Notable developments that may not received their due because of the pandemic: Plans were announced or trials began for automated trains, especially in Europe While multiple subway and airport people-mover systems around the world use driverless trains, mainline operation without drivers has until now been restricted to Western Australia, where heavy iron ore trains operate […]
By: Jim Wrinn North American railway preservation hit its most difficult foe — more potent than time, rust, and neglect — in the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that closed tourist railroads and museums across the continent. Nobody could have seen such a major impact coming. No place was prepared. And no venue was spared. For-profit and […]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other officials held a ribbon-cutting earlier today marking the completion of the Moynihan Train Hall, providing the first look inside the $1.6 billion facility across 8th Avenue from New York Penn Station that provides new waiting rooms and access to Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road trains. One entrance […]
WASHINGTON — Boosted by an increase of more than 20% in intermodal units, U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Dec. 26 showed an 8.4% increase over the same week in 2019. The latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads show U.S. Class I railroads moved 220,082 intermodal units for the week, up 20.8%. […]
If a train isn’t ready to leave when you are, you probably won’t take it. That’s the reality confronting Amtrak management and the states who sponsor passenger service as they attempt to chart a course for 2021 and beyond. Until last March, the number of departures on rail corridors across the U.S. had been on […]
Some seldom-covered 2020 passenger rail developments are guaranteed to surface as bigger news in 2021. Among them is the Federal Railroad Administration’s approval of Texas Central’s Final Environmental Impact Statemen and the Surface Transportation Board’s decision to assume jurisdiction over the Dallas-Houston high speed rail project’s construction permits. The STB’s analysis will include evaluating whether […]
By: Dan Cupper ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Office of the Budget has awarded a $1.4 million economic development grant to the nonprofit EBT Foundation, owner of the historic narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad in south-central Pennsylvania. Funding from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program will be applied to several projects, among them […]
Wednesday morning railnews: SMART officials ask for vaccine priority for transit workers Officials with Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit are urging California’s governor to give transit workers priority in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, including those who operate SMART’s trains. The Marin Independent Journal reports that, in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, board president Eric Lucan […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration is proposing changes to positive train control regulations that would change the process which railroads must follow in order to make changes to their PTC safety plans and FRA-certified PTC systems, and change railroads’ requirements for reporting on PTC performance. In a proposed rule published earlier this month, the […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has granted BNSF Railway temporary trackage rights over its lines between Stockton and Keddie, Calif., for the movement of unit ballast trains to and from a quarry at Elsey, Calif. The trackage rights, disclosed in a regulatory filing this week, cover UP’s Oakland, Sacramento, and Canyon subdivisions. The 187.5 miles of […]
Tuesday afternoon rail news: BART to stop accepting new Bombardier railcars because of reliability issues Bay Area Rapid Transit will stop accepting delivery of new railcars from Bombardier because of unresolved reliability issues. KNTV-TV reports BART says the “Fleet of the Future” cars have software issues that make the train routinely stop while in service, […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration says U.S. railroads have met the deadline for positive train control implementation, with the safety system in operation on all 57,536 miles where it is required, FRA certification of all host-railroad systems, and interoperability functioning where required between host and tenant railroads. “On behalf of extraordinary professionals at FRA […]
