Railroad News

Alaska Railroad Corp. has promoted George Newman to senior director of the advanced train control systems (ATCS) department. Newman succeeds Eileen Reilly, who retired July 1.

ATCS is focused on developing and implementing the railroad's positive train control (PTC) system. Newman joined Alaska Railroad in November 2016 as director of ATCS, company officials said in a press release.

The $8 billion budget for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation's (HART) proposed 20-mile passenger-rail system remains $134 million short, news site Honolulu Civil Beat reported earlier this week.

A Jacobs Engineering report drafted for the Federal Transit Administration has recommended adding the shortfall amount to the budget to ensure the rail system's construction is completed, according to the news site.

Negotiations for the sale of Hudson Bay Railway, the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba and related assets have broken down, railroad officials announced yesterday.

Discussions between the railroad's owner and a consortium involving two First Nations groups and Fairfax Financial Holdings have been ongoing for the past few months. In late May, the parties announced a tentative agreement that would have transferred ownership of the port and restored rail service to northern Manitoba.

U.S. rail traffic trends last month were consistent with a healthy economy, but that trend could change if the country engages in a trade war, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

U.S. railroads originated 2,240,742 carloads and intermodal units last month, a 4.2 percent increase over rail traffic in June 2017, according to an AAR press release.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday launched a test version of its "MYmta" app, which provides real-time arrival information and trip planning for subways, buses and commuter-rail service.

The agency also unveiled a new mobile-optimized site, new.mta.info. The app and the website are designed to "bring wayfinding for all of MTA's mass transit properties under one roof," agency officials said in a press release.

Kyle Fortson has been named chairman of the National Mediation Board (NMB).

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her as a board member in November 2017. Before joining the NMB, Fortson served as labor policy director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has reached a settlement with the First Free Baptist Church of Bakersfield, which will result in California Environmental Quality Act litigation being dismissed for the project's Fresno-to-Bakersfield section.

The litigation involved the final environmental impact report and statement for that section of the project, authority officials said yesterday in a press release.

Federal government and California Polytechnic University Pomona officials will gather Thursday to mark the start of a new freight-rail diversion route that will end blocked crossings, collisions and train noise on a campus gateway.

Located on the transcontinental Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) Trade Corridor, the Union Pacific Railroad route is used daily by 20 freight trains and is projected to increase to 42 trains by 2025.

Jessica Mefford-Miller has been named interim executive director of Metro Transit-St. Louis.

She succeeds Ray Friem, who retired July 1. Mefford-Miller previously served as Metro Transit's assistant executive director of transit planning and system development, according to a press release issued by Bi-State Development, Metro-Transit's parent agency.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has released a request for proposals (RFP) to advance engineering work for its proposed King of Prussia Rail extension of the Norristown High Speed Line.

The RFP's scope covers preliminary design work, including utility and geotechnical investigations and surveying. The chosen bidder will advance the engineering and architectural design from the conceptual locally preferred alternative, which SEPTA chose in January.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved the Port of Virginia's project to widen and deepen its shipping lanes serving Norfolk Harbor.

The Corps' report represents the federal government's final approval for the project, which will take the channels to 55 deep and widen them in select areas to allow for two-way traffic of ultra-large container vessels, port officials said in a press release.

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority's (SFRTA) governing board has elected Esteban Bovo Jr. as chairman and Tim Ryan as vice chair.

Last month, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners tapped Bovo to serve as its representative on SFRTA's governing board. Ryan was added to the agency's governing board in January 2015.

Construction of Sound Transit's East Link light-rail tunnel in downtown Bellevue, Washington, is more than 90 percent completed, the agency announced late last week.

Crews are on track to finish the tunnel within 15 months, or about five months earlier than scheduled, Sound Transit officials said in a press release.

TransLink's board and the Vancouver-area Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation late last week finalized funding agreements for the second phase of the region's 10-year transportation plan.

The British Columbia government has committed to funding 40 percent of the capital costs of the plan's second phase, which includes construction of the new Surrey-Newton-Guildford light-rail and an extension of the Millennium SkyTrain line.

House Democrats last week warned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) against issuing exemptions that allow railroads to avoid implementing positive train control (PTC).

In a letter to FRA Administrator Ron Batory, the lawmakers said the exemptions included in the FRA's PTC regulations were "overly broad." Although Congress did not authorize exemptions to the PTC mandate, the FRA included them in its regulations.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has approved New Jersey Transit's positive train control (PTC) testing plan that would qualify the agency for a two-year extension to implement the technology.

While existing PTC law allows railroads to seek an extension if they initiate a PTC revenue service demonstration on at least one required territory, the FRA can establish "substitute criteria" for commuter railroads.