Sound Transit contractors have connected the University Link light-rail tunnels with the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) in Washington state. The tunnel-boring machine (TBM) nicknamed "Brenda" recently completed its one-mile trip on the second tunnel between Capitol Hill and downtown.

Parsons Brinckerhoff was awarded two contracts covering design of railway systems, one of which is for the United Kingdom's second high-speed rail line, which will run between London Euston and Birmingham in the West Midlands.

The contracts, worth £8 million (US$12.8 million), have been awarded by HS2 Ltd under its Professional Services Framework. Parsons Brinckerhoff will work closely with HS2 Ltd to provide a "whole system" approach to optimize the overall rail systems design and provide the appropriate balance with functionality, safety, sustainability, cost and value. It will also take a lead role across all designers for system-wide and operational and maintenance issues and will support other designers on civil engineering, construction and environmental issues in specific geographical areas.

The overall objective of both contracts will be to support HS2 Ltd in its principal aim of depositing the documents for the hybrid bill as it starts its process through Parliament, by the end of 2013.

"We are delighted to have secured these two key contracts on the development of the UK's second high-speed rail network," said Darren Reed, UK director of rail at Parsons Brinckerhoff. "HS2 provides a unique rail engineering challenge in terms of performance, environmental measures and stakeholder liaison and we are delighted to bring our international experience in major rail schemes and rail engineering to this iconic project."

Parsons Brinckerhoff will work with partners DB International GmbH, providing operational and rolling stock expertise and EC Harris LLP, providing cost planning expertise. The multidisciplinary team will operate from offices across the south east, including London, where it will collocate with the HS2 client team.

Transportation Technology Center, Inc.'s Board of Directors approved three organizational changes. Firdausi Irani was elected to the position of vice president of business development and officer of TTCI, Robert Florom was elected to the position of vice president of engineering and quality services and officer of TTCI and Michael Sherer was elected to the position of vice president of operations and officer of TTCI.

"These men have been instrumental in the long-term success of this company and will pass that success forward to the next generation of TTCI leaders," said TTCI President Lisa Stabler.

Along with their new duties as vice presidents, Irani, Florom and Sherer will continue overseeing the operations of their respective departments.

The Surface Transportation Board approved the request of Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC, for common carrier status, which will allow them to reopen the Tahawus Line between North Creek and Newcomb, N.Y., and resume hauling freight to and from businesses along that line. Iowa Pacific Holdings has been seeking this rail status for several months and has the support of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York Department of Transportation.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Bill Owens applauded the STB decision to provide Iowa Pacific common carrier status, which will allow the rail company to recomission the Tahawus line and begin hauling tailings from the Adirondacks that can then be refined into rare earth elements from Titanium tailings left over from mining during World War II. The representatives noted that the reopening of this line will also cut down the number of truckloads for this work by two million and dramatically reduce harmful emissions. Reconstructing this line will create short-term construction jobs and long-term jobs once hauling begins and would inject hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy each year.

"The reopening of this rail line will reduce the amount of truck traffic and emissions in the Adirondacks, but will also pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy each year of this project," said Senator Schumer. "I am thrilled that STB has heeded our call and that reconstruction of the rail line and ensuing economic activity from its completion can benefit the Adirondack Region for years to come."

According to Iowa Pacific Holdings, about 15 to 20 people would be employed during reconstruction of the track and the completed rail line would pump at least $160,000 into the local economy each year. The company anticipates hauling 100 million tons of material and tailings from the Tahawus mine for this project.

In April, there were more than 8.8 million trips taken on Portland, Ore.-area TriMet buses, MAX and WES commuter rail. For 13 consecutive months, weekday and weekly trips and total monthly ridership increased. System-wide, all modes were up in all categories of ridership for April.

WES reached record ridership of 1,700 weekday trips, up 5.6 percent. Overall weekend trips continued to grow, up 5.6 percent and MAX Green Line weekend trips increased 18.5 percent to 29,400 trips.

MAX
• Weekly trips were up 1.4 percent to 843,800
• Weekday trips were up 0.1 percent to 132,300
• Weekend trips were up 6.3 percent to 182,300
• Rush-hour trips were up 3.4 percent to 39,900

MAX GREEN LINE
• Weekday trips were up 4.7 percent to 24,300
• Weekend trips were up 18.5 percent to 29,400

WES
• Weekday/rush-hour trips were up 5.6 percent to 1,700 - *Record high
• Weekly trips were up 5.6 percent to 8,500 - *Record high

A new fare structure is set to go into effect for the New Mexico Rail Runner Express this month.

