Tuesday morning rail news:
— Union Pacific and the city of Palestine, Texas, have been ordered to go to mediation over UP’s efforts to do away with a 150-year-old agreement requiring the railroad to keep a set number of jobs in the community. The Palestine Herald-Press reports a federal court is requiring the sites to agree to a mediator by April; they will then have until next January — 28 days before a possible trial — to reach a resolution. Union Pacific filed suit over the 1872 agreement in December [see “UP sues to end employment provision in Texas town,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 2, 2019].
— A new rail blockade appeared briefly Monday on Canadian National tracks in Montreal’s Poine-Saint-Charles neighborhood, disrupting VIA Rail Canada and Exo commuter rail traffic. The CBC reports about 20 masked protesters departed after a large police presence gathered nearby. At Kahnawake, Quebec, south of Montreal, members of the Mohawk community held a Monday evening meeting to discuss the future of a blockade of Canadian Pacific tracks that has been in place for more than three weeks, but media were not permitted to attend and no results were reported.
— Canadian National CEO JJ Ruest says complete recovery from rail blockades in Canada will take several weeks, after more than 1,400 trains were delayed during three weeks of service disruptions. In a press release this morning, the railroad says it is recalling “most” of the workers laid off in Eastern Canada.
— One person has been arrested for suspected arson after a Sunday fire that heavily damaged a Canadian National building in Prince Rupert, B.C., on Sunday, the CBC reports. The building, on the city’s waterfront near its train station, was unoccupied. A spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the fire was not believed to be related to protests that have blocked rail lines around the country.
— The Reading & Northern has finalized an agreement to return passenger service to a 146-year-old railroad station in Tamaqua, Pa., including building of a new station platform. The railroad has agreed to pick up $16,000 of the cost for the $36,000 project and will donate $20,000 to the Tamaqua Borough Council for distribution to local charities, according to a Reading & Northern press release. The first passenger trains are expected to operate by Tamaqua’s Summerfest on June 21.
— Updated at 9 a.m. CST with CN release on recovery of Canadian network.
Re CN, enough is enough. Warn them in advance that the train will not stop, tie the horn down, and roll through.
Great news. Will they run trains to Tamaqua’s Summerfest from North Reading and Jim Thorp and/or Scranton?
Rode the R & N “Budd” from the outer station to Jim Thorpe, and then into the canyon, this past summer . The R &N is a “class” operation!!