WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of an April 2005 Amtrak derailment was the BNSF Railway Company’s inadequate response to multiple reports of rough track conditions that were subsequently attributed to excessive concrete crosstie abrasion.
Contributing to the accident was the Federal Railroad Administration’s failure to provide adequate track safety […]

WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the probable cause of the Oct. 15, 2005, collision of two Union Pacific trains in Texarkana, Ark., was the failure of a train crew to remain attentive and alert and thereby able to stop before striking an observable standing train in front of them.
Contributing to […]

NEW BRIGHTON, Pa. – National Transportation Safety Board investigators are at the scene of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment near New Brighton, a city about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The derailment occurred about 10:40 p.m. yesterday.
In the wreck, about two dozen of the train’s 83 tank cars carrying ethanol derailed and fell off a […]

WASHINGTON – Potentially serious train derailments may be averted as a result of a new federal regulation designed to improve how railroads conduct safety inspections of the joints that connect sections of track made of continuous welded rail (CWR), Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced.
“More frequent and more detailed inspections will help identify problems […]

WASHINGTON – The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) hopes to reduce the number of truck collisions at railroad crossings by distributing new safety tip cards to every truck driver.
The cards are designed to help reduce the more than 700 truck and bus highway-rail grade crossing collisions that occur each year.
“This new card will remind […]

WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has released a new report on community impacts when highway-rail grade crossings are blocked by standing or slow-moving freight trains.
The study found that in addition to general motorist inconvenience or impediment of commercial activities, the most serious consequence of blocked crossings is when emergency response vehicles are hindered […]

WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board will hold a Nov. 2 hearing to discuss issues related to the transportation of grain by railroad.
On Oct. 6, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on rates, competition, and capacity issues in the American rail freight industry. According to the GAO preliminary report, the amount […]

BOSTON – Gov. Mitt Romney earlier this month directed the MBTA to re-institute regular random bag inspections on the public transit system in order to shake up normal routines and make it more difficult to plan and carry out a potential terrorist act.
The MBTA conducted random bag searches for a limited time before and during […]

NEWARK, N.J. – After months of extensive testing, N.J. Transit will place the first multilevel train into service on Dec. 11 for customers on the Northeast Corridor between Trenton and New York.
“These cars provide much needed capacity to meet our growing demand while we build the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel,” said N.J. Transit Chairman and Transportation […]

WASHINGTON – Earlier this month, Metro officially introduced its first six new 6000 series train on the Green Line.
The first three pairs, operating as a six-car train, departed the Greenbelt Metrorail station at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 3, to the Branch Avenue Metrorail station. By the end of the year, 50 of the new cars are […]