Railroad News

Iowa Interstate Railroad Ltd. has named several new appointments as a result of the company's succession plan.

Al Satunas has been promoted to chief operating officer. He will report to Joe Parsons, who recently was named the railroad's new general manager.

Canadian Pacific has awarded ENSCO Rail a contract to provide inspection systems for the railroad's new track evaluation car. The unit will be equipped with track measurement and imaging system technology to provide key indicators of track quality and safety, ENSCO officials said in a press release. Specifically, the onboard technology installed on the new CP car will include a track geometry system, rail profile measurement system, track component imaging system and other systems. Together, the systems are expected to provide the data needed to help improve track maintenance and reduce operating costs, ENSCO officials said.

Miller Ingenuity has entered an agreement to install its ZoneGuard electronic roadway worker protection system on the Maryland Transit Administration's light-rail lines. The system provides a "robust communication network" that's triggered when a track vehicle approaches an on-track worker or work crew, Miller Ingenuity officials said in a press release. In addition, the train detection and communication network architecture is designed to eliminate costly false alerts found on similar systems. ZoneGuard also can be outfitted with wearable devices that provide equipped workers with an alert of an impending train.

Caltrain's board late last week adopted a new bicycle parking management plan aimed at enabling the railroad to more effectively manage the growing number of bike riders using the system.

Under the plan, Caltrain will increase bike parking capacity at stations along the corridor. The improvements will include secure, low-cost parking options, such as electronic bike lockers.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has scheduled two open houses to gather input on its latest energy action plan.

The first meeting will take place today, while the other is scheduled for Nov. 21. The plan outlines strategies for reducing SEPTA's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Leaders of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Highways and Transit Subcommittee are calling for further oversight of a federal competitive grant program after a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found a lack of transparency in projects chosen to receive grants.

The GAO report focused on the selection of projects under the Nationally Significant Freight and Highways Projects (NSFHP) competitive grant program, created under the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in 2015.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has invested more than $101 million since winter 2015 in capital improvement projects aimed at making the transit system more resilient in severe weather.

The investments followed severe service disruptions in February 2015 that hampered the MBTA's commuter-rail operations and left passengers stranded.

The House tax bill's failure to address long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is a "glaring omission" in efforts to reform the nation's tax code, American Public Transportation Association (APTA) officials told members of Congress last week.

In a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee, APTA Acting President and Chief Executive Officer Ricard White wrote that the proposed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1) neglects to include a long-term solution to the trust fund's solvency.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County has implemented a real-time tracking system for light-rail service, the agency announced last week.

The so-called "TrueTime" system enables riders to track the status and location of light-rail trains. Passengers can access the information on a separate website.

The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) last week approved $52,520 in rail-safety grants for crossing improvements in Tonasket and Yakima County.

The UTC approved a $44,000 grant from the Grade Crossing Protective Fund at the request of Cascade and Columbia River Railroad.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) later this month will begin replacing a mainline interlocking on the Red Line.

To complete the work, WMATA will suspend service between the Silver Spring and Fort Totten stations from Nov. 25 through Dec. 10.

Port Everglades handled a record 1,076,893 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in fiscal-year 2017, which ended Sept. 30.

The figure marks a 4 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, and a 1.5 percent over the previous containerized cargo record set in FY2015. The growth was steady throughout the year, but it reached record levels in December and March, Port Everglades officials said in a press release.

Transport Canada plans to incorporate data on rail surface conditions into its track inspection protocols following a safety recommendation from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) earlier this year.

Transport Canada has requested data on rail surface conditions from CN and Canadian Pacific, and both railroads have agreed to provide the information to the department on an ongoing basis.

MTA Metro-North railroad earlier this week used a Sperry Rail car to perform ultrasonic rail testing on the Upper Harlem Line. The unit performed the testing on a section of track between stations in Southeast and Wassaic, New York. The railroad used the equipment to detect defects and metal fatigue inside the steel rails. The Sperry Rail car is designed to identify issues before they become major problems, Metro-North officials said in a press release.

Keolis and the Institute for Data Valorisation have formed a strategic partnership aimed at supporting the development of "innovative urban mobility solutions" through the use of Big Data. As part of the agreement, both parties will collaborate on joint research and development projects, with an initial focus on Quebec. The projects eventually will expand to other areas where Keolis is present, company officials said in a press release. As a result of the partnership, Keolis will gain a better understanding of the way passengers move and how to best plan public transit networks, company officials said.

The Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) last month surpassed the billion-dollar mark for payments made to small businesses for contract work through the agency's FasTracks transit expansion program.

Beginning in 2005 with an award to Jacobs Engineering Group to manage the project, FasTracks contracts have benefited more than 600 small and disadvantaged firms, and 2,200 subcontractors, RTD officials said in a press release.