WASHINGTON — Advanced brake technology will enable locomotive engineers to significantly improve train control and allow trains to safely travel longer distances between required brake tests under new proposed federal rules, announced U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters.
“Trains with better brakes mean safer railroad operations and improved rail freight service,” said Secretary Peters, explaining that […]

OMAHA, Neb. — Traffic disruption at four rail crossings in downtown Brighton, Colo., would be reduced as part of the development of a new Union Pacific (UP) classification yard and intermodal terminal proposed between Brighton and Fort Lupton, Colo.
A classification yard and intermodal terminal currently located in Denver would be relocated to the proposed new […]

OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific Railroad is spending $8.2 million this year on track improvements between Des Moines, Iowa, and Kansas City, Mo.
Upon completion of the projects, crews will have removed and installed 55,400 ties; spread 10,700 tons of rock ballast to ensure a stable roadbed; replaced the surfaces at 31 road crossings, and replaced […]

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the probable cause of the derailment of a Chicago commuter transit train in the summer of 2006 resulted from the Chicago Transit Authority’s ineffective management and oversight of its track inspection and maintenance program and its system safety program, which resulted in unsafe track conditions.
At […]

NEW YORK — New York City’s metropolitan population of roughly 22 million people is the largest in the United States.   But only about eight million people actually live in the city. Millions of others commute from outlying areas, riding trains into Manhattan each morning, riding them home again each night.  In those journeys, some things […]

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Amtrak and Michigan Central Railway have reached an agreement concerning maintenance and investment levels on the rail lines between Ypsilanti and Kalamazoo, Mich., which are currently used for passenger rail operations.
As a result of this agreement, Amtrak will support Michigan Central’s request for regulatory approval of the transaction now pending before the […]

NORFOLK, Va. — A special train will travel to Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi Sept. 17-21 to provide emergency preparedness training to first responders as part of the 2007 Norfolk Southern TRANSCAER Whistle-Stop Tour.
TRANSCAER (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) is a nationwide program that assists communities in preparing for and responding to a possible hazardous […]

NEW DELHI, India — GE Equipment Services, the transport solutions provider of the General Electric Company, announced today that it has provided financing to ETA Engineering Pvt. Ltd. (ETAPL) for the purchase of more than 200 rail wagons for use on India’s railways.
The wagons are designed to carry freight containers. Container cargo is the fastest-growing […]

WASHINGTON — Lighting upgrades, new windows, solar water heating and new cooling and heating systems.
Those are just some of the improvements to Metro facilities that are planned to be made under this program that will save the transit agency millions of dollars in energy costs over the next ten years, official said.
Metro has hired Pepco […]

OMAHA, Neb. — During the annual meeting and general conference of the National Coal Transportation Association (NCTA) this week in Denver, Union Pacific credited operational improvements for moving a monthly record of 17.2 million tons of coal — 1,118 trainloads — from Wyoming’s Southern Powder River Basin (SPRB) in August.
“According to reports from the U.S. […]