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WASHINGTON - Consumers could pay more for a wide variety of goods transported by truck if the government demands cleaner-burning diesel fuel, regulators and trucking industry officials say.

Federal transportation officials are fighting the legal and financial roadblocks that threaten to hamper reconstruction of one of the East Coast’s most important traffic conduits and disrupt trucking operations.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - While fallout from the Conrail buyout is disrupting freight traffic on some of the nation's rail lines, its ripples are also being felt by Amtrak, whose passenger trains are being delayed by idled freight cars clogging the lines.

GREENWOOD, Miss. - A Greenwood truck driver was injured Friday when his tractor-trailer rig collided with Amtrak's City of New Orleans passenger train, officials said.

DENVER - Teamsters officials on Friday criticized NationsWay Transport for allegedly paying back wages only to employees who continued to work for the transport firm after it filed for bankruptcy last month.

Covenant Transport, Chattanooga, Tenn., said it expects to report second quarter profits above analysts' estimates. It is the third trucking company in the past week to project better than expected earnings.

WASHINGTON - Delivery delays and other rail-service problems continued to plague the new owners of Conrail Inc. as they began their third week of operations. Rail customers reported late shipments of raw materials and difficulties getting the rail cars needed to pick up finished goods.

In an unusual financing transaction, Asche Transportation Services, Shannon, Ill., said its waste hauling unit, Specialty Transportation Services, will pay off $8 million in subordinated debt with an advance payment from one of its customers.

Chronic construction on the Ohio Turnpike is creating long lines at rest stops for trucks and passenger vehicles alike, and delays in the roadwork mean no relief anytime soon.

Drivers are doing just a little too much when it comes to speeding on certain stretches of New Jersey highways. State Police records show that in the last year, since the speed limit was increased to 65 mph on certain roads in the state, troopers wrote the most tickets to drivers traveling between 10 and 19 mph above the 65-mph limit.