More Wednesday morning rail news: UP to close one hump at Bailey Yard Union Pacific will close one hump at Bailey Yard in North Platte, Neb., consolidating car sorting to the newer, westbound hump on the world’s largest railroad yard. The North Platte Telegraph reports the eastbound hump, which opened in 1968 and sorts cars […]
Magazine: Trains Magazine
Five railroads respond to joint STB-FRA letter
Five Class I railroads have now responded to last month’s joint letter from the Surface Transportation Board and Federal Railroad Adminstration, mostly in general terms assuring the two agencies that they are prepared for an upsurge in traffic. The letter to CEOs at the seven Class I roads asked railroads to ensure they have sufficient […]
CN works to build ‘intermodal of the future’
MONTREAL — Canadian National is working to build what it’s calling “intermodal of the future” by experimenting with terminal improvements and fully integrating the operations and people from its recent trucking-company acquisitions. “We know that in order to compete down the road with the truck, that we have to not only be safer, more efficient […]
Quick action saves Central Pacific car that was at Promontory
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Quick and coordinated action by the president of the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society, the Southern Pacific Railroad History Center, and the California State Railroad Museum has saved a former Central Pacific coach that was at the driving of the Golden Spike in Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869. The car, Central […]
Amtrak tells employees it will furlough 1,950 workers
Amtrak will furlough approximately 1,950 of its unionized workers as part of cutbacks for fiscal 2021, according to a message sent to workers today and obtained by Trains News Wire. Additionally, approximately 100 managerial positions will be eliminated. The largest portion of those, 698 employees, will come from on-board staff represented by the Amtrak Service […]
Digest: Proposed Colorado rail line could carry 3 million passengers per year
Still more Monday morning rail news: Front Range rail line could carry 3 million annually New projections suggest the proposed passenger service along Colorado’s Front Range could carry nearly 3 million passengers a year, Colorado Public Radio reports. The line between Fort Collins and Pueblo, Colo, could carry 9,200 people each weekday, according to projections […]
Digest: First cars in IDOT order for regional Amtrak trains arrive in Illinois
Monday midday rail news: First IDOT cars arrive; testing to begin in September The first four cars of the Illinois Department of Transportation order for equipment for state-supported regional Amtrak trains arrived in Chicago earlier this month, with four more en route from Siemens’ Sacramento, Calif., factory. Testing is likely to begin in September for […]
Analysis: Amtrak bookings show strength of sleeper business, tickets bought near departure
CHICAGO — Amtrak’s plan to restore daily service on long-distance routes following cuts to triweekly service set for October is based, in part, on advance reservations for spring and summer travel as of February 2021. But spot checks of sellout trends on several routes, as well as Amtrak analyses of daily and weekly patronage obtained […]
An 80-year-old Alco comes home
SCRANTON, Pa. — Genesee Valley Transportation, operator of four freight railroads with 318 total route-miles in Pennsylvania and New York, has added an old, rare Alco switcher to its fleet. The 80-year old HH660, built as Delaware, Lackawanna & Western No. 409, “came home” to Scranton, Pa., on August 12. Genesee Valley’s railroads are well […]
Digest: Reading & Northern files suit over stormwater fees
Monday morning rail news: Reading & Northern sues over stormwater fees The Reading & Northern is suing a regional sanitary agency in Pennsylvania, seeking to avoid paying a stormwater fee enacted in 2019. The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reports the suit, filed in the Luzerne County Court of Common Please, argues that six of the railroad’s […]
Rail unions score court wins on cross-border crews, crew-size bargaining
Railroad unions scored a pair of court victories on Friday, with rulings overturning the Federal Railroad Administration’s approval of use of Kansas City Southern de Mexico engineers for cross-border movements, and vacating an injunction that forced the union to bargain over crew size. In the Kansas City Southern case, a three-judge panel of the U.S. […]
Judge denies Metra’s motion to dismiss UP suit over commuter operations
Metra’s request to dismiss Union Pacific’s federal lawsuit over continued operation of three Chicago-area commuter lines was denied Thursday, with a hearing on the case set for Sept. 8. The order by Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said the primary issue in the case — […]