Articles by Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON — An independent team of consultants charged with looking at competitiveness in the U.S. rail industry has found that railroad rates have been steadily increasing since 2004, with a particularly steep increase in 2008. But Christensen Associates Inc. found that the rate increases were driven by fluctuating fuel prices and other costs and did not appear to reflect a greater exercise of railroad market power over captive shippers. The updated study, which now includes data from 1987 through 2008, found that a greater share of traffic in 2007 and 2008 moved at rates less than 180 percent of variable costs than in 2005 and 2006. Variable costs include fuel,

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. —  A man was killed after an Amtrak train crashed into his pickup truck, authorities said.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — “America takes its first step toward transforming its transportation system,” said HNTB Corporation’s Peter Gertler in response to President Barack Obama’s announcement allocating $8 billion to high-speed rail projects across the country. Gertler, high-speed rail services chair for the national infrastructure firm, said these projects – along current and proposed rail lines in California, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere – will yield significant benefits to the recipient states and regions. “Even in the short-term, such an investment will spur construction, create jobs and boost local transit systems. In the future,