Railroad News

A slowing domestic economy will result in a moderate uptick in container imports through 2019 following last year's record-high cargo growth, according to experts at the Port of Long Beach's 15th annual Pulse of Ports Peak Season Forecast held earlier this week.

About 500 people attended the event, which brought together speakers from all segments of the shipping and goods movement industry to discuss the cargo outlook for 2019, the latest economic trends and their impact on the San Pedro Bay port complex.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services has partnered with 2M Alliance to begin serving the Port of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, port authority and DP World Prince Rupert Inc. announced yesterday.

ZIM service made its inaugural call at the port on March 27, when ZIM containers arrived on the Maersk Altair vessel. CN serves the port.

The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) this week was awarded a $400,000 state grant for engineering services needed to continue track and structure construction for a passenger-rail restoration project. 

The Commonwealth Financing Authority awarded the Local Share Account grant to allow the Scranton-to-New York City Lackawanna Cut-Off passenger-rail restoration project's construction to continue, according to a PNRRA press release. 

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is making $4 million available to help fight human trafficking and other crimes on public transit, the agency announced today.

As part of the FTA's new Human Trafficking Awareness and Public Safety Initiative, the agency is issuing two "notices of funding opportunity" (NOFOs) for $2 million each to prevent human trafficking and other crimes from occurring on public transit, including rail.

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s nine-member board re-elected Dennis Clough as president and Charles Lucas as vice president earlier this week. 

Clough, who is the mayor of Westlake, Ohio, joined the board in 1999. He served as the board's president since 2018.

GO Transit commuter-rail service will expand in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area on April 8, Ontario government officials announced earlier this week. 

Mid-day weekday service on the Stouffville Line will be extended to three stations in Markham, Ontario, and new weekday morning trip options will be available between the Bramalea GO station in Brampton, Ontario, and Union Station in Toronto, according to a government press release.

Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) and state government officials earlier this week recognized a decade of "partnership" with Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia.

Kia is one of the largest customers at the Port of Savannah, from which the automaker has shipped nearly 350,000 20-foot-equivalent container units (TEUs) over the past 10 years, according to a GPA press release.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is calling for applications to its professional development program through May 3. 

Leadership APTA is a year-long program designed to develop and support managers and leaders aspiring to hold senior and executive leadership positions in the public transportation industry.

Canadian Pacific and CN will serve two new high-efficiency grain elevators that G3 Canada Ltd. has plans to build near Irricana and Stettler County, Alberta.

Both facilities will have a capacity of 42,000 metric tons and a railway loop track that can accommodate a 150-car unit train, according to a G3 press release.

GoTriangle's board yesterday voted unanimously to discontinue the $2.7 billion Durham-Orange light-rail transit project, following Duke University's refusal last month to sign a cooperative agreement that would have allowed the project to proceed.

The project would have built a 17.7-mile light-rail system to connect Chapel Hill and eastern Durham, North Carolina. Acting on GoTriangle President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mann's recommendation, the board voted to recommend that the cost-sharing partners in Durham and Orange counties and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization discontinue the project.

U.S. railroads' carload traffic tumbled 10.9 percent to 236,817 units for the week ending March 23, but intermodal volume picked up 2.1 percent to 266,200 containers and trailers compared with the same week in 2018, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total U.S. rail volume for the week dropped 4.5 percent to 503,017 carloads and intermodal units compared with last year's levels.

Trainyard Tech LLC obtained a purchase order from Norfolk Southern Railway to update its hump yard process control system at Lamberts Point coal dumping facility in Norfolk, Virginia. The upgrade includes new computers and process control systems software. Trainyard will add automatic equipment identifier radio frequency readers to monitor cars during the coal dumping process and a rail yard reporting tool that will help simplify troubleshooting.

FirstGroup ordered five new AT300 125 mph intercity electric trains from Hitachi Rail for an open access, high-speed train service linking London and Edinburgh, Scotland, that will begin in the fall of 2021, FirstGroup announced in a press release. The 100 million euro deal also includes ongoing maintenance. 

New Jersey Transit hosted contractors, small business owners and disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) earlier this week to showcase $800 million in contracting opportunities in capital construction projects available in the coming year.

It was the first such open house that NJ Transit has held in a decade. About 150 attendees heard from NJ Transit officials, who emphasized the state's commitment to rebuilding infrastructure, investing in state-of-good-repair projects and building capacity in the contracting pool, according to a NJ Transit press release.

Metra will conduct Operation Lifesaver "safety blitzes" at 59 of its 242 stations through the end of the year to raise public awareness of safe behavior around trains and tracks.

During a safety blitz, Metra employees will distribute safety educational materials at stations throughout the Chicago area. The materials will address train and grade crossing safety. The employees also will be available to answer commuters' questions and listening to their safety concerns, Metra officials said in a press release.

Amtrak has dedicated and renamed its train station in Rochester, New York, after the late U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a longtime Amtrak supporter.

The station opened in October 2017, the result of a 15-year process of planning by several stakeholders including Slaughter, who secured a $15 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant for the work, according to an Amtrak press release.

Charah Solutions Inc. will open a facility at Watco Cos.' Greens Port Industrial Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel in Texas.

The facility will use new technologies for grinding blast furnace slag to create supplementary cementitious materials, according to a Charah press release.