This will be the first express train between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Passengers using this new service will be able to save 20-25 minutes in each direction on their commute between the two cities. There will be one northbound express in the morning and one southbound express in the evening. The express train will skip three stations and will have a second locomotive on the train set to save time climbing the steep grade on the way to Santa Fe. The new express service is designed to get people to their destinations to meet the most common work start time of 8 a.m., while the evening express train departs Santa Fe shortly after 5 p.m.

"Over the years, our passengers have told us they wouldn't mind a fare increase if we offered some faster service, peaceful rides and incorporated better technology into our operations structure," said Mid-Region Council of Governments Executive Director Dewey Cave.

Following a series of public meetings last fall, Rio Metro Board Members voted on and later approved a new fare structure for the Rail Runner. Fares for one way trips and day passes are set to increase by $1 to $2, while monthly passes will increase by $4 to $11. This is the first time that the New Mexico Rail Runner Express has implemented a fare increase.

Other amenities include a new weekend schedule, quiet cars, mobile ticketing and a commuter tax benefit offered for employers to offer their employees pre-tax funds for transit passes.

Invensys Rail and DPS Electronics entered into a manufacturer's licensing arrangement under which DPS may manufacture and sell its end of train devices (EOTs) with certain telemetry features patented by Invensys. For those EOTs, Invensys Rail will provide the communications, central office services and end-user experience through its software as a service business hosted at www.eotph.com and commonly referred to as EOT Phone Home.

Invensys Rail has entered into a related licensing and services agreement with a North American Class 1 railroad that plans to quickly retrofit its existing fleet of DPS Brand EOTs to add Phone Home functionality. Additional customers will be added over time.

Lester Hightower, director of software solutions at Invensys Rail said, "In recent months, the Software Solutions group at Invensys Rail has greatly refined our EOT telemetry services and we are pleased to partner with DPS Electronics to extend those technologies to their EOT devices. These agreements signify confidence from our new partner and our mutual customer in our EOT services."

CalAmp Corp., provider of wireless products, services and solutions, received initial purchase orders totaling approximately $5 million to supply interoperable Positive Train Control radios to two North American Class 1 railroads for delivery in the second half of calendar 2012.

"Our successful execution on the two-year development contract to design the PTC base station, locomotive and wayside radio hardware and build initial production radios has positioned us well to service the rail industry, which is an important growth market for CalAmp. These initial orders for radios will facilitate a smooth transition for CalAmp from the end of our PTC development contract to full-scale production. In addition to our PTC radios, we will be extending CalAmp's full suite of mobile asset management and LTE communications solutions to the rail market to further enhance our value add in this strategic market segment," said Mike Zachan, general nanager of CalAmp's Wireless Networks business.

The CalAmp-designed radios will provide the critical data link between locomotives, base stations, wayside switches and other railroad systems. The PTC system will work across different geographic regions and railroad track networks in a system designed to help prevent train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, incursions into work zone limits and the movements of trains through switches left in the wrong position.

The Denver Regional Transportation District, the Colorado Department of Transportation and SEMA Construction broke ground on RTD's I-225 Light Rail Line extension. This kicks off construction on the first segment of the light-rail project from Nine Mile to Iliff.

"This is a big day for RTD, Aurora and the region. Today's groundbreaking is a huge step toward expanding our RTD system. This progress offers better mobility, more transportation options and opportunities for economic development, all which benefit Aurora and the Denver metro area," said Tom Tobiassen, RTD Board director.

The ceremony commemorated a farewell to the Yale Bridge, which will be replaced with a larger bridge spanning I-225. The new bridge makes room for the light rail and widening of the highway, a construction partnership between RTD and CDOT. The Yale Bridge will be closed for about six months during reconstruction. Traffic will be interrupted between South Xanadu Way on the west side and South Abilene Street on the east side of I-225 during this time.

The I-225 Rail Line project is part of RTD's FasTracks program. It is a 10.5-mile light-rail extension that will travel through the city of Aurora and a small section of Denver. The line will connect the existing Southeast Light Rail Line at the Nine Mile Station with the planned East Rail Line at the Peoria/Smith Station and will include eight stations.

The first segment of the light-rail expansion, will open in summer 2014. Constructing this segment as part of CDOT's expansion project allows both RTD and CDOT to efficiently build the rail line segment and expand the highway by sharing construction resources. It also minimizes inconvenience to the public by expanding the light rail and the highway at the same time.

Project elements include a 600-space surface Park-n-Ride, a new light-rail station and bus plaza at Iliff and a new light-rail bridge out of the median over northbound I-225.