The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the engineer of Amtrak Northeast Regional train no. 188 was likely distracted by radio traffic about an emergency situation on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Regional Rail train and lost track of where he was moments before the May 2015 overspeed wreck at Frankford Curve that killed eight and injured 200.
The National Park Service (NPS), in partnership with Amtrak, has added the New York to Washington, D.C. Saturday morning route as part of its Trails and Rails program, Amtrak announced April 21, 2016.
GATX Corporation, in partnership with Amtrak and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, hosted railcar safety training sessions using its TankTrainer™ and Classroom Boxcar at Union Station in Washington, D.C. from April 12-15, 2016.
In a letter to the Surface Transportation Board filed April 13, 2016, CSX contends that “giving Amtrak trains absolute priority over the old RF&P (Washington-Richmond) upends commuter train operations, drastically limits the number of available slots for freight trains, and likely results in congestion on tracks and in yards that would ripple through the network,” says Frank N. Wilner, Contibuting Editor of Railway Age.
In a letter to the Surface Transportation Board filed April 13, 2016, CSX contends that “giving Amtrak trains absolute priority over the old RF&P (Washington-Richmond right-of-way) upends commuter train operations, drastically limits the number of available slots for freight trains, and likely results in congestion on tracks and in yards that would ripple through the network.”
UPDATED APRIL 6, 2016, 2:30 p.m.: Amtrak Train 89, the New York City-Savannah, Ga., Palmetto, partially derailed at Chester, Pa., approximately 15 miles southwest of Philadelphia, on the Northeast Corridor early Sunday, April 3, 2016, after striking a maintenance-of-way backhoe on the tracks. Two Amtrak maintenance-of-way employees were killed and 35 on board the train were injured, one seriously.
The Association of American Railroads, on behalf of its freight railroad members, has submitted comments to the Surface Transportation Board regarding STB’s proceeding, On-Time Performance under Section 213 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (Docket No. EP 726).
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Feb. 16, 2016 announced that a new group has been established to study the return of passenger rail service between New Orleans, La. to Orlando, Fla. along the Gulf Coast. This line of service was lost after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Washington is a rat hole worth watching because, as the politically savvy know, lawmakers and regulators can inflict unexpected, unprovoked and unjustified wounds.
In comments filed with the Surface Transportation Board’s Ex Parte 726, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on On-Time Performance under Section 213 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA), Amtrak says that the only viable method of measuring passenger train on-time performance on a host freight railroad is one that includes intermediate stations as well as endpoints.