Month: July 2006

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will hold a series of public meetings across the country beginning in August to start a national discussion on the challenging issue of improving safety at the nation’s largely unregulated private highway-rail grade crossings, FRA Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced. "The lack of a common safety approach at private crossings unnecessarily puts certain motorists at risk," Boardman said. "We need to learn all we can about private crossings in order to consider possible methods of reducing collisions and fatalities in the future." Establishing responsibility for safety at private crossings is one of the

GLENCOE, Minn. — The Twin Cities & Western normally is freight service only, but on July 21-22-23 the 229-mile regional railroad celebrated its 15th anniversary by running a series of diesel-powered passenger trains. Regularly scheduled passenger service ended on the line in 1969. "It’s our way of thanking customers, employees, government leaders and railroad officials who helped make our railroad a success," says TC&W Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Wegner. The general public had an opportunity to ride similar trains on July 29-30 when the city of Cologne, Minn. marks its 125th anniversary. As a bonus, the

CHICAGO — The National Transportation Safety Board has completed the initial on-scene phase of its investigation into the July 11 Chicago Transit Authority train derailment in a tunnel with a fire on the Blue Line. The 12-member team is continuing the investigation. As part of the ongoing investigation into this accident, the arc damaged wayside and car equipment, derailment area core samples of ties, and derailment area components of the rail fastening system have been sent to the NTSB’s laboratory in Washington, DC. CTA has also provided the NTSB with track inspection records for the past 12 months. The Safety