Railroad News

Illinois Railway LLC (IR) is one of the first short lines to implement fully functional positive train control (PTC) and enable the safety technology on its trains, the railroad's parent, OmniTRAX Inc., announced yesterday.

The IR has installed PTC equipment on three locomotives to maintain interoperability with similar technology used by BNSF Railway Co. and Metra trains operating on the commuter railroad's busiest territory between Aurora and Eola, Illinois, OmniTRAX officials said in a press release.

Metra announced yesterday that BNSF Railway Co. crews tomorrow will begin a major tie replacement project on the BNSF Line between Downers Grove and Aurora, Illinois. 

BNSF plans to replace 17,000 ties over 15 miles of track.

Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) staff earlier this week informed the agency's board that a shortage of light-rail operators and bus drivers may require a temporary reduction in service.

RTD is experiencing an ongoing labor shortage and issues with recruiting and retaining its light-rail and bus operators, ultimately leading to service disruptions and unscheduled cancellations, RTD officials said in a press release.

Support for legislation that would make the short-line tax credit permanent reached another milestone in the U.S. House, where the number of co-sponsors on the bill has rolled past two-thirds of House membership, American Short Line and Regional Railroads Association (ASLRRA) officials announced yesterday.

The sponsor and co-sponsor count reached 294 House members for the Building Rail Access for Customers and Economy Act (BRACE), or H.R. 510, which would make the 45G tax credit permanent.

The Port of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) handled 679,585 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo in August, a 4.3 percent increase over the same month last year and an all-time record for the month.

Through August, the port logged 4,995,420 TEUs in 2019, according to the port’s Breaking Waves blog.

The decline in U.S. freight-rail traffic continued in Week 42, with railroads logging 507,381 carloads and intermodal units, down 8.6 percent compared with the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

U.S. railroads reported total carloads for the week ending Oct. 19 were 245,002 units, down 7.8 percent, and 262,379 intermodal containers and trailers, down 9.3 percent.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has awarded the 2019 North American Environmental Employee Excellence Award to Brian Zacker, an environmental field services senior manager at CSX.

AAR's award recognizes leading contributions to environmental responsibility and excellence in the industry. The award is considered the highest honor for rail industry environmental professionals, CSX officials said in a press release.

Microsoft and the US High Speed Rail Association (USHSR) will host the Cascadia Rail Summit Nov. 6-9, an event dedicated to building a high-speed rail linking Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

The summit will build on early feasibility studies that have demonstrated the market viability of the high-speed rail concept and confirmed it could be successfully developed and operated, according to the summit's website.

The Mobilinx consortium signed a $3.5 billion, 30-year contract with Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 4-mile Hurontario light-rail line in Mississauga, Canada. The Mobilinx team includes Hitachi Rail STS SpA, Transdev North America Inc., John Laing Investments Ltd., Astaldi Canada Enterprise Inc., Amico Concessions Inc. and Salini Impregilo Canada Holding Inc.

Tideworks Technology Inc. announced that the entire CSX intermodal terminal network is live with Tideworks’ operating system (TOS). CSX’s largest terminal — in Bedford Park, Illinois, outside Chicago — marks the final terminal in the network to convert to Tideworks’ intermodal TOS solutions, which uses the company's Intermodal Pro® TOS and Traffic Control™ equipment dispatch system. The solutions are designed to increase efficiency of container and rail-car management and improve accuracy and coordination of container and truck movements through CSX’s terminal network, Tideworks officials said in a press release.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is soliciting applications for a total of $150,000 in fiscal-year 2019 grant dollars under the FRA's Railroad Trespassing Enforcement Grant Program.

The program funds efforts to enforce laws aimed at reducing trespassing incidents along rail rights of way. Grant applications are due Dec. 23, according to an announcement in the Federal Register.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and Federal Transit Administration officials yesterday marked the reopening of the Amtrak station in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. 

Launched in 2016, the project to remodel the station was aimed at making it more accessible to passengers with disabilities. 

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) yesterday announced that it will increase Tri-Rail fares on Jan. 1, 2020.

The fare hike, the first in 10 years, will vary based on trip length. However, all increases will be less than 10 percent, SFRTA officials said in a press release.

Valley Metro last week began construction on the 5.5-mile South Central light-rail extension in downtown Phoenix.

Crews began identifying underground utilities to prepare for extensive improvements, Valley Metro officials said in a press release. 

Work crews have completed the first phase of a tunnel rehabilitation project along the Coos Bay Rail Line in Oregon, Port of Coos Bay officials announced yesterday.

Construction of the $19.9 million project's first phase started in May 2018. The two-phase effort involves shoring up and extending the lifespan of nine tunnels along the rail line.