With workers in some areas on strike or locked out and others reporting for work, the union side of the CN strike seems to be in chaos, and now the Canadian labour minister announced plans to legislate an end to the strike yesterday. The previous round of strikes had a major impact on Canada’s trade […]
A controlled burn near Albuquerque got out of control; during live TV coverage of the fire (in fact, just as they were cutting away), a New Mexico Rail Runner commuter train appeared to go right past the flames. And there was much consternation, though apparently no real risk. Via Techyum.
Rail stocks soared yesterday when it was revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is now the largest single shareholder in BNSF. Apparently, people think he knows something. But rail stocks have been hot for a while. Former VIA Rail chairman Jean Pelletier won another court case last month, this one a wrongful-dismissal case against the […]
Two dozen cars of a 33-car Ontario Northland train derailed on Friday near Engelhart, Ontario, a small community in the Timiskaming region of northern Ontario. Several of the cars contained sulphuric acid: one spilled its contents — about 100 tons’ worth — into the Blanche River; another four were leaking. The spill was contained on […]
A major fire that has destroyed a 400-metre wooden trestle in Sacramento is being deemed suspicious by authorities. The fire, which began last night, has disrupted freight and Amtrak traffic and could be seen for miles; the burning creosote timbers also triggered some health and air quality advisories (News10, Sacramento Bee). The trestle was still […]
The problem is, once you start covering minor rail accidents in Canada (and in British Columbia in particular), you’re kind of obligated to continue. Still, this story about mudslides in the Fraser Canyon — not far from the site of CN’s spectacular Lytton derailment — that have closed the Trans-Canada Highway for up to a […]
The government of Canada will not appeal a federal court ruling ordering it to reinstate Jean Pelletier as chairman of VIA Rail. Back in March 2004, Pelletier was fired by then-Prime Minister Paul Martin over comments he made about former VIA employee (and Olympic gold medallist) Myriam Bédard. (I blogged about it at the time: […]
A CSX derailment this morning in Oneida, New York caused a propane explosion that closed a highway and suspended Amtrak service in the area. Meanwhile, on Saturday night two men were struck and killed by a CSX train in Smithfield, North Carolina. And on Sunday morning, two people were killed when the car they were […]
VIA Rail trains in the Corridor have had a spate of bad luck in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, train no. 85 from Toronto to Sarnia clipped a car at a level crossing west of Guelph: a child in the car was killed, and two women were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries; no one on the […]
This is getting ridiculous. CN had another derailment in B.C. on Saturday — about one-third of the cars of a 90-car grain train left the tracks on the CN mainline near Blue River. Fortunately, grain is hardly a hazardous material, and it was cleaned up; there were no injuries. And, half a continent away, they […]
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