Today's Headlines Today's HeadlinesWASHINGTON -- Hurricane Floyd roared up the Eastern seaboard Thursday, but the powerful storm had few lasting effects outside coastal areas because it missed key inland distribution hubs, according to the Journal of Commerce.
Though the storm missed major logistics hubs such as Atlanta, customers in affected areas were facing delays that were measured in days rather than hours due to evacuation of cities such as Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla.
WASHINGTON -- Amtrak will resume NortheastDirect service between Washington and Philadelphia, and between New York and Boston on a limited schedule this morning. Due to efforts to remedy high water conditions there will be no scheduled service between Philadelphia and New York.
Amtrak expects to resume service between Philadelphia and New York this afternoon. When service is restored between Philadelphia and New York, Metroliner Service will begin operating with hourly departures from New York and Washington. NortheastDirect service will operate with departures approximately every two hours.
Amtrak hopes to resume Keystone and Clocker services later today. Keystone Service operates between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Clocker Service, serves commuters between Philadelphia and New York.
Schedules for Amtrak's Empire Service, which operates between New York
City and Albany and Buffalo, New York, and NortheastDirect's service between
Washington and Richmond and Newport News, Virginia, will be determined later
today.
WASHINGTON -- The Surface Transportation Board rejected two efforts to halt the potential resumption of service on a long-unused rail line that stretches across Missouri from the Kansas City area to the St. Louis suburbs, the Journal of Commerce reported.
The STB decision earlier this week rejected two petitions from Raytown, Mo., and Lees Summit, Mo., that sought to block the sale of a 270-mile rail line that runs through their communities. Both communities are suburbs of Kansas City.
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.-- ABC-NACO Inc. and Gunderson Rail Services, a unit of The Greenbrier Companies, said they have entered into a letter-of-intent for a long-term service contract with Union Pacific Railroad Co, according to the Journal of Commerce.
Negotiations to finalize details are not taking place, with anticipated start of services to UP before the end of the year.
Once finalized, the two rail supply companies will perform all freight car wheel mounting and repair and wheel maintenance services for UP's entire North American rail system.
The contract, which will be one of the largest service agreements in
the rail industry, will more than double the current wheelset output of
both ABC-NACO and Gunderson Rail Services.
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- A strike by engine drivers in Belgium turned the morning rush hour into chaos for train travelers Thursday and worsened traffic jams into the capital, officials said.
On some lines, only one in four regularly scheduled trains ran, creating long delays. Many commuters had been forewarned of the strike and drove to work, but that left Brussels' roads clogged.
The engine drivers went on strike Wednesday, demanding the state rail
company hire more drivers. They say they have been unable to take vacations
because of an overly busy work schedule.
MOSCOW -- Russia's Ministry of Transport met this week to gauge shipper interest in increasing use of the Trans-Siberian rail route and Russia's western ports to move cargo that currently moves on all-sea routes.
For Russian transportation officials like Boris Grishin, host of Tuesday's meeting and head of the ministry's sea transportation department, the objective can be met -- if ports like St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad can speed up the transfer of cargo from the Trans-Siberian rail system to ships bound for North Sea ports, and lower the costs.
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