Welcome to Summer 2026 edition of Steel Wheels. I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable 250^th anniversary of the United States. I also wish everyone good luck on catching one of the many special anniversary locomotive units traveling the rail network.                            

In this issue you will find “Observations of Amtrak’s New Equipment Order”, an article on railroad firefighting by Geoff McLennan, a look at another Orange County station, Part 2 of Ed D’Amato’s “Creating a Robust American Rail System”, an article on mode shift (highway to rail) as a strategy for reducing Green House Gas emissions, reimaging the LOSSAN Corridor (Pacific Surfliner) near-term and longer-term dramatically leveraging the Southern California passenger rail system (Electrolink).  Finally, a word from Paul Dyson “From the Rear Platform”.

As was noted in a recent NewsWire posting An Update on Contactless Fare Payment across Agencies in California – RailPAC Tap & Go contactless payment system is being expanded. In conjunction with the World Cup, San Francisco transit agencies and LA Metro and its partner agencies have rolled out Tap & Go acceptance. Tap & Go avoids all the hassles of ticket machines and ticket purchase. Also, in conjunction with the World Cup the Capitol Corridor becomes the first intercity rail service in the US to adopt contactless payment with its Tap2Ride program (remember to tap off on intercity and regional rail systems like Caltrain), Some systems are also introducing fare capping as a replacement for weekly and monthly tickets.  With fare capping rides become increasingly discounted (and eventually free) as the trip payments reach the cost of current multi-ride fares. For the bank-less, stored value cards remain available for purchase. The next feature to be rolled out will allow customers eligible for demographic discounts, age, disability, etc. to register their card to receive these discounts within the contactless system. Within the next year, close to 95% of California transit trips will utilize the contactless system.

Not only is the contactless system more convenient for the customer, but it saves transit agencies the large cost associated with the handling and accounting of cash transactions. Tap & Go or the California Integrated Ticketing Project (Cal-ITP), is the result of all the very complex hard work by Caltrans undertaken behind the scenes with banks, clearing houses, software companies, and hardware companies to achieve a workable and reliable system,  Caltrans and its partner agencies, the Cal-ITP team, deserve congratulations for reaching this milestone.

Regarding the UP/NS merger things are little changed. As I noted in the 2^nd Quarter 2026 Steel Wheels the Surface Transportation Board (STB) rejected UP’s initial application. On April 30^th UP refiled the merger plan with additional detail as requested by the Board. On May May 27th, 2026, the STB conditionally accepted the merger application as complete but requested answers or data to specific questions. UP’s has until July 27^th to respond. Its nine questions centered around: enhanced competition, post-merger service levels. interchange gateways, car supply, market share projections and a projection of likely mergers that might occur as a consequence of the UP/NS merger.

At this point, the STB’s task is still to rule on the completeness of the merger application and not on the merits of the merger. Over the last several weeks the message from opponents has consistently called for the STB to reject the merger application. If or when the STB accepts the application the discussion will shift to the merits of the merger. This is when the time is appropriate to suggest specific remedies to offset merger driven issues.

Some added information has arisen over the past few weeks. UP has indicated that it will accept the STB’s proposed reciprocal switching rulemaking. It has also indicated that it is willing to sell its river line (former Missouri Pacific, route of the Amtrak River Runner route) between Kansas City and St. Louis. CN wants that rail line, which is why they may have “jumped to gun” and suggested that any merger approval includes line sales and trackage rights. UP has indicated that it would agree to Board imposed competitive concessions long as the impact of these concessions does not exceed a $750 million threshold.

While Amtrak has settled on-time performance issues with NS and UP, they have so far been silent about the merger. Given that the STB has delayed the start of merger proceedings, that is not unexpected. Also, any negotiations on a settlement and Amtrak’s support for merger would be behind closed doors and would not become public until an agreement is reached. In case there is not agreement, one would expect that Amtrak would ask the STB to impose its requested  conditions as part of the merger approval.

Finally, you might note that, freed from the constrictions of printing and mailing, allows this issue to have a great deal of content.