MEXIA, Texas — About a dozen cars of grain derailed on a Union Pacific train Wednesday evening near Mexia, KCEN-TV reports. KXXV-TV places the incident in Shiloh, Texas, about 5 miles southeast of Mexia, and says it occurred about 6:45 p.m., after heavy rains and flooding in the area led to a washout, according to […]
WASHINGTON — A Union Pacific track maintenance manager was killed when he was struck by an excavator operated by a contract worker, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on a fatal April 11 incident near McNeil, Ark. The incident occurred about 6:22 p.m. as a work crew was replacing a culvert on […]
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will nominate former Federal Railroad Admininstration Administrator Ron Batory and Elaine Marie Clegg, CEO of Valley Regional Transit in Idaho’s Ada and Canyon counties, to serve on Amtrak’s Board of Directors, the White House announced today (May 2). Batory, now a resident of New Mexico, and Clegg, of Boise, Idaho, […]
CHICAGO — Imagine if the two Class I railroad steam stars of this year — Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 No. 2816 and Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 — showed up at the same place at the same time and shared the same stage. It just might happen one day. Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena […]
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Amtrak’s Missouri River Runners will resume operation on Thursday, May 2, after four days of cancellations, the company announced this afternoon. Union Pacific informed the passenger operator that it would be able to accommodate the two daily St. Louis-Kansas City round trips as cleanup continued following the Sunday derailment of a […]
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Amtrak’s Missouri River Runners will be cancelled for a fourth straight day on Wednesday, May 1, Amtrak announced tonight (Tuesday, April 30). Service on the route between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., will continue to be covered by chartered buses. Trains 318 and 319, which normally provide through service to […]
WASHINGTON — Shippers who are served by just one Class I railroad and receive substandard service will be able to seek access to a second railroad under a final reciprocal switching rule that federal regulators released today. The Surface Transportation Board’s final rule — the first to set minimum standards for rail service — tightened […]
If history had played out differently, our motorcar ride this summer day in the wooded foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada would instead take place aboard Amtrak’s California Zephyr, instead of on Fairmont “track speeders.” The track would belong to Union Pacific, not a joint-powers authority. It’d be home to stack trains and AC engines. That’s […]
CHICAGO — Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman has joined the list of speakers scheduled to appear at the North American Rail Shippers Conference, beginning tomorrow, April 30, and running through May 2 in Chicago. Oberman last week announced he would retire from the STB chairmanship on May 10 [see “STB’s Oberman sets May […]
PORTLAND, Ore. — A Union Pacific train derailed early this morning at the east end of Portland’s historic Steel Bridge, closing the heavily used bridge while authorities assessed its structural integrity. The derailment also meant the vertical lift portion of the bridge could not be raised, impacting ship traffic on the Willamette River. “The issue […]
Train handling The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are more than 36,000 locomotive engineers in the United States. Whether it’s an older Geep switching cars in an industry, a passenger train racing across the country, or a Class I freight on the main line, the techniques that engineers learn and have at […]
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Missouri River Runner service has been canceled today, the second day of cancellations because of a Union Pacific derailment early Sunday near Kansas City, according to the Amtrak Alerts feed on social media site X. The through Lincoln Service/Missouri River Runner trains that operate between Chicago and Kansas City are originating […]
