The Empire Builder crosses the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minn., in September 2018. Planning continues for efforts to launch a second train on the Builder‘s route between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul. TRAINS: David Lassen PORTAGE, Wis. — A proposal for a second daily Amtrak train between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul should receive a waiver exempting […]
ALEXANDRA, Va. — Positive train control is now fully operational on the Virginia Railway Express system, a milestone achieved Thursday (April 11) when all 32 VRE trains on the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines ran with PTC in operation. “The implementation of PTC takes system safety to the next level,” VRE CEO Doug Allen said in […]
Map of proposed trackage rights proposed by Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern and filed with the Surface Transportation Board. Surface Transportation Board WASHINGTON — Norfolk Southern’s former Wabash main line across Missouri and Illinois may be getting a little busier as part of a new shortcut for Union Pacific. UP is seeking Surface Transportation Board […]
Trains editors discuss all the rail news that’s fit to publish for the week of April 12, 2019. This week, editors discuss the Big Boy No. 4014 excursion; video of a steam locomotive breakdown in Colorado; Union Pacific trackage rights over Norfolk Southern, and more! […]
HARTFORD, Conn. — The commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Transportation says bar cars, once a popular feature on Metro-North’s New Haven Line, are unlikely to return any time soon. Joseph Guilietti, the DOT commissioner and a former Metro-North president, told the Hartford Courant the bar cars would only be viable if an outside vendor was […]
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao came under fire Wednesday at an appropriations hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives, with transportation subcommittee chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., charging the Trump administration with “neglecting to include even one cent for the Gateway project” in its fiscal year 2020 budget request. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s proposed […]
BOSTON — “Human error” is being blamed for Tuesday’s collision of two Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trains near Boston’s South Station, which resulted in the derailment of one train and cancellation of commuter trains on the MBTA’s Fairmount Line for part of Wednesday. The accident occurred about 8 p.m. Tuesday, when a Fairmount Line train […]
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The city’s first light rail line is one of the options under consideration today when the Las Vegas area’s transit agency meets to consider its preferred option for an 8.7-mile transit corridor. The Maryland Parkway corridor would begin near the Las Vegas airport and run through downtown to the Las Vegas […]
NEW YORK — Statistic show continued improvement for New York City’s beleaguered subway system, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said at a Wednesday press conference. MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye, Managing Director Veronique Hakim, and NYC Transit President Andy Byford highlighted statistics showing better on-time performance and increased customer satisfaction. These latest performance results are […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose’s transit agency, the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority, is proposing the closure of a little-used light rail line as part of a series of budget cuts. The 2-mile Ohlone/Chynoweth-Almaden branch would be replaced by bus service under the authority’s New Transit Service Plan, which will go before the authority […]
A Virgin Trains Pendolino train on the West Coast route in Oxenholme in northern England in July 2018. The trainsets are owned by a leasing business, not by Virgin, and will be used by whoever takes over West Coast operations. Keith Fender LONDON — Days after unveiling new the rebranded Virgin MiamiCentral station as part […]
Southern Pacific 4-6-0 No. 18, which is being leased to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad from the Carson & Colorado Railway, blew its right cylinder and shattered the piston during a run from Durango, Colo., to Cascade Canyon, Colo., on April 9, 2019. The “Slim Princess,” as it’s affectionately called, is a Baldwin […]
