Railroad News

TranSystems promoted Matthew Gehman to principal and senior vice president, and Todd Herman, VP. Gehman has more than 20 years of project management and technical experience, including with projects involving facility physical evaluation, terminal operation analyses and master planning of container terminals and intermodal rail facilities. Meanwhile, Herman has more than 26 years of experience in bridge design, planning, and project and client management of transportation structures, with an emphasis on railroad structures for Class Is, TranSystems officials said in a press release.

London Trackwork Inc. has been awarded a one-and-a-half-year contract to supply special trackwork for the Trillium Line light-rail extension in Ottawa, Ontario. The contract includes track work at five geometry turnouts, a single crossover and double crossover, London Trackwork officials said in a press release. The nearly 10-mile extension will include eight new stations and will extend from Greenboro to Limebank in Riverside South. SNC Lavalin Constructors Inc. is the design-build contractor.

Metro Transit plans to install new security cameras on its light-rail trains to enable transit officials and police officers to monitor activity in real time and respond faster to crimes committed on trains.

The Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee last week approved $1.3 million in spending to install higher-resolution cameras on the transit agency's 91 light-rail vehicles, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) last month awarded contracts to two architectural firms to design the last two stations on the agency's Blue Line rail extension in Montreal. 

Les Architectes FABG will design the first phase of Viau Station for $617,667, and STGM + Daoust Lestage Architectes en consortium will design the first phase of the Lacordaire Station for $962,725.

Ontario's government last week released a draft plan to build a better transportation system that will connect people and businesses in southwestern Ontario.

Dubbed "Connecting the Southwest," the plan features more than 40 advancements and strategies, including options for improvements to existing rail corridors and private-sector partnerships to advance passenger- and freight-rail service.

Metra intends to increase fare collection enforcement this year, the commuter railroad announced last week.

Metra police officers will join train conductors in validating fares by checking that riders have the appropriate ticket for the trip they’re taking, and potentially citing those who do not and removing them from the train, Metra officials said in a written statement posted to the Metra Facebook and Twitter accounts.

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