AUSTIN, Texas — The underground light rail route that is a key part of Austin’s $7 billion plan for transit expansion is facing changes after the Texas legislature failed to pass legislation allowing the route to go under two downtown parks. KUT Public Radio reports Austin Transit Partnership — the agency overseeing the project, combining […]
NORTH JUDSON, Ind. — The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum, the Indiana preservation railroad that is leasing two rare EMD BL2 diesels, is seeking $5,000 in donations to speed the day when it can put one of the units into service. The former Bangor & Aroostook Railroad diesels, purchased during the bankruptcy sale of Iowa Pacific […]
LYTTON, B.C. — Less than 24 hours after Canadian National reopened its fire-damaged main line in British Columbia, that line has been shut down again — as has the former British Columbia Railway line that had been used to reroute some traffic. Bloomberg reports CN informed customers on Wednesday that it was suspending operations between […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The new general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority says the agency won’t be restarting light rail this month, as it had previously hoped. Carolyn Gonot, who became the VTA general manager this week, told the San Jose Mercury News the agency is now hoping to resume service in […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic managed a slight gain over 2020 figures in the latest weekly statistics from the Association of American Railroads, while experiencing a notable decline over the previous week’s figures. After a long period where 2021 statistics were well ahead of the corresponding figures for 2020, the week ending July 10 found […]
OMAHA, Neb. – In the latest pandemic-related disruption, Union Pacific has told customers it will halt all shipments of international containers from West Coast ports to its Global IV terminal in Chicago for up to a week. The embargo, scheduled to begin on Sunday night, will help the railroad clear a container backlog at Global […]
WASHINGTON — The commission that helps fund Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor operations today released a sweeping blueprint that sets goals for passenger rail service improvements over the next 15 years, and the infrastructure investments and funding it estimates will be necessary to implement them. On the surface, “Connect NEC 2035,” or “C35,” might be viewed as […]
WASHINGTON — A criminal investigation is underway of two Amtrak employees fired for accepting gifts from a construction contractor who received a $58 million contract, the New York Post reports. The gifts involved included three trips to Philadelphia, and drinks and entertainment at a strip club for a management official, and clothing and a furnace […]
WASHINGTON — In an uncommon move, the National Transportation Safety Board has weighed in on a proposed rule before the Surface Transportation Board, expressing concern about a proposal regarding temporary trackage rights. The proposed rule, requested by the Association of American Railroads, would allow an exemption from the usual process to approve trackage rights to […]
Canadian National’s busy main line through the rugged Thompson and Fraser river canyons, which was damaged by a June 30 wildfire that leveled the town of Lytton, British Columbia, is scheduled to reopen this evening (Tuesday, July 13). “In coordination with local authorities and First Nations, CN staff have inspected the area and carried out […]
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. – Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman fully supports the White House’s call for more competition in the rail industry and questions whether Class I railroads are shirking their obligations as common carriers due to pressure from Wall Street. Oberman, addressing the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers today, said the Biden administration’s […]
DALLAS — Dallas Area Rapid Transit has regularly sold off end-of-life buses or excess parcels of land. But this time the agency has a piece of railroading history on the market: a bridge. Removal of the bridge is required to accommodate DART’s new Silver Line Regional Rail project. Currently, the bridge is a single-track truss […]
