Railroad News

American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas yesterday lauded the U.S. Senate’s adoption of an amendment that blocks a 12 percent funding cut to transit agencies in fiscal-year 2020. 

The U.S. Senate yesterday adopted Jones-McSally Amendment No. 1141 and passed H.R. 3055, a minibus appropriations bill that includes the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations bill. 

MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) earlier this week launched a seven-day, systemwide inspection of its containment baskets that are installed under elevated structures to prevent debris from falling.

The inspection blitz follows an Oct. 29 incident in which a 15-pound metal D-wedge separated from an elevated structure on the A Line, fell into a containment basket that was not properly secured, and fell on a car, according to a local report. A D-wedge is a component designed to maintain correct spacing between running rail and a guardrail, NYCT officials said in a press release.

The National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA) last month presented Anacostia Rail Holdings Co. (ARH) with the Corporate Distinguished Service Award.

The award recognizes NDTA corporate members who have provided “outstanding support” for the association’s goals and programs that facilitate an environment where government, military and private sector professionals can address challenges in logistics and transportation, ARH officials said in a press release.

The Canadian province of Alberta will ease oil production limits on energy companies if they move the additional oil on trains, provincial government officials announced yesterday.

The announcement was made after industry representatives proposed shipping more crude by rail in exchange for curtailment relief.

Union Pacific Railroad implemented positive train control (PTC) on 1,113 route miles during the third quarter, bringing PTC-required route miles to 93 percent completion, including all passenger train routes, the Class I announced yesterday.

Nearly all UP trains operated on PTC-mandated rail lines are operating with PTC locomotives. UP expects to have implemented PTC on all required lines by the end of this year, a year before the federal deadline of Dec. 31, 2020, company officials said in a press release.

The National Railway Labor Conference (NRLC) announced today that its members, including the nation's largest freight railroads, are beginning a new round of contract bargaining with 12 labor unions representing nearly 125,000 railroad employees.

In their bargaining proposals, the railroads are seeking to “better align compensation to market conditions and pay levels of comparable industries;" make changes to health-plan design that would allow more cost sharing; and make changes to work rules, including those that affect train-crew staffing, NLRC officials said in a press release.

Two major rail industry suppliers this week announced acquisitions to expand their track work portfolios. 

Progress Rail yesterday signed an agreement to acquire the Cleveland Track Material (CTM) business from Vossloh North America.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) earlier this week began pre-revenue operations on the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) 10-mile BART Silicon Valley Berryessa extension in California. 

The milestone represents a final step before starting passenger service, which is on track to begin in December, BART officials said in a press release.

New Jersey Transit and the Middlesex County Improvement Authority (MCIA) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU), laying the groundwork for the development of the North Brunswick commuter-rail station, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced yesterday. 

The MOU calls for the design and construction of a train station at the North Brunswick Transit Village along the Northeast Corridor. Under the agreement, MCIA will serve as the project manager.

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) earlier this week awarded $15.3 million in grant funding to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), which will use some of the funds for its rail-car replacement program.

Under the Ohio Transit Preservation Partnership Program (OTP3), the ODOT awarded to GCRTA $5 million toward rail-car replacement. With the additional funds, GCRTA now has a total $57.2 million committed from a mix of local grants, reserve funds and expected future federal grants for rail-car funding, agency officials said in a press release.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) logged record container cargo and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) rail line served a record number of passengers during the first nine months of 2019, the agency announced yesterday.

PANYNJ's cargo volumes surged 5.5 percent to 5,620,381 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) during the period compared with the same period in 2018, which also was a record, PANYNJ officials said in a press release.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) yesterday announced that select trains operating on the Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Oyster Bay and West Hempstead branches in New York have begun operating with positive train control (PTC).

As a result of the implementation, 65 route miles of LIRR's system are in PTC operation, or 21.5 percent of the PTC system, LIRR officials said in a press release.

BNSF Railway Co. yesterday announced six new industrial locations have been awarded the Class I's Certified Sites designation.

Four of the sites are the first for their state in Arizona, Minnesota, Mississippi and Missouri. Two new sites were named in Illinois, bringing that state's count to four, BNSF officials said in a press release.

U.S. freight railroads logged 513,147 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending Oct. 26, down 8.8 percent compared with the same week last year, Association of American Railroads (AAR) data shows.

Total carload traffic for the week plunged 9.4 percent to 243,321 units, while intermodal volume dropped 8.3 percent to 269,826 containers and trailers.

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Cap Metro) on Nov. 4 will open a temporary MetroRail Station in downtown Austin, Texas, to resume service that has been suspended since June.

In June, Cap Metro closed its downtown rail station next to the Austin Convention Center to allow for  construction of a new station. Rail service was replaced by shuttle service to accommodate riders from Plaza Saltillo Station to and from the downtown.

New Jersey Transit has expanded its conflict de-escalation training for its rail operators, conductors and transit police officers in order to reduce assaults.

NJ Transit’s internal training program, which teaches techniques and best practices for de-escalating a potentially violent situation, now includes curriculum from Rutgers’ National Transit Institute.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and New York City Transit (NYCT) marked a construction milestone with the installation of the first section of an elevated cable bridge that will supply traction power to the entire the Coney Island Yard Complex.

Begun in March 2018, the Coney Island Yard project calls for installation of flood mitigation and other protections, including a new 4,280-foot-long bridge to carry power feeders and communication cables across the 74-acre yard.

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) has developed a set of templates and checklists to help members prepare in advance of severe weather events, derailments or other disasters that could disrupt their operations.

Developed with support from railroad and supplier members, the resources are designed to proactively assist short lines and regionals in addressing the challenges of weather and non-weather caused emergency events affecting employees, shippers, infrastructure and operations, ASLRRA officials said in a press release.