By STEPHEN R. GROVES for apnews.com A bipartisan consensus that Congress should act to toughen regulations on railroads emerged Wednesday as senators heard fresh testimony on the fiery hazardous train derailment last month on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee peppered Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw with questions about […]
Norfolk Southern, the company behind the Ohio train crash, and other rail firms spent millions on marketing and lobbying By Adam Lowenstein for theguardian.com Six children, smiling and laughing, sit at a table with lunch boxes open in front of them. “Hey guys! My dad can stop a train with his finger,” one brags. “My […]
By Artemis Moshtaghian, Linh Tran, Yon Pomrenze and Chris Isidore, amp.cnn.com East Palestine, Ohio(CNN)Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw defended his company’s actions since the disaster caused by the derailment of one of its trains in East Palestine, Ohio, and promised the railroad will pay for the cleanup. “Norfolk Southern is committed to the community and […]
By Bill Stephens for trains.com Focus on operating ratio inhibits volume growth, hurts service, and prevents share gain from highway The U.S. Class I railroads’ recurring crew shortages, related bouts of service problems, and a lack of meaningful volume growth are intertwined. You can lay the blame for all three problems at just one place: […]
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor for railwayage.com “Examining Freight Rail Safety” was the theme of a June 14 hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials. The aim: for members “to hear from government and stakeholder witnesses about the state of freight rail safety and issues […]
By Justin Franz for railfan.com The U.S. Surface Transportation Board announced Friday that all seven Class I railroads will have to submit reports on rail service, performance and employment, and four of them will need to provide plans on how they will get service back on track. The request for more information and transparency comes […]
Railroads say they’re working to address crew shortages, but shippers and rail labor blame Precision Scheduled Railroading for gutting rail capacity By Bill Stephens for trains.com There were more questions than answers on Tuesday as federal regulators sought ways to remedy railroad service problems that defy a quick fix because they are rooted in a […]
CSX and Norfolk Southern are refusing to allow Amtrak to use a line between New Orleans and Mobile By Ryan Erik King for jalopnik.com Amtrak is hoping to restore passenger rail servicebetween Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana. The federally-owned company operated on the route until it discontinued operations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Though, Amtrak […]
Uniting East and West would give rail traffic a boost and make railroads better competitors against trucks. By Bill Stephens for trains.com Railroads fall short of trucks in so many ways. The inability to offer seamless service from Point A to Point B shouldn’t be among them. But the Surface Transportation Board has said, in […]
PAT BYINGTON for bhamnow.com 01/17/22 Alabama Representative Danny Garrett from Trussville has introduced legislation prohibiting trains from blocking railroad crossings continuously for two or more hours. The bill—HB 122—was filed last week in response to reports across the Birmingham metro area of trains blocking intersections for lengthy periods of time, causing traffic problems and potential […]