News photo: Ontario Northland acquires locomotives

Black locomotives with Norfolk Southern logo crossed out

BURLINGTON, Ontario — The Ontario Northland Railway has acquired two locomotives currently en route to the Canadian railroad. A pair of former Norfolk Southern  SD70M units, Nos. 2631 and 2642, sold to PRLX (Progress Rail Leasing), are shown in transit on Canadian National train A422 in Burlington, Ont., on Feb. 15, 2022. They are destined […]

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Seattle-area light rail projects face delays from concrete strike

Light rail train at elevated station with construction equipment

SEATTLE — A strike by concrete workers is placing the schedule of Sound Transit light-rail projects at risk, according to the agency’s CEO. KIRO Radio reports that CEO Peter Rogoff told the Sound Transit board that completion dates of the four light-rail extension projects in progress — to Lynnwood, Bellevue, Redmond, and Federal Way — […]

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Amtrak makes moves to restart service to Vancouver, B.C.

Train approaching bridge

SEATTLE — Almost two years after halting the service because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amtrak has begun preparations to restore Cascades operations to Canada from Seatttle. Last week, Amtrak posted a notice on the Facebook page dedicated to the Cascades service informing customers that they might see Cascades trains running between Seattle and Vancouver, British […]

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First day of Gulf Coast hearing brings significant new information

Two men at table with charts in background

WASHINGTON – Active cross-examination by Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman and other board members marked almost eight hours of testimony Tuesday on the first of two days of public comment on the ramifications of two proposed daily Amtrak round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. Some 45 witnesses spoke Tuesday. While most repeated […]

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Brightline completes construction in Orlando airport area (with video)

Railroad tracks passing under airplane on taxiway

ORLANDO, Fla. — Brightline has completed construction in the first of the four construction zones in its expansion from West Palm Beach to Orlando, Fla., finishing the small but complicated 3.5-mile Zone 2 in and around Orlando International Airport. “Our construction through OIA presented one of the most complex construction efforts of this entire project […]

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Bipartisan infrastructure bill a boon for carload business? — Analysis

Freight train in golden-hour lighting

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Passenger and freight railroad projects will benefit from federal surface transportation dollars made available in President Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in November. But freight railroads should also see residual value from increased carloads of construction-related materials as highway and infrastructure-heavy projects ramp up. This […]

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FRA report details Amtrak delays, other performance statistics

Passenger train in city

WASHINGTON — The Cardinal, Sunset Limited, and Texas Eagle were the Amtrak trains experiencing the most delays in fiscal 2021’s fourth quarter,   according to a report on Amtrak performance released Monday by the Federal Railroad Administration. The quarterly report on performance and service quality uses metrics defined by the rule issued in 2020 which requires […]

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Autonomous rail vehicle project receives $4.4 million federal grant

Genesee & Wyoming plans for first test of autonomous container equipment. Container moving independently on railroad track

LOS ANGELES — Parallel Systems, the company seeking to build autonomous battery-powered intermodal rail vehicles, has received a $.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development of its technology. The grant is part of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, program, developed to advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies. It […]

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Acela suffers seven-hour stoppage in New York

Acela_ElizabethNJ_Lassen

NEW YORK — An Amtrak Acela train bound from Boston to New York was stalled on the Northeast Corridor for more than seven hours after losing power on Monday, the Associated Press reports. Train No. 2151 left Boston at 5:05 a.m. but lost power in the Hunter’s Point neighborhood of Queens at 8:37 a.m., 10 […]

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