. Work began last Wednesday when Building B at VTA’s Guadalupe rail yard was knocked down by heavy equipment, KNTV reports. VTA board member Cindy Chavez […]
WASHINGTON — Veronica Vanterpool has been appointed as deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, the agency announced May 11. Vanterpool has served as senior advisor in the FTA Office of the Administrator since August 2021, coordinating and directing the agency’s work on climate change, equity, innovation, safety, and workforce development. Previously, she was chief […]
CHICAGO — The Pullman Historic Foundation’s “Railroad Days 2022” at Chicago’s Pullman National Monument, which began today (May 14, 2022) and continues Sunday, May 15, features tours of railcars built at the factory before it closed in 1981, as well as tours of the factory, Hotel Florence, the company-town neighborhood built in the 1880s, and […]
HARRISBURG, Pa. — In the first public showing of the combined cab, boiler shell, and prow of its new streamlined steam engine, No. 5550, the Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Steam Locomotive Trust displayed its progress on a project whose backers hope to see it running by 2030. The Trust trucked the 30-ton assembly 1,200 miles from […]
WASHINGTON — Host railroads and Amtrak have not presented enough information to allow the Surface Transportation Board to determine whether two daily passenger round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., would “unreasonably” impair freight operations, board chairman Martin Oberman said Thursday. Oberman made the statement as part of a wide-ranging commentary at the conclusion […]
ELY, Nev. — Nevada Northern Railway is beginning a fundraising drive to raise the more than $1 million needed to continue operation of Baldwin 4-6-0 No. 40, built for the railroad in 1910, and will double donations through a one-for-one matching grant. The locomotive is facing its 1,472-day boiler inspection, last undertaken in 2004, and […]
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Extension of Virginia’s state-supported Amtrak service to the stateline communities of Bristol. Va., and Bristol, Tenn., could cost up to $1.5 billion while attracting up to 15,500 riders annually, according to a new study by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. The Bristol Herald Courier reports the study projects one […]
WASHINGTON – A Florida utility that is running low on coal has asked federal regulators to ensure that CSX Transportation provides adequate service to its power plant in Tampa. Tampa Electric Power Co., or TECO, says it has been forced to curtail coal-fired generation at its Big Bend Power Station because CSX has refused the […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation this week presented 65 customers with its annual Chemical Safety Excellence Award for their safe transportation of hazardous materials in 2021. The Chemical Safety Excellence Awards were presented to customers who shipped at least 600 carloads of hazardous materials with CSX during the year without a release due to controllable […]
CLARENDON HILLS, Ill. — Authorities have identified 72-year-old Christina Lopez of Downers Grove, Ill., as the Metra passenger killed Wednesday in a grade-crossing accident between a Metra BNSF train and a stalled truck. WMAQ-TV reports that in a Thursday press conference, National Transportation Safety Board vice-chairman Bruce Landsberg said Lopez was killed when she was […]
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Railroading Heritage of Midwest America will restore the tender for Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014, the Union Pacific Historical Society learned Thursday at its annual meeting. Restoration of that tender will allow the tender currently used by the Big Boy to be rejoined with its original locomotive, Challenger No. 3985, which […]
CRESSON, Pa. – The Station Inn, a longtime railfan landmark bed & breakfast in western Pennsylvania, has been sold to Alex and Leah Lang of the Pittsburgh area. The inn’s founder, Tom Davis, died Oct. 5 [see “Station Inn owner Tom Davis, 90, dies,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 13, 2021] and it remained open while […]
