Railroad News

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told the U.S. House Appropriations Committee yesterday that a plan to fix the aging Hudson River railroad tunnel would be a "faster and more cost-effective method" than building a new tunnel.

Chao, whose department has been criticized for holding up a proposal to build a new tunnel as part of Amtrak's Gateway infrastructure improvement program, said "beginning rehab work in the near term is the right move" as opposed to waiting years for construction of new tunnel tubes, according to a report on northjersey.com.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday announced the core accessibility, resignaling and system expansion projects scheduled to begin in 2020.

The projects are included in the MTA's 2020-2040 capital program, as well as some prior programs.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has awarded the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) a $21.5 million grant to be used for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Merchants Bridge.

The grant was awarded for fiscal-year 2019 under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday released a fourth-quarter 2019 status report on railroads' progress in implementing positive train control (PTC) systems as required by Congress.

According to the FRA, the following eight host railroads are at risk of not fully implementing a PTC system on all federally mandated main lines by the Dec. 31, 2020, deadline: Alaska Railroad, The Belt Railway Company of Chicago, Florida East Coast Railway (including its tenant railroad, Brightline/Virgin Trains USA), Kansas City Terminal Railway, New Jersey Transit, New Mexico Rail Runner Express, Metra and TEXRail.

The Uber ride-hailing mobile application earlier this month launched an in-app feature to allow train riders in New York City and San Francisco to schedule a trip to select commuter-rail stations in coordination with train arrival times.

The “Make My Train” feature allows riders to enter a train station as their destination in the Uber app and view the train schedule for that station. Once a train time is selected, riders then chose when they’d like to arrive at the station prior to train departure. Uber then automatically books a trip to the station to accommodate those preferences. 

OmniTRAX Inc. and subsidiary Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad (STE)  have completed the preservation of a historic locomotive that is now on its way to be displayed at the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.

The EMD SW1200 locomotive was one of five similar units that were originally manufactured for the Reading Railroad Co. in 1963, OmniTRAX officials said in a press release.

Calgary Transit ordered 15 more S200 light-rail vehicles from Siemens Mobility to replace the agency’s nearly 40-year-old U2 vehicles, Siemens officials announced earlier this week. 

Siemens has delivered over 260 vehicles for use in the agency’s CTrain light-rail system in Calgary, Alberta. The new order will be built at Siemens’ plant in Sacramento, California.

U.S. railroads logged 482,690 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Feb. 22, down 7.6 percent compared with freight moved during the same week in 2019, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total carloads for the week was 232,869 units, down 9.3 percent, while intermodal volume was 249,821 containers and trailers, down 6 percent.

Federal lawmakers representing New Hampshire and Pennsylvania earlier this week introduced a bill that would help finance the construction of a commuter-rail connection between Manchester and Nashua, New Hampshire, and Boston.

The Invest in American Railroads Act, introduced by U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), would expand the use of funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program.

ENSCO Inc.’s rail division opened a new office in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The office will support the firm's railway research, condition assessment, asset management and cybersecurity business areas, ENSCO officials said in a press release.

The Andersons Inc. named Vanessa Knapton director of repair sales for the company’s rail group. Knapton has over 25 years of operations, sales and logistics experience in the rail industry. Previously, she was a conductor, brakeman and trainmaster at BNSF Railway Co., and a sales leader at a rail-car repair company, The Andersons officials said in a press release.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) today completed accessibility upgrades at Royal York Station, making it the 46th accessible station in the agency’s subway system. 

The station now includes an accessible entrance and fare gates, three elevators and improved signage, TTC officials said in a press release.

The North County Transit District (NCTD) tomorrow will mark 25 years of Coaster commuter-rail service in San Diego. 

NCTD officials will commemorate the anniversary by offering free Coaster rides from the Oceanside Transit Center. NCTD will host anniversary events at a different Coaster stations each month.

Transborder freight moved by all modes of transportation between the United States and Canada and Mexico rose 4 percent to $96.3 billion worth of goods in December 2019 compared with the same month in 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported yesterday.

Rail, the second-most used mode, moved $14.4 billion of freight during the month, up 1.9 percent compared with December 2018's level, BTS officials said in a press release.

The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) safety recommendation issued after the Lac-Megantic rail disaster has been implemented and is now closed, the agency announced Monday.

The recommendation — No. R-14-004 — was issued to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) after a crude-oil train derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013. NTSB's recommendation sought revision of an existing regulation to require comprehensive response plans for worst-case discharges of oil and petroleum products from rail tank cars, agency officials said in a press release.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) on Friday will release a draft environmental impact report and statement (EIR/EIS) for an 80-mile segment of the state's high-speed rail project between Bakersfield and Palmdale.

CHSRA will host four public meetings in March and April to gather public comment on the document. The agency will also accept comments online and by email and mail between Feb. 28 and April 13

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has tapped former Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Administrator and current MTA board member Sarah Feinberg to serve interim president of New York City Transit (NYCT).

She succeeds Andy Byford, who resigned after two years in the post. His last day on the job was Feb. 21.