Tag Archives: rail travel

Axios reports: Rail companies and unions struck a tentative agreement on Thursday to avoid a strike that businesses feared would’ve led to severe supply chain disruptions, the White House said. President Biden, in a pre-dawn statement, called the agreement “an important win for our economy.” A strike could have driven up prices at a time when inflation is showing signs …

Axios reports: Amtrak canceled all of its long-distance routes starting Thursday in response to a potential railroad workers strike. It’s the latest disruption stemming from the looming labor strike that could start as soon as Friday, which would lead to a shutdown of most of the country’s railway system. It is not expected to affect Northeast Corridor, as it is …

The New York Times reports: For the last 20 years, the plan to dig new train tunnels under the Hudson River — among the most ambitious and important transportation projects in the country — has been repeatedly tripped up by political wrangling. So when the governors of New York and New Jersey agreed on Tuesday to split evenly their share …

Kansas City’s ABC News affiliate reports: Missouri Highway Patrol has confirmed that an Amtrak passenger train has derailed in rural Missouri early Monday afternoon. Several train cars can be seen on their side in photos posted to social media shortly after the incident. The crash appears to have taken place near Mendon, Missouri. Amtrak has confirmed that several cars derailed …

New York City’s ABC News affiliate reports: Governors Kathy Hochul and Phil Murphy joined Mayor Eric Adams and MTA officials Thursday to announce the latest plans to renovate Penn Station. They want to change it from a cramped two-story structure to a sweeping single-level train hall, and they said they’ll begin accepting proposals for the massive undertaking. Penn Station has …

The Washington Post reports: Amtrak said Thursday that it will reduce its schedule between New Year’s Eve and Jan. 6 as it battles bad weather in some parts of the country and a surge in coronavirus cases among its employees. “Amtrak regrets any inconvenience,” the railroad said in a statement. “We are continuing to monitor changing conditions and will make …

Gothamist reports: Governor Kathy Hochul plans to forge forward with a redesign of Penn Station and the surrounding neighborhood, but will put her own spin on the project first proposed by her predecessor Andrew Cuomo. “This area is is the beating heart of our city,” Hochul said during a press conference Wednesday, noting it’s the busiest transit hub in North …

Washington DC’s NBC News affiliate reports: Metro trains will only run about every 30 minutes Monday as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority investigates an issue with axles on its newest rail cars, the transit authority said late Sunday. A defect – described as an out of compliance axle – found in a car that derailed on the Metro’s Blue …

The Associated Press reports: At least three people were killed Saturday afternoon when an Amtrak train that runs between Seattle and Chicago derailed in north-central Montana, toppling several cars onto their sides, authorities said. The westbound Empire Builder train derailed about 4 p.m. near Joplin, a town of about 200, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said in a statement. The accident …

The New York Times reports: For five years, the plan to build a second pair of rail tunnels between New York City and New Jersey has been deemed one of the most critical infrastructure projects in the country. But it needed a green light from federal officials. On Friday, after years of delays during the Trump administration, that approval officially …

Gothamist reports: Under a soaring vaulted skylight and a massive Art Deco clock, Governor Andrew Cuomo formally unveiled the new Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station Wednesday with an official—and socially distanced—ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This is a work of art that we don’t build anymore. It’s too breathtaking and ambitious to ask, ‘Can we really do that?’ Many doubters said it …

The New York Times reports: For more than half a century, New Yorkers have trudged through the crammed platforms, dark hallways and oppressively low ceilings of Pennsylvania Station, the busiest and perhaps most miserable train hub in North America. Entombed beneath Madison Square Garden, the station served 650,000 riders each weekday before the pandemic, or three times the number it …

The Washington Post reports: Amtrak is ending daily service to hundreds of stations outside the Northeast, and you can blame the coronavirus pandemic, the railroad said this week. Starting Oct. 1, most Amtrak long-distance trains will operate three times a week instead of daily, the company said in a memo to employees. The carrier is also planning to enter fiscal …

The New York Post reports: The number of “supercommuters” in the country is on the rise — and more than 600,000 live in metropolitan New York. Unlike typical commuters, who take about 26 minutes to get to work, according to the Census Bureau, supercommuters spend 90 minutes or more each way on their daily trek. Between 2005 and 2016, the …

The Weather Channel reports: Winter Storm Toby will spread yet another swath of snow, not to mention wind and coastal flooding, into the East through Thursday, the fourth nor’easter in less than three weeks and potentially one of the heaviest snowstorms this late in the season along parts of the I-95 corridor. Winter storm warnings, where snowfall is expected to …

The Associated Press reports: More than 1.6 million homes and businesses are without power amid a winter storm stalled over the eastern U.S. From North Carolina to Maine and westward to Michigan, the storm has felled trees, downed power lines and blown down buildings under construction. The most outages are in Pennsylvania, where 376,000 homes and businesses had no power …

NBC News reports: An Amtrak train traveling from New York to Miami collided with a CSX freight train in South Carolina early Sunday morning, causing the lead engine and some passenger cars to derail. The local sheriff’s office confirmed there were at least two people killed and 70 injured among the 139 passengers and 8 crew. The National Transportation Safety …

The Associated Press reports: Benny Layne, on whose property the truck landed, said the crossing arms had been known to malfunction, sometimes coming down even though no train was approaching. Sometimes, he said, they stayed down for hours. He said motorists would get out of their cars to help guide other motorists around the malfunctioning arms so they could cross …

These incidents are becoming more regular. The Associated Press reports: A train has derailed in a tunnel in downtown Washington but officials say there are no injuries. The city’s Metro rail system said in a tweet that the derailment happened around 6:40 a.m. Monday. At just after 8:15 a.m. Metro tweeted that all passengers on the train had been evacuated …

Crain’s New York reports: President Donald Trump dropped his own New Year’s ball—in the form of a wrecking ball—with a late Friday afternoon announcement that effectively wipes out plans for perhaps the nation’s most crucial infrastructure project. The president officially scrapped his predecessor’s proposal to have the federal government underwrite half the cost of a multi-billion-dollar Amtrak tunnel connecting New …