CHICAGO — Today (April 9) is the last day for the early-bird registration fee for the North American Rail Shippers conference, to be held May 7-9 in Chicago. CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs leads the list of speakers scheduled to take part in the North American Rail Shippers Conference, set for May 7-9 in Chicago. The […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has launched a new grant program to aid communities hit by last week’s severe storms in the Midwest and South. The Community Disaster Relief Grant Program will provide up to $250,000 to nonprofit organizations assisting residents affected by the storm in the railroad’s operating area, the company has announced. The railroad […]
CUMBERLAND, Md. — Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 2-6-6-2 No. 1309 is slated to return to operation beginning May 3, powering “Frostburg Flyer” excursions on Saturday and Sundays, the railroad said in an email to customers on Tuesday (April 8, 2025). Plans also call for the locomotive, built by Baldwin in 1949 for the Chesapeake & […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — SMART-TD has reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract with TransitAmerica Services Inc., contract operator for Caltrain commuter service, the union announced Tuesday (April 8, 2025). The union, the International Asssociation of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division, represents 150 conductors and assistant conductor. The contract, retroactive […]
DENVER — Sierra Northern Railway conducted a successful initial test of its first hydrogen locomotive, a four-axle switcher, in late March, the company announced today (April 8) at the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association conference. The initial testing took place March 27 in West Sacramento, Calif. “This accomplishment marks another major milestone in […]
DENVER — Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs says he is transforming the regulatory agency into a more efficient body that will help support competition and growth for railroads. “We want to break down barriers to growth, encourage competition and elevate the role of markets instead of government,” Fuchs told the American Short Line and […]
WASHINGTON — Genesee & Wyoming short line Central Oregon & Pacific can take over local operations from Union Pacific in Eugene, Ore., as soon as Saturday, federal regulators have ruled. In a unanimous decision today, the Surface Transportation Board denied the SMART-TD union’s request to scrutinize and reject the lease deal. The decision also denied […]
HAY RIVER, Northwest Territories — The Government of the Northwest Territories has asked Canadian federal regulators to examine Canadian National Railway’s decision not to repair its damaged rail line to Hay River, which had been the northernmost point on the North American rail network. Vince McKay, infrastructure minister for the Northwest Territories, said on Monday […]
DENVER — Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena says his company will work through tariff shocks gripping the economy the same way it worked through the pandemic. “I can’t control what governments do,” Vena said Monday (April 7) as keynote speaker at the annual conference of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. “It’s noisy, […]
BERLIN — The head of the freight subsidiary of German national rail company Deutsche Bahn is calling for the end of single-carload freight operations, saying such traffic is not profitable. “I cannot afford a permanent loss-making operation,” Sigrid Nikutta, CEO of DB Cargo, told DPA, the German Press Agency. “Either we succeed in making single-wagon […]
NEW YORK — Catherine Rinaldi, who retired at the end of March as president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro-North Railroad, did not take long to return to a position in public transportation. Rinaldi was named Monday (April 7, 2025) as the first executive vice president for the Gateway Development Commission, the agency overseeing the […]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Amtrak and BNSF Railway have settled a lawsuit with survivors of the truck driver whose dump truck was struck by the Southwest Chief in June 2022, derailing the train and killing the driver and three passengers. WDAF-TV reports Erin Barton, widow of driver Billy Dean Barton II, and the couple’s five […]
