Railroad News

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday announced executive appointments for Jon Panzer, Jennifer Hamann and Gary Grosz.

The appointments take effect April 1, according to a UP press release.

To help shape the agenda for this year’s edition of our Secure Rail conference, members of the Secure Rail Advisory Board discussed a range of issues and trends. Among the topics of conversation: the impact of autonomous technologies on railroads, collaboration between local and federal agencies in support of emergency response initiatives, and the increasingly blurred line between cyber and physical security.

As a result of these discussions, the programming for Secure Rail 2019 — which will be held May 1-2 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando — features a greater emphasis on the topics of risk, legal issues, future trends and regulatory updates. Session topics at our fifth annual conference include:

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), state and local officials yesterday marked the opening of the new Blue Hill Avenue commuter-rail station Boston.

Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh joined MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak in cutting the ribbon on the nearly $17 million station yesterday. Construction began in 2017. The station has been open to passengers since Feb. 26.

Amtrak added a second daily roundtrip service to Norfolk, Virginia, as part of the passenger railroad's Northeast Regional service, on March 4. 

The service connects the commonwealth to the Northeast, offering passengers a same-seat trip to and from 17 Virginia stations to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. 

A House Ways and Means subcommittee will hold a hearing March 12 on a proposed tax extenders package, which includes the 45G short-line tax credit.

The Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee hearing follows the legislation's introduction last week.

On Feb. 11 and after an almost 5-year absence, Norfolk Southern hosted an investor conference in its soon-to-be headquarters city of Atlanta, and NS management gave us what the audience and I were seeking: 

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has found that a broken axle on a freight car led to the January 2018 derailment of a CN train near New Hazelton, British Columbia.

The incident occurred when a CN train moving west at 29 mph experienced a train-initiated emergency brake application near New Hazelton. A subsequent inspection determined that 27 gondola cars loaded with coal derailed, with some of the product spilling into a nearby waterway.

BNSF Railway Co. yesterday rolled out more of its state-by-state capital expenditure plans for 2019, announcing $445 million worth of projects slated for Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

In Kansas, the Class I will invest $165 million to replace and upgrade rail, ties and ballast. The maintenance program will include 560 miles of track surfacing and/or undercutting work, as well as the replacement of 30 miles of rail and 120,000 ties. In addition, BNSF plans to begin a multiyear project to install double track on portions of the Emporia Subdivision, which operates between Wellington and Kansas City.

A dip in intermodal volume led to a 1.1 percent decline in total U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Feb. 23 compared with the same week a year ago, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

U.S railroads moved 522,630 carloads and intermodal units during the week. Of that, carload volume was 256,954 units, up 2 percent, but intermodal volume was 265,676 containers and trailers, down 3.9 percent compared with 2018's levels.

Amtrak will provide a $3 million matching grant to help upgrade track on its Southwest Chief route in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, the railroad announced yesterday.

The announcement follows the passage of the federal government's fiscal-year 2019 Appropriations Act, which included funding for Amtrak and intercity passenger rail.

RailWorks Corp., a rail track construction and maintenance company, announced it will restructure its leadership team into two divisions: large projects and track maintenance and service group. Led by John Young, the large projects division will focus on large-scale track construction and signal projects for railroads and transit operations. Young has over 20 years of experience in heavy civil works projects for the U.S. Army and several contractors. Led by 30-year railroad industry veteran Richard Carney, the track maintenance and service group division will be responsible for growing the company's regional and maintenance business, as well as the maintenance of way division. Promotions following the restructure include Jason Lauffer from vice president of business development to chief strategy officer, and Glenn Hartick to vice president of procurement. Chris Maynard joins RailWorks subsidiary HSQ Technology as senior vice president. Maynard has 20 years of experience in IT at Siemens Mobility. 

Cubic Corp., Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s technology service provider, appoints Kevin Eagan to senior vice president and chief digital officer. In this role, Eagan will oversee the new contactless fare payment system — coming to New York City subway riders in March — that is designed to replace metro fare cards by 2023. Eagan has 30 years of executive leadership experience at IBM and Microsoft in new product development, IT modernization and creation of digital business models.

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Cap Metro) board recently approved a $36.8 million contract with Jay-Reese Contractors Inc. to build a new downtown MetroRail station in Austin, Texas.

Construction on the station — which will be situated on the Red Line running between Austin and Leander — is slated to start in April. Completion is scheduled for early 2021.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) today has reopened for service one of two tracks through Westbury, New York, that had been closed last night following a fatal collision involving two trains and a motor vehicle.

The incident occurred during rush hour when two LIRR trains traveling in opposite directions crashed into a car that had driven around lowered gates and onto the tracks. Three people who were in the car were killed and at least seven passengers on the trains were injured, according to The New York Times.