Wednesday morning rail news: DC Metro safety plan needs more work, oversight group says DC Metro’s effort to address its safety issues in its rail operations center was turned down by the agency which oversees the transit system’s safety because of a lack of benchmarks to show the problems have been fully addressed. The Washington […]
WASHINGTON — A precipitous decline in business travel during the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted an Amtrak “flash” sale celebrating the 20-year anniversary of Acela’s introduction with a $20 fare between any two Northeast Corridor stations served by the high speed train. Billed as the “The Deal of the Decade(s),” the tickets must be booked by […]
WASHINGTON — Intermodal traffic continues to lift overall rail traffic above year-earlier levels in weekly statistics from the Association of American Railroads, with total volume for the week ending Nov. 7, 2020, up 1.3% over the same week in 2019. Weekly intermodal volume was 293,746 containers and trailers, up 10.3% from the same week a […]
Tuesday morning preservation and museum news: NS donates historic ‘Marco Polo’ to Southeastern Railway Museum Norfolk Southern is donating private car Marco Polo, used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt while in office, to the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Ga. The car is scheduled to arrive at the museum at 11 a.m. on Nov. 14 […]
Tuesday morning rail news: Commuter rail, light rail among alternatives to be weighed for Santa Cruz, Calif., transit project The comment period for a proposed transit corridor along a rail branch line serving Santa Cruz, Calif., has begun and continues through Nov. 27. Milestone 3 of the Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis by the Santa Cruz […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National on Wednesday will unveil two locomotives clad in a special paint scheme saluting veterans in Canada and the United States. November 11, which falls on the day the armistice was signed to end World War I in 1918, is Veterans Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada. “CN’s two […]
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden may be known as “Amtrak Joe,” but his administration is expected to have an impact on freight railroading, too. During his campaign for the White House, Biden pledged to require two-person crews on freight trains. Rail labor unions have sought a two-person crew regulation as Class I railroads have implemented […]
Tuesday afternoon rail news: West Virginia announces new site to track blocked grade crossings The Public Service Commission of West Virginia has launched a new online site to report trains blocking grade crossings. By state law, it is illegal for a train to block a crossing for more than 10 minutes except in the case […]
BERLIN — The countries of the European Union have supported a proposal made by the German government to recreate the “Trans Europe Express” (TEE) system of international trains, which in the 1950s to 1970s represented the best and most luxurious international trains in Western Europe. Partly inspired by the Swedish “flight shaming” movement which seeks […]
More Monday morning rail news: NS coal train derails in Illinois Twenty-four cars of a Norfolk Southern coal train derailed in Panama, Ill., Sunday morning, according to a Facebook post by the Chris-Mont Emergency Management Agency. A press release from the agency says the Shoal Creek Fire Protection District was dispatched to the derailment at […]
Still more Monday morning rail news: New Buffalo Amtrak station opens Amtrak’s new downtown Buffalo, N.Y., station opened Sunday, with the $28 million structure replacing a building from 1952 that had occupied the same spot. The Buffalo News reports the new building, at 4,800 square feet, is about three times as large as its predecessor, […]
Monday morning rail news: Canada revises rules on cold-weather speed restrictions for hazardous-material trains Canada’s Minister of Transport on Friday issued an order modifying previous rules regarding train operation in cold weather, basing the new rule on temperatures rather than a winter date range. As with the previous rule, issued in April [see “Canada issues […]
