Railroad News

Union Pacific Railroad Assistant Vice President-External Relations Wes Lujan recently posted a column on the freight-rail industry’s relationship with Amtrak.

The column’s timing is related to Amtrak’s 15-year, $75 billion plan to expand intercity passenger-rail service across the country. The plan will depend on Congress passing federal funding to help pay for it, as well as negotiations with the nation’s freight railroads on whose tracks Amtrak trains would travel.

A Union Pacific Railroad firefighting crew with water tank cars from the Class I's fleet helped fight a lava fire in Northern California in late June, according to an article on UP's website.

UP operates a fleet of about 50 water tank cars known as the fire-car fleet. The former tank cars were converted into water pump cars and can hold 7,000 to 23,000 gallons of water. They feature nozzles that can spray water more than 75 feet.

Union Pacific Railroad's Heartland Service Unit has reduced its personal reportable injuries by 25% and human factor-derailments by 58% so far in 2021.

One of the unit's initiatives, called "Walk-with-Me Wednesdays," engages directly with train crews, UP officials said in an item posted on the Class I's InsideTrack web page. Each Wednesday, supervisors walk around the yard with two employees and show them how safe and reliable service impacts customers.

Union Pacific Railroad's "We Are ONE" Employee Resource Group (ERG) commemorative locomotive is ready to hit the tracks. UP No. 1979 is named after the year in which the Class I established its first ERG, the Black Employee Network (BEN).

The locomotive will travel through UP's system on its way to the ONE ERG conference to be held in Omaha Sept. 1-2. Its unveiling will be held in Houston in honor of Juneteenth day, the holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States.

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday published its 2020 Building America Report, the railroad's annual report on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.

The report unveils UP's new cumulative ESG strategy called "Building a Sustainable Future 2030," which includes four areas of concentration: investing in the UP workforce, driving sustainable solutions, championing environmental stewardship and strengthening the communities UP serves.

Union Pacific Railroad in 2020 moved 404 total wind trains, a record high at more than one per day.

Last year's record broke its previous annual record of 242 wind trains, which was set in 2019, UP reported last week in its InsideTrack newsletter.

Nebraska Army National Guard soldiers and the West Central District Health Department last week administered COVID-19 vaccines to Union Pacific Railroad workers in a temporary mass vaccination clinic at UP's Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska.

More than 260 UP employees received their first of two vaccine doses on Feb. 25. The vaccine is being offered to transportation industry workers under Phase 1b of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services statewide distribution plan, according to an article on the U.S. Army's website.

Union Pacific Railroad and the National Park Foundation (NPF) and announced a continuation and expansion of their partnership to help connect students to national parks.

This commitment advances NPF's goal to double the reach of its Open OutDoors for Kids (OOK) program over the next four years, according to a news release.

Union Pacific Railroad engineers in the Roseville Subdivision one-upped Mother Nature at California's Donner Pass by creating a controlled avalanche before she brings the snow crashing down, according to an article on the Union Pacific’s Inside Track website.

The equipment — called the avalauncher — releases two pounds of explosives at the mountain to create a controlled avalanche.

Union Pacific Railroad last week announced the opening of a Twin Cities intermodal terminal, which will launch intermodal service to Minneapolis in January 2021.

The new service will feature domestic intermodal movements between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Los Angeles, UP officials said in a press release.

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday announced agreement employees who worked at least 30 days during the pandemic will receive a one-time $1,000 gross bonus payment in December.

Pending union approval, all current agreement employees — including those furloughed — who worked at least 30 days between March 1 and Nov. 30 will be eligible to receive the bonus. The days worked do not need to be consecutive, UP officials said in a press release.