MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – Canadian National’s “very ambitious capital program” for 2019 include up to 105 miles of new double track, said Jim McLeod, the railroad’s chief engineer for structures, design, and construction, in a Tuesday presentation at the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association Conference. Up to 75 miles of the new double track […]
The former Greenville Yard is shown in yellow just north of Staten Island. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey website NEW YORK — The former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Greenville (Bayonne) yard is no more. As of Monday, the storied yard became Global Container Transport Bayonne ExpressRail Port Jersey. The name change crowns a $149-million […]
Jim Vena, Union Pacific chief operating officer Canadian National OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has named former Canadian National executive Jim Vena as its chief operating officer, effectively putting a protege of E. Hunter Harrison in charge of its transition to Precision Scheduled Railroading. Vena, 60, served as CN’s chief operating officer from February 2013 […]
How did your favorite railroad fare in traffic growth last year? Probably about the same as every other railroad. Five of the big six Class I systems ran neck-and-neck and ended 2018 with 4-percent traffic growth, according to a review of the railroads’ Association of American Railroads weekly carload reports for the final week of […]
Bartow, Ga. Google Maps BARTOW, Ga. — Residents in a southern Georgia town are returning to their homes this morning now that officials say they’re not at risk from a derailed freight train with chlorine-filled tank cars. Norfolk Southern confirms that a train derailed shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday near Bartow, about 150 miles southeast […]
A Metra Electric train approaches the Matteson station on a coach-yard track as maintenance equipment works on the main line in 2017. Metra’s 2019 capital budget includes $54.6 million for track and structures. David Lassen MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – Metra has been cash-starved for a long time. But if that changes, the Chicago-area commuter rail […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Commercial Railway and two other companies are receiving awards totaling $1.5 million from the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Rail Service Improvement Program. The agency said it had received nine applications totaling more than $4.5 million for rail service improvement projects. The three selected projects were based on the impact […]
MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – The introduction of positive train control remains very much a work in progress, with all the bugs and growing pains that accompany a new technology. But for all that, PTC has definitely begun demonstrating its ability to avoid accidents. Jim LeVere, BNSF Railway vice president, engineering – signals, telecommunications and network […]
Matt Rose MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – Matt Rose thinks the railroad industry is placing itself at regulatory risk with its embrace of Precision Scheduled Railroading. “We have this common-carrier obligation to provide freight service to all customers in all markets,” said Rose, BNSF Railway’s executive chairman, during a Monday morning “fireside chat” at the annual […]
A Union Pacific train threads its way through construction at Vale, in River Forest, Ill., where the railroad is building a 1.8-mile section of third track. David Lassen MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – One of the annual limitations of the early January date for the the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association Conference is that most […]
FORT WORTH, Texas— Dallas-Fort Worth area commuters looking forward to the Jan. 5 startup of TEXRail will have to wait until the federal government reopens before riding the area’s newest commuter train. “We have been unable to get clearance to operate the entire 27-mile corridor from the Federal Railroad Administration,” Trinity Metro, the train’s operator, […]
BOULDER CITY, Nev. — Two well-known former Amtrak diesel locomotives that were preserved about a decade ago are on the move from their former display site in Ogden, Utah to the Nevada State Railroad Museum’s Nevada Southern Railway excursion operation and museum in Boulder City. The two locomotives, SDP40F No. 644 and F40PHR No. 231, […]
