Railroad News

New Jersey Transit has begun deploying its two "AquaTrack" machines to help remove fallen leaves and oily residue on tracks, the agency announced Wednesday.

Each high-pressure power-washing system consists of two 250-horsepower diesel-engine units mounted on a flat car with an operator control cab. Two pressure-pump then units dispense water at up to 20,000 pounds per square inch directly to the top of rail.

Washington state regulators have approved $130,000 in grant funding for grade crossing improvements in Yakima County and the city of Tacoma.

In Tacoma, the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved $50,000 in Grade Crossing Protective Fund (GCPF) grants to improve a BNSF Railway Co. crossing at McCarver Street, where two pedestrians were killed between November 2015 and November 2016.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has published a draft of the California State Rail Plan, which will guide state priorities for investment in what state officials say will be a more coordinated, statewide travel system.

State transportation officials are accepting public comments on the plan through Dec. 11. Seven public workshops have been scheduled, with the first one starting tomorrow in San Luis Obispo, California.

Bombardier Transportation won't be able to deliver all 70 streetcars as promised to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) by Dec. 31, the agency announced yesterday.

The company has revised the figure to 65 units — a change that TTC officials decried as "extremely disappointing and frustrating."

Metrolink yesterday rolled out the first of 40 new locomotives that meet the Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 4 emission standards.

The rail industry needs to repair track defects, upgrade tank-car design and increase training of emergency responders in order to improve safe transportation of crude oil and ethanol, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

In their report, the academies raise concerns about the safety of rail in transporting energy liquids and gases, particularly in relation to track defects, rural communities' emergency response preparedness and the older tank-car designs that will continue to be used in unit trains, the report says.

Alstom and Bombardier Transportation have awarded contracts worth more than $100 million to Faiveley Transport to supply systems for the first 71 next-generation double-deck trains in Paris. The trains eventually will run on lines D and E of the city's passenger-rail work. A subsidiary of Wabtec Corp., Faiveley will provide braking systems, door systems, HVAC equipment, pantographs and tachometer systems. The scope of work includes studying, designing, engineering, manufacturing and delivering the rail systems, Wabtec officials said in a press release. Deliveries are expected to start by September 2018 and wrap up by 2022. France's national rail network SNCF earlier this year inked a contract for up to 255 trains with an Alstom-Bombardier consortium.

GE Transportation this week marked the arrival of the first of 1,000 Evolution series locomotives ordered by Indian Railways. The locomotive arrived at India's Mundra Port. The unit will be the first diesel-electric locomotive running on Indian tracks that complies with the UIC1 international emissions standards, GE officials said in a press release. Forty Evolution series locomotives are being imported to India from the United States; the remaining 960 units will be built at GE's factory under construction and slated to open in 2018 in Bihar. India's Ministry of Railways in 2015 signed a $2.5 billion order for 1,000 of GE's Evolution Series locomotives.

Stadler earlier this week unveiled its first "Fast Light Intercity and Regional Train" (FLIRT) for the TEX Rail commuter line in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Florida East Coast Railway President and Chief Executive Officer James Hertwig has been elected chairman of the Transportation Institute at the University of Denver (DTI). 

Hertwig was unanimously elected to the position by DTI's 50-member board. His leadership in the transportation industry "promises to deliver even more momentum and enhancements" to DTI's programs, said outgoing Chair Adriene Bailey in a press release.

State and local leaders last week broke ground on a project to improve and expand rail service to the Port of West Memphis, Arkansas.

The project includes construction of a new facility that will allow various commodities to be transferred between road and rail at the port's International Rail Port Logistics Park, West Memphis officials said in a press release.

At a congressional hearing yesterday, Sound Transit Chief Executive Officer Peter Rogoff called on lawmakers to continue providing federal funding for transit agencies.

Testifying before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Rogoff said he was encouraged by President Donald Trump's stated goal to rebuild U.S. infrastructure. However, Rogoff said he's disappointed by the administration's fiscal-year 2018 budget proposal that would undermine those goals.

U.S. railroads posted a 6.3 percent increase in carload and intermodal traffic for the week ending Oct. 7 compared with the same week a year ago, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Total carloads for the week rose 2 percent to 269,336 units, while intermodal volume soared 10.8 percent to 285,490 containers and trailers compared with last year's data, according to an AAR press release.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has approved Minnesota's state rail-safety oversight (SSO) program — making it the second state to achieve such certification, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced yesterday.

Federal law requires states with transit-rail systems to establish an FTA-certified SSO program by April 15, 2019. If they fail to meet the deadline, states risk losing federal funding for transportation agencies until certification is achieved, FTA officials said in a press release.

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate Editor

For Lisa Stabler, being career driven and family oriented aren't mutually exclusive.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has installed 11 new mobile device charging kiosks at six of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson's (PATH) busiest stations.

Three kiosks are located at PATH's Newark Penn Station facility, while the remainder are spread between the Journal Square, Hoboken, 33rd Street, Exchange Place and Newport stations.