ERIE, Pa. — Locomotive builders in Erie are working today knowing they don’t have to worry about contract talks for another four years. United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America locals 506 and 618 voted on final contract terms with Wabtec that keeps the former GE Transportation locomotive plant in Lawrence Park, Pa., flush […]
A power car at Alstom’s plant in Hornell, N.Y., shows the swooping lines of the next generation of Acela equipment. Bob Johnston Another power car, with its outer skin not yet installed, shows elements of the crash energy management system. Bob Johnston Carbody shells are made of aluminum and fabricated in Italy, which required a […]
Baldwin Locomotive Works No. 60000 is moved to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in September 1933. It took five days to move the locomotive five blocks from 24th and Vine Street. Barry R. Nemcoff PHILADELPHIA – A $6 million grant from the Hamilton Family Charitable Trust will transform the Franklin Institute’s Train Factory exhibit, which […]
Association of American Railroads WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending June 8. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 513,099 carloads and intermodal units, down 8.5% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending June 8 were 246,758 […]
This 2017 view looking south at Dolton shows a northbound Hoosier State passenger train, then operated by Iowa Pacific, on the Union Pacific line. The lead locomotive is on the CSX Transportation line while the second locomotive is on the Indiana Harbor Belt line. Marshall W. Beecher CHICAGO – More than $19 million in federal […]
SAN FRANCISCO — An independent panel examining the design and repair of the Transbay Transit Center has determined the $2.2 billion facility is safe to reopen, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports a date for returning service to the facility has not yet been set. While preparations for reopening the center have been under way […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today announced the recipients of more than $326 million in grant funds under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program and the Special Transportation Circumstances Program, for a wide variety of state and local railroad infrastructure projects. The grants will fund 45 […]
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — Distribution of malted grain for the distillery and brewing industries in the northern Kentucky region will expand dramatically with a new 33-railcar transload facility developed by Louisville & Indiana Railroad and Great Western Malting Co. The opening, planned for June 13, will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the rail-to-truck transfer site, which […]
BOSTON — Saturday’s derailment of a Green Line light rail train appears to have been caused by operator error, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The Boston Herald quotes MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeffrey Gonnevile as saying the derailment “does appear to be operator-related” at a meeting of the MBTA’s oversight board. At least […]
SAN FRANCISCO – Nearly seven decades after being built, PCC streetcars are still earning their keep in San Francisco and thanks to a recent rehabilitation effort, the streamlined cars will be doing so for years to come. Since 2014, Brookville Equipment Corporation has been rebuilding 16 PCC cars for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. […]
A view of the wreckage of derailed Amtrak Cascades Train 501 on Dec. 18, 2017. Steve Carter SEATTLE — The city council in Lakewood, Wash., has approved a resolution asking the Washington State Department of Transportation and Amtrak not to reopen the Point Defiance Bypass until all of the National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendations are […]
A Metra train leaves Big Timber Road west of Elgin in 2014. A connection will be built to Union Pacific rails to Rockford in the foreground Bob Johnston CHICAGO – Although Illinois lawmakers and newly-elected Gov. J. B. Pritzker, a Democrat, enacted the state’s first infrastructure capital spending legislation in a decade [see “Illinois passes […]
