Railfanning.org News Wire

MYRTLEWOOD, Ala. —  Six people were injured when a freight train carrying segments of solid rocket boosters for NASA derailed on Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s Meridian & Bigbee Railroad (M&B). Five of the injured were accompanying the booster segments in a passenger car that derailed. Two of the five were airlifted to nearby hospitals with injuries that have been reported as not life-threatening. The sixth person injured was the locomotive engineer, who is an M&B employee. He sustained cuts and bruises and was treated and released yesterday. The derailment occurred as the eastbound train with two locomotives and 14 cars

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Railroad Passengers is honoring U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., with the George Falcon Golden Spike Award. The award honors individuals for their contributions to the advancement of passenger rail. Rehberg was honored for his sustained leadership in funding intercity passenger rail. He chairs the Congressional Rail Caucus and was instrumental in securing funding for Amtrak in the last appropriations bill, fighting off amendments that would have crippled the railroad, or eliminated long distance trains. “Even in his earliest days as a freshman member of Congress, Representative Rehberg spoke out clearly and forcefully against efforts

OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway will significantly improve eastbound domestic transcontinental service from Los Angeles to the Southeast on May 21. The service improvement in this important high-volume lane will result from shifting traffic from the Memphis gateway to the new Shreveport, La., gateway. This new route, combining Union Pacific’s Sunset Route between Los Angeles and Texas with Norfolk Southern’s and Kansas City Southern’s joint venture line between Shreveport and Meridian, Miss., is nearly 150 miles shorter than the current route, making it the shortest, fastest and most reliable intermodal route between Los Angeles and