Railroad News

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials yesterday announced that its Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), Metro-North Railroad and New York City Transit (NYCT) subway logged on-time performance increases in 2019. 

Last year, on-time performance on the LIRR rose 2 percentage points to 92.4 percent compared with 2018's level, marking the commuter railroad’s best performance in three years, MTA officials said in a press release.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials yesterday announced that the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), Metro-North Railroad and New York City Transit (NYCT) subway logged on-time performance increases in 2019. 

Last year, on-time performance on the LIRR rose 2 percentage points to 92.4 percent compared with 2018's level, marking the commuter railroad’s best performance in three years, MTA officials said in a press release.

Biarri Rail

Precision scheduled railroading requires the development of operating plans that optimize assets while ensuring reliable customer service. “Superior planning will increase the velocity of rolling stock by reducing yard dwell, caused by the excess handling of train blocks,” Biarri Rail officials said in an email.

Blocking is a critical part of an operating plan and is essential to efficiently moving carload traffic, which is the most profitable traffic for North American railroads. Block optimization is the best way to build an operating plan, quantitatively test yard capacities, and make decisions on the size and location of classification yards, Biarri Rail officials said.

Biarri Rail

Precision scheduled railroading requires the development of operating plans that optimize assets while ensuring reliable customer service. “Superior planning will increase the velocity of rolling stock by reducing yard dwell, caused by the excess handling of train blocks,” Biarri Rail officials said in an email.

Blocking is a critical part of an operating plan and is essential to efficiently moving carload traffic, which is the most profitable traffic for North American railroads. Block optimization is the best way to build an operating plan, quantitatively test yard capacities, and make decisions on the size and location of classification yards, Biarri Rail officials said.

PortMiami logged 1,120,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo between October 2018 and September 2019, a 3.4 percent gain from the previous 12-month period. 

The numbers marked the fifth consecutive year the port has surpassed the 1 million TEU mark, PortMiami officials said in a press release.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has issued a report on its Office of Research, Development and Technology's study of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to produce accurate 3-D models of high-profile grade crossings.

Conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, the study found that photogrammetry with ground control points can produce models with similar accuracy to those produce using LiDAR at a much lower cost, FRA officials said in the report.

MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) has merged eight separate rail rehabilitation projects into one comprehensive plan to cut costs and minimize subway service interruptions, agency officials announced last week.

Dubbed 42nd Street Connection, the project includes redesign of the 42nd Street Shuttle to make it accessible according to American with Disability Act standards; access improvements to the Lexington and Flushing subway lines at Grand Central Terminal; and upgrades to the Times Square Station.

Union Pacific Railroad has begun using new tie removal technology to accelerate used-tie cleanup. 

The Class I is testing the use of two excavators that ride along the top of a series of connected 70-foot-long rail cars. Excavator operators load tie bundles left in stacks along the right of way and transport them to one of three facilities where ties are recycled or shredded for cogeneration fuel, UP officials said in a post on the railroad's website.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) last week entered into a 10-year, $336 million contract with Outfront Media Inc. to expand its digital advertising network in an effort to maximize revenue potential in support of rail service.

The contract calls for Outfront Media to replace 1,500 static advertising displays with digital screens at WMATA stations in the first five years of the agreement. Each screen generates up to four times the revenue of a static display, WMATA officials said in a press release.

Ontario Northland and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division (TCRC MWED) announced last week that they've reached a tentative labor agreement.

TCRC MWED represents more than 125 employees who maintain 700 miles of track in northern Ontario and northwestern Quebec, from Moosonee, Hearst, Timmins, Cochrane, Englehart to Rouyn-Noranda, North Bay and other points in between.

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) has hired Sarah Yurasko as general counsel to succeed Keith Borman, who retired after 15 years in the post.

Most recently, Yurasko was assistant general counsel for the Association of American Railroads (AAR), where she represented members' interests before federal agencies and courts, in addition to serving as counsel to several industry safety and operations committees. In that role, she interacted frequently with the ASLRRA and its safety and regulatory staff, ASLRRA officials said in a press release.

By Walter Weart

Alstom booked $4 billion of orders in its third quarter, between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2019, compared with nearly $3.8 billion over the same period in the previous fiscal year. Sales during the quarter increased to $2.3 billion from $2.2 billion a year ago. Between April and December 2019, Alstom’s order intake reached about $9.1 billion, and sales reached about $6.9 billion, up 3 percent compared with the same period in the last fiscal year. Alstom’s order intake benefitted from strong momentum in Europe and Asia Pacific, with a major contract for Perth’s rail network in Australia, and significant orders in signaling and services, company officials said in a press release.

Siemens Mobility is using Fabasoft’s cloud-based correspondence management system to serve as a central platform to share information and ensure compliance with deadlines and security directives on some multiyear projects. The platform allows Siemens to work with project partners quickly and transparently, Siemens officials said in a press release. The company is using the platform for a delivery project with VIA Rail Canada Inc.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) agency in California earlier this week released a board-commissioned study that found its riders reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent per mile compared to completing the same trip in a car. 

To date, SMART riders have prevented 8.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from being released into the environment, according to the study fact sheet.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) board approved a two-year contract with Cherokee Coatings LLC to paint a portion of the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) commuter-rail fleet.

Under the $1 million contract, Cherokee Coatings would install a mobile paint booth at TRE’s equipment maintenance facility in Irving, Texas, and repaint five locomotives, five cab cars and 13 coach cars. Crews also will repair rusted areas during the two-week project.

U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) yesterday questioned whether the nation's four largest Class Is are committed to combating climate change.

In a Jan. 16 letter to Association of American Railroads (AAR) President and Chief Executive Officer Ian Jefferies, DeFazio asked for additional information in response to a magazine article about the railroads' position on climate change.

Metrolink yesterday marked the completion of a two-year construction project to rebuild its train station in Van Nuys, California.

The $32 million project relocated the train platform to the double-tracked station's center to improve efficiency, and allow for more Metrolink and Amtrak service in the future, Metrolink officials said in a press release. 

Kansas City Southern today reported fourth-quarter 2019 revenue rose 5 percent to $729.5 million compared with the same quarter a year ago, driven primarily by increases in chemicals, petroleum and industrial and consumer products.

However, fourth-quarter net income declined year over year to $127.2 million, or $1.30 per diluted share, from $161.1 million, or $1.59 per diluted share.