West Coast winter weather affects California Zephyr, Empire Builder

Two passenger trains with bilevel equipment meet in snow

CHICAGO — Amtrak’s California Zephyr has been cancelled west of Salt Lake City through the weekend as weather forecasters are predicting heavy snow will pound Donner Pass and the Sierra Nevada mountains through Saturday. Service on the Seattle segment of the Empire Builder route was also disrupted this week. Trouble started early Thursday when the […]

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Commuter rail workers tell MBTA they are prepared to strike

Train pulling up to the station

BOSTON — Union workers operating the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s commuter rail operator for its contract operator, Keolis, are prepared to strike over wages and other conditions, the president of one union told the MBTA’s board on Thursday. “We don’t want to strike, but we will when we are legally able to,” Transportation Workers Union […]

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LIRR makes schedule changes to allow track work

Electric multiple-unit trainset crosses tracks at junction

NEW YORK — Trains will be replaced by buses on the eastern portion of the Long Island Rail Road’s Ronkonkoma Branch on weekdays beginning Monday, March 4, the most significant of a series of schedule changes to allow for track work throughout the LIRR system. A number of other changes, involving new trains, new start […]

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Newest section of Maya Train opens

Diesel multiple-unit trainset passing through station

CANCÚN, Mexico — A third section of Mexico’s tourist-focused Maya Train, a 68-kilometer (42-mile) segment between Cancún and Playa del Carmen, was inaugurated Thursday, Feb. 29, with a trip including President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, local officials, and media members. It was the final portion of the project to be launched before a March 1 […]

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Norfolk Southern, RapidSOS introduce new digital incident information system for first responders

Norfolk Southern logo

NEW YORK — Norfolk Southern and RapidSOS, which provides secure data information to first responders, have unveiled a rail safety system to increase availability of critical information at significant incidents. The collaborative effort announced today will be free to public safety agencies across the U.S. It will provide access to cargo and hazardous material information, […]

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Beech Mountain Railroad shuts down

ALEXANDER, W.Va — West Virginia’s Beech Mountain Railroad appears to have reached its final chapter. Owner Carter-Roag, a subsidiary of United Coal, has returned its two leased SW1500s to LTEX (also known as Larry’s Truck & Electric); those engines had been brought in to move the stockpile of coal remaining after the closure of Carter-Roag’s […]

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UP train derails in Elko, Nev.

Derailed grain hoppers

ELKO, Nev. — Sixteen railcars of corn from a Union Pacific train derailed near the Amtrak station in Elko early today (Wednesday, Feb. 28), striking the support of a street overpass and raising question about the bridge’s structural integrity. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were involved. The Associated Press reports the derailment […]

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Metra project underway to increase speeds on Electric District

Metra_Flossmoor_Lassen

CHICAGO — Jim Derwinski hates the phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” At a Wednesday presentation for Northwestern University’s Sandhouse Rail Group, Derwinski, Metra’s CEO/Executive Director, illustrated why that’s the case, and the potential that comes from putting that approach in the past. “Here’s a little story about where we’re not going to […]

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Work begins on wall at San Clemente, Calif., slide site

Drilling rigs on railroad track next to ocean

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Work has begun on a 200-foot-long wall to protect the Surf Line rail right-of-way from landslides at the site that has halted passenger train traffic through San Clemente since Jan. 24, the Orange County Transportation Authority announced. The wall, expected to be 10 to 15 feet tall, will be anchored by […]

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