Railroad News

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Devin Rouse, 35
Passenger-rail division staff director
Federal Railroad Administration

Nominator’s quote: “Mr. Rouse has a stellar reputation within FRA and the railroad industry. He is an intelligent, hardworking engineer and project manager and is well respected by his staff, his peers, and especially by the railroad rolling stock equipment manufacturers and the leadership of the 28 commuter railroads around the nation. Senior leadership at FRA routinely assign the toughest and most sensitive tasks to Mr. Rouse. They have complete confidence that he will complete the task while professionally representing the policies and the positions of the FRA and the U.S. Department of Transportation.” — Robert Lauby, Federal Railroad Administration

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minnesota) this week visited a rail supplier and short-line holding company in Lakeville, Minnesota, to tour their facilities and discuss infrastructure and short-line tax credit legislation.

Craig, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials.

Duos Technologies Inc. has been awarded a $2.3 million contract from a Class I to replace and update an earlier version of its rip® rail-car inspection portal. The Class I was not revealed. The five-year contract includes technical support, development and maintenance of a library of artificial intelligence algorithms with the objective of automating parts of the client’s rail-car inspections, Duos officials said in a press release.

The Blockchain In Transport Alliance (BiTA) elected Bob Hitt and Richard Greening to serve as chair and co-chair, respectively, of its Bill Of Lading (BOL) working group. The BOL group’s purpose is to create a modern definition of “bill of lading” and an associated data structure specification that can be leveraged across all transport modes for supply chain stakeholders, BiTA officials said in a press release. Hitt is a market manager at Salesforce and Greening is global director of technology of at The DDC Group and its freight-focused division. 

Ontario government officials yesterday announced that as of Aug. 31, Metrolinx will add and extend 148 train trips across the GO Transit rail network to accommodate rush-hour, midday and evening service. 

Metrolinx will add 84 new trips across the Kitchener, Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West GO train lines and extend 65 existing trips across the Lakeshore West and Kitchener lines. 

New Jersey Transit earlier this week announced it identified additional opportunities for transit-oriented development (TOD) projects and is encouraging community partners to explore them. 

To promote TOD opportunities on and near NJ Transit property, the agency in May launched a website to host project documents for interested bidders to access.  

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) earlier this week was awarded a $1.7 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to fund police patrols on trains traveling through San Francisco. 

The grant will enable BART to fund another year of deployment of its critical asset patrol (CAP) team, and continue to hire new officers to fill 19 additional positions, BART officials said in a press release.

Railroad operator Rio Grande Pacific Corp. has hired Mark Hemphill to lead the development and construction of the Uinta Basin Railway project in Utah, company officials announced yesterday.

The $1.5 billion new-build railway will serve northeastern Utah's energy, mineral and agricultural industries when completed in late 2022 to early 2023, Rio Grande officials said in a press release.

Compiled by Michael Popke

Shirley Qian, 28
Senior planner
Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority

Nominator’s quote: “Shirley successfully applied for a planning grant and is implementing alternative plans for alignment and construction methodologies for future rail capacity expansion in the sensitive Alviso Wetlands. This process involves finding win-win solutions that restore tidal flow, species habitat and sea level rise resiliency along with rail capacity enhancements involving resources, wildlife and environmental advocacy partners.” — Jim Allison, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority

The Amtrak Police Department honored Dean Stecklair with its Officer of the Year recognition for his “significant effort” in keeping riders, employees and the public safe while on duty. 

Stecklair began his law enforcement career in 2010 when he joined the Amtrak Police Department. 

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) announced yesterday its first new Orange Line train comprised of six rail cars has entered passenger service from Wellington Station in Medford, Massachusetts. 

The rail cars are the first of 152 new cars that will replace the current fleet operating on the Orange Line by the end of 2022, MBTA officials said in a press release. 

The 45G short-line tax credit is among two tax credits that have "proven on their merits to receive a permanent extension," the U.S. Senate Finance Committee's Business Cost Recovery Task Force has concluded.

The task force reported more than 40 temporary tax provisions that expired or will expire between Dec. 31, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2019. Among those, the task force evaluated six tax credits, including 45G.

Sound Transit contractor crews last week began removing temporary steel columns and beams that were used during construction of the elevated East Link light-rail extension guideway in Bellevue, Washington. 

The project marks the next step in preparing for safety testing and pre-operation checks by 2020, with light-rail operation scheduled for operation by 2023. 

U.S. freight railroads logged 533,190 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Aug. 10, a 4.3 percent decrease compared with the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Railroads posted 261,194 carloads for the week, down 3.9 percent, and 271,996 containers and trailers, down 4.6 percent, AAR officials said in a press release.

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s board yesterday approved new responsibilities for Michael Farrell and Vanessa Allen Sutherland effective tomorrow.

As senior vice president of operations and mechanical, Farrell will assume responsibility for the railroad's transportation and mechanical functions.