General Information
CN, CPKC say U.S- bound container traffic has not returned since July strike at British Columbia ports
(Source: Trains.com, October 26, 2023) For more than a decade, British Columbia ports have won market share from U.S. West Coast ports for containers bound to Chicago and the Midwest — but that long-term trend has reversed in a matter of months due to the two-week dockworkers strike at Vancouver and Prince Rupert. The July…
Read MoreNS investing in automated inspection systems
(Source: Associated Press, October 26, 2023) To help quickly spot safety defects on moving trains, Norfolk Southern said on October 26 it has installed the first of more than a dozen of a new generation of automated inspection portals on its tracks in Ohio. The new portals, equipped with high-speed cameras, will take hundreds of…
Read MoreAAR to FRA: Emergency regs for freight-train length unnecessary
(Source: Progressive Railroading 10/17/2023) In an Oct. 12 letter to Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose, Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies said “there is no emergency” when it comes to the safety of freight trains that are longer than 7,500 feet. Jefferies wrote to Bose in response to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and…
Read MoreBLET presses FRA for Emergency Order on excessive train length
Citing numerous recent accidents caused in part by excessively long trains, the BLET has urged the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to issue an Emergency Order establishing a maximum train length of 7,500 feet on the nation’s Class I railroads. BLET National President Eddie Hall made the request in an October 9 letter to FRA Administrator…
Read MoreRailroad unions want scrutiny of remote control trains after death of worker in Ohio rail yard
(Source: Associated Press, October 6, 2023) Some railroad unions want more scrutiny of the safety of remote control operations major railroads have used for years in and around railyards without significant problems. Remote control helps limit costs by using less experienced workers to move locomotives that help assemble trains — a task that once required…
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