Railroad News

In May, Sound Transit's Link light-rail system averaged 81,000 riders on weekdays, which marked the first time weekday ridership topped 80,000 boardings for an entire month.

The May figure also marked a 10.8 percent increase over average weekday ridership in the same month last year.

A thermite weld failure resulted in a Canadian Pacific train derailment in Manitoba in August 2017, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) announced yesterday.

On Aug. 11, 2017, a CP unit train was heading north on the Emerson Subdivision when 22 covered hopper cars loaded with corn derailed while exiting a bridge over the Roseau River near Dominion City, Manitoba.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) yesterday announced the launch of a program to assist riders with mobility issues.

Through the new LIRR Care program, the railroad will offer help to passengers who need assistance boarding or exiting trains. The service will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, LIRR officials said in a press release.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (GCRTA) longtime Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Joseph Calabrese will move into to a senior advisory role in September.

The change comes as part a new agreement to accelerate the agency's executive leadership transition, GCRTA officials said in a press release. Calabrese is expected to serve as senior adviser for special projects and strategic innovation in a full-time capacity through February 2019.

Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced $205,525 in federal grants will be awarded to 16 state Operation Lifesaver programs to fund rail-safety education projects.

Funded by the FRA, the grants will go to Operation Lifesaver organizations in Alabama, California, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina and South Dakota.

CN yesterday raised its financial outlook for the second half of the year after reporting  strong second-quarter results.

Net income for the quarter rose 27 percent to CA$1.31 billion, or CA$1.77 per share, from CA$1.03 billion, or CA$1.36 per share, a year ago. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were CA$1.51, up from CA$1.34 last year.

Norfolk Southern Corp. today reported second-quarter results that included records for operating income, operating ratio, net income and earnings.

Second quarter net income rose 43 percent to $710 million, or $2.50 per share, compared with $497 million, or $1.71 per share a year ago. The company attributed the net income growth to an 18 percent increase in income from railway operations and a lower effective income tax rate.

Jeffrey Bennett, 35

Job description: Responsible for planning, operating and maintaining transit services throughout the District of Columbia's transportation system, which includes the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's Metrorail service, as well as the DC Circulator, DC Streetcar, the Virginia Railway Express and Maryland Area Regional Commuter service. He previously served as assistant vice president of rail operations for the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA).

Education: Bachelor of Arts degree, Virginia Military Institute; Master of Business Administration, Texas A&M University-Commerce

MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) will soon begin a project to expand passenger accessibility to the Greenpoint Avenue G Line station in Brooklyn.

Crews will install three elevators and add powered gates, Braille signage and sidewalk pedestrian ramps. The agent booth will be modified to a wheelchair-friendly height, NYCT officials said in a press release.

Sound Transit's contractors late last week completed excavation of a light-rail tunnel in Bellevue, Washington, that will connect two stations on the East Link extension.

Using the sequential excavation method (SEM) process, crews completed the tunnel excavation in 15 months, which was five months quicker than forecasted, Sound Transit officials said in a press release.

North Carolina state and local officials gathered in Charlotte last week to mark the groundbreaking of the Charlotte Gateway Station project.

The project's first phase will include construction of 2,000 feet of track, signals, five new bridges and a rail platform, North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) officials said in a press release.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has released a feasibility study examining five potential light-rail routes for the Crenshaw/LAX Line's northern extension.

Four alternatives would extend the line north to the Purple Line subway and then through West Hollywood to the Red Line. The other proposed route would extend the Crenshaw/LAX Line to the Red and Purple lines at Vermont Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard near LA's Koreatown neighborhood.

Rail-car orders in the second quarter totaled 23,788 units compared with 10,348 units in the first quarter and 17,665 units in second-quarter 2017, according to quarterly statistics released last week by the Railway Supply Institute's American Railway Car Institute Committee (ARCI).

Car deliveries in the second quarter declined to 13,071 units from 13,098 units in the first quarter, but were higher than the 10,625 units delivered in second-quarter 2017.

Seventy-four percent of Americans in a recent survey agreed that Congress should boost public transit funding, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reported yesterday.

Conducted by the Mineta Transportation Institute on APTA's behalf, the survey also showed that 80 percent of respondents support using tax dollars for creating, expanding and improving public transportation in their communities.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) has introduced a draft of an infrastructure plan that would be funded in part by an increase fuel taxes.

The plan calls for significant federal investment in infrastructure projects and grant programs at least through 2021, as well as a plan to shore up the Highway Trust Fund (HTF).

Jean-Jacques Ruest has been appointed president and chief executive officer of CN, the Class I announced today.

Ruest, who has been serving as interim president and CEO since March, also has been appointed to CN's board.

Aubyn Bell, 32

Job description: Responsible for authoring environmental documents, leading environmental studies in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, preparing grant applications and managing projects. As a geographic information system specialist (GIS), performs spatial analysis, mapping, modeling and development of GIS websites for clients.

Education: Bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in mathematics, University of North Florida

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) crews have begun relocating hundreds of feet of track in Sunnyside, Queens, by several yards to create space for an entrance to a newly built tunnel to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

Built underneath the Sunnyside Yard, the new tunnel will carry eastbound and westbound LIRR trains that connect with the railroad's Main Line at the Harold Interlocking.

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) logged a record 4.2 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) in fiscal-year 2018, an 8.45 percent year-over-year increase, port officials announced today.

The gain amounted to an additional 325,000 units in FY2018 over FY2017. The port authority capped the latest fiscal year, which ended June 30, with its 20th consecutive month of year-over-year volume growth, GPA officials said in a press release.

City officials broke ground last week on a three-year, $72.9 million grade separation project in Moorhead, Minnesota.

The long-awaited effort, which will include construction of an underpass, is the largest transportation project in the city's history, Moorhead officials said in a press release.