Railroad News

Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) and railroads across the country have designated this week as national Rail Safety Week to raise awareness of safety practices near, on and around trains and railroad property.

Throughout the week, OLI will host events aimed at educating pedestrians and drivers about ways to stay safe around railroad tracks and grade crossings. OLI's rail safety push will include radio and digital public service ad campaigns.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) earlier this week toured construction of Sound Transit's Northgate light-rail extension.

When it opens for service in 2021, the 4.3-mile extension will provide a 14-minute ride between Seattle's Northgate neighborhood and downtown.

A University of Maryland undergraduate team has won the Intermodal Association of North America's (IANA) seventh Intermodal EXPO academic challenge in Long Beach, California.

The competition required students to respond to a case study challenge focused on mitigating congestion at marine terminals. A panel of IANA board members evaluated the teams' presentations and selected the winning university.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has resumed inspections of its latest generation of rail cars after receiving a safety concern about its inspection procedures.

The agency yesterday temporarily halted inspections of its 7000-series rail cars after the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 voiced concerns about a worker receiving an electric shock while inspecting one of the units. The union represents WMATA's operators and clerical and maintenance workers.

Class Is employed 147,319 employees as of mid-August, down 3.56 percent year-over-year and 0.15 percent compared with mid-July employment numbers, according to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB).

Five of the six employment categories reflected workforce decreases in mid-August compared with mid-July. The number of transportation (other than train and engine) employees declined 1.50 percent to 5,703; maintenance of way and structures, down 0.68 percent to 33,620; maintenance of equipment and stores, down 0.67 percent to 26,855;
executives, officials and staff assistants, down 0.53 percent to 8,632; and professional and administrative, down 16 percent to 12,623.

CSX was able to quickly restore service throughout the areas affected by Hurricane Irma and continues to improve in key service metrics as the railroad implements its new model of precision scheduled railroading, President and Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison announced yesterday.

After the hurricane slammed Florida on Sept. 10 with devastating winds and flooding, CSX re-established rail service in most of the Southeast United States within hours, into and out of northern Florida within 24 hours, and throughout the vast majority of the state within a week, according to a CSX press release.

New Jersey Transit yesterday outlined rail safety upgrades it has developed in the wake of a commuter train crash at the Hoboken Terminal last year.

The agency's rail operations team is replacing all stub-end tracks at the terminal with new sliding friction bumper blocks. The team also is "advancing a speed control system for trains entering the Hoboken Terminal," NJ Transit officials said in a press release.

The operators of two commuter trains involved in separate New York City-area crashes in the past year were both suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea, according to records made public yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB made public the dockets of the fatal New Jersey Transit commuter-rail collision that occurred Sept. 29, 2016, in Hoboken, New Jersey, and the MTA Long Island Rail Road collision that occurred Jan. 4 at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York. The board's investigations into both accidents are ongoing.

The short-line industry recently lost two of its former leaders and contributors, according to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

Ohio Central Railroad System founder Jerry Jacobson died Sept. 13, and former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) President William Gifford Moore died Aug. 28. Jacobson was 74 and Moore was 91.

California Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month signed legislation that authorizes the San Mateo County Transit District to seek voter approval of a sales tax increase that would help fund certain transportation projects.

The legislation allows the district to place a sales tax of no more than one-half percent before voters to fund specific projects identified in an expenditure plan. The ballot measure would require the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors' concurrence as well as approval from two-thirds of county voters, district officials said in a press release.

The Atlanta City Council on Monday approved a plan to turn over the city's streetcar operations to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) next year.

The council approved an ordinance authorizing Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to transfer the streetcar's operations, staffing, maintenance and other functions to MARTA, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

CSX Corp. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America for the seventh consecutive year, the Class I announced yesterday.

The listing recognizes the company's sustainable and responsible business practices. CSX was the only U.S.-based railroad and one of three transportation companies included on the North American index this year, according to a press release.

After registering gains for most weeks in 2017, total U.S. rail traffic declined in the year's 37th week.

Traffic clocked in at 530,774 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Sept. 16, down 1.4 percent compared with total volume from the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Pipeline Foods LLC yesterday announced it acquired two Canadian Pacific-served grain elevators in Wapella and Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.

The U.S.-based supply chain solutions company focuses on non-genetically modified organism and organic food and feed. Both facilities are certified as organic through Pro-Cert, which is accredited in both the United States and Canada.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) today initiated a "safety stand-down" that resulted in a temporary suspension of mechanical inspections of the transit system's newest rail cars.

WMATA's action is in response to a safety concern raised by ATU Local 689, which represents the agency's operators, clerical and maintenance workers. The concern involved procedures for inspecting ground brushes, which are part of the train's undercarriage that return negative electrical current to the rails, WMATA officials said in a press release.

Loram Maintenance of Way Inc. has acquired substructure maintenance company HyGround Engineering. The acquisition is aimed at enabling Loram to better record and diagnose issues with ballast, sub-ballast, subgrade and drainage. In addition, the acquisition will pair HyGround's expertise in track geotechnics with Loram's ballast maintenance equipment to provide customers effective substructure maintenance management programs, Loram officials said in a press release. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

HDR has acquired Maintenance Design Group (MDG). Founded in 1995, MDG has designed upper-level work platforms for light-rail facilities. The firm employs nearly 40 professionals at offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Houston, Baltimore and Nashville, Tennessee. For more than a decade, HDR and MDG have worked together to serve transit clients, including the Kansas City Streetcar, said HDR President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Keen in a press release. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has finished a series of accessibility improvements at Metrolink's Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station in California.

Working in partnership with Metrolink and the cities of Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo, OCTA designed and constructed two ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

New Jersey Transit employees have donated clothing and supplies to employees of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), the Houston transit agency that experienced ervice disruptions due to Hurricane Harvey earlier this month.

Collections took place at employee work locations last week, NJ Transit officials said in a press release. Members of the NJ Transit Police Department delivered the items to Houston METRO.