Public Rail Now

06/09/2026

Curious to hear what you all think about this innovation?

The pilot turns unused railway space into a small but closely watched solar test.

06/09/2026

What's that saying "make hay while the sun is shining"

--Intermodal has benefited from shifts by shippers challenged by a soaring trucking market, where tender rejections, rates and fuel costs are reaching weekly highs.

Freight moving on U.S. railroads continued to post solid gains on improved industrial output and higher intermodal traffic.

06/09/2026

"In this occurrence, a catastrophic collision involving 400 passengers was narrowly averted," said Yoan Marier, TSB chair. "For more than 25 years, we have been calling on [the] industry and regulators to expedite the implementation of physical fail-safe train control systems and put strong interim measures in place while these systems are being developed and installed."

Railroad industry news about: Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Go Transit, positive train control, safety, security, TSB. From the editors of Progressive Railroading Magazine

06/09/2026

Wow! that is A LOT of railcars that could cause an accident.

"There is no free lunch here. Something has got to give.” Indeed, it was soon realized that this change elevated the “stress state” of the industry. The elevated stress state encompassed not only wheel/rail stresses, but carbody stresses as well. In addition to higher wear and tear on wheels, rail and carbodies, safety became a bigger concern."

Warning: A lot of people in the freight rail industry, particularly owners of railcars built before 2004, are not going to like this. Freight railcars manufactured prior to 2004 and […]

05/29/2026

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board on Thursday announced that it has paused ​the review of the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger application — again. “Several aspects of the revised application... are unclear or underdeveloped and ​require supplementation at this stage,” the STB said.

In ​April the two companies resubmitted their merger application to create a coast-to-coast U.S. freight rail operator after their initial proposal was determined to be insufficient and incomplete in January.

The board has now asked the two railroads for more ‌details related ⁠to competition and the effect the merger will have on other railroads, among other topics, by July 27.

In response, the Stop the Rail Merger coalition, representing a broad cross section of the U.S. economy and including BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference, issued a statement, which in part, reads:

“UP and NS have once again submitted an extremely flawed proposal. They have overstated benefits, minimized harm, and left critical questions unanswered. This merger is a bad deal for America and must be rejected.”

The Teamsters Rail Conference, which includes BLET and BMWED, represents the majority of the unionized workforce at UP and NS.

Here is the press release commending STB’s scrutiny of bad UP-NS merger deal from the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition: blet.link/4wX7UxV

05/29/2026

05/29/2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Surface Transportation Board today accepted the Union Pacific (UP)–Norfolk Southern (NS) merger application but delayed the review process to collect vital information...

05/26/2026

The most important thing to know is that the BUILD Act doesn’t provide guaranteed funding for passenger rail. Instead, rail programs would have to fight for funding through the budget process every year.

America is defined by its regions. From the mountains and lush forests of Cascadia, to the plains and Great Lakes of the Midwest, to the bluegrass and sweet wetlands of the Southeast—every region is unique.

05/26/2026

Virginia Policy Rail Institute is hosting a hybrid event:

Virginia Rail Policy Institute hosts a program open to the public at Virginia Conservation Network's office in downtown Richmond, Virginia