Work on Caltrain’s Grade Crossing Improvement Program, which will enhance safety at 25 grade crossings in San Mateo County, will continue the week of Dec. 14. Throughout the project area, at least one lane of the impacted street will remain open. Flagmen will direct traffic and pedestrians around the construction.
Track maintenance on the Washington,
D.C., Metrorail Red and Orange lines Oct. 30-Nov.2 will cause inbound and
outbound trains to take turns sharing one track. Customers should add at least
30 minutes of time to their trips.
Metrorail customers traveling between the
Friendship Heights and Van Ness-UDC Metrorail stations should add at least 30
minutes to their travel time for their trips because Metro will replace rail
fasteners that stabilize tracks and make tunnel repairs. Trains will share one
track between these locations throughout the weekend from 9:30 p.m. Oct. 30, to
closing (midnight) on Nov. 1.
RailComm has been selected
to provide a wireless remote control yard system at CSX Transportation’s
Willard Yard in Ohio. The proposed control system will interface to the existing
control and communications network. Existing field devices and communications
will be utilized and interfaced to the new central control system.
Papers and presentations are being solicited on all aspects of railroad civil, mechanical, electrical and systems engineering, as well as rail safety, planning, design, financing, operations and management for the Joint Rail Conference – 2010 High Speed and Intercity Rail to be held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign April 27-29, 2010. Both freight and passenger rail subjects will be included, but the conference theme will be high-speed rail and other forms of developing intercity passenger rail.
Although Norfolk Southern Corp.’s planned $129-million intermodal yard won’t be built within the city limits but instead in neighboring Rossville, Memphis’ logistics and distribution industries stand to benefit from the railroad’s decision to expand its local presence, The Daily News in Memphis reports. Not only is the railroad’s sprawling facility dubbed the Memphis Regional Intermodal Terminal, but it will be close enough for Memphis-based companies to gain unprecedented logistical access to eastern cities.
The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the derailment of a CSX train in Painesville, Ohio, Oct. 10, 2007, was a combination of a rail problem and human error in fixing the track, according to local media. The report showed that the CSX Transportation division engineer responsible for track maintenance said the temporary rail joint involved in the accident was installed only 10 months before the incident.
To relieve the notorious Tower 55 train gridlock in Fort Worth, Texas, one of the nation’s biggest railroads wants to dig a 1.5-mile-long trench and submerge its tracks as they run through a commercial and residential area south of downtown, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. The east-west trench proposed by Union Pacific would roughly parallel Vickery Boulevard from Eighth Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway and require buying of 15 properties, partial purchase of 15 more and moving 16 residences and businesses.
Boush and Bute streets are scheduled for partial closures beginning July 21, according to the Norfolk, Va., Department of Public Works. For the next seven days, the closures will take place so that utility work may be done in preparation for light-rail construction. This is the first of two phases of work set to occur in the area.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will hold five community meetings on the Westside Subway Extension Project to provide an update on Metro’s continued progress with this project.
Rockford, Ill., area officials pushing to bring commuter train service Metra to Winnebago County are using Amtrak to help deliver the service – and their efforts threaten to derail DeKalb County’s bid for passenger rail service, according to the Northwest Herald.
The distinct whistle blaring and the distant, thunder-like clanking commonly heard through Aberdeen, S.D. are the sounds of the Hub City’s history, the Aberdeen News reports. And, one railroad official said, they are the sounds of its future.
Greg Nazarow was named a vice president with Gannett Fleming, an international planning, design, and construction management firm. Nazarow serves as a senior rail operations analyst with Gannett Fleming Transit & Rail Systems, a division of Gannett Fleming specializing in transit and railroad track, signal, communication, and electric traction design.
Prince Rupert’s ship has finally come in, but it was expected 100 years ago, the Daily Commercial News reports. In 1909 this port in northern British Columbia was being groomed to become a major transportation hub and a large, vibrant city. Although it has the deepest, ice-free harbor in the world, it was a large iceberg that crushed that Prince Rupert dream.
Beginning July 21, crews will tie the overhead catenary system of the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line into the existing system at the Warehouse District Station. The Warehouse District Station will close at 7:30pm on Tuesday, July 21 and reopen on Wednesday, July 22 at 4:00am. At the Minneapolis LRT, crews poured the final course of concrete on the LRT platform. Communications system testing and programming continues at both the LRT and commuter rail stations. Energization and testing of the OCS wires of the LRT extension will begin the week of July 20. Crews installed the glass at the LRT station shelters this week. Fencing at the commuter rail platform will be installed next week.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine inaugurated new rail service to the Meadowlands Sports Complex, launching an era of travel convenience for the millions of New Jersey residents and visitors who attend year-round events at the Meadowlands. Dozens of officials and guests, including players from the New York Jets and New York Giants, joined the Governor for the train ride, which originated in Hoboken and finished with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Meadowlands Station.
CN is developing a fast-growing business supplying jet fuel to airlines serving Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport. The effectiveness of CN’s rail pipeline for jet fuel to Pearson prompted the construction of a C$65-million new Jet Fuel Rail Offloading, Storage and Distribution Facility near the airport, adjacent to CN’s Malport rail yard in northwest Toronto. On July 21, CN and airline and supplier representatives celebrated the official opening of the terminal.
The city of Monroe, La., once again has completed another project in its five-year struggle with Kansas City Southern railroad to observe a “quiet zone” through downtown, according to the Monroe News Star. City engineer Sinyale Morrison said Public Works installed two concrete transversal curbs on both sides of the tracks on North Fourth Street this week.
Back in March, city officials thought they had completed all aspects of what was required by the railroad, the Federal Railway Administration and the state Department of Transportation and Development. At that time, the railroad asked the city to close off a North Fourth Street entrance to a city parking lot south of the railroad tracks and the entrance nearest the track to Washington Plaza on the north side of the tracks. Those tasks were recently completed with a new entrance being constructed to the south side parking lot closer to DeSiard Street.
The city’s engineering department thought it had completed the tedious process of applying for a Federal Railroad Administration quiet zone through downtown last August after three years of work. Morrison then reported at the end of August the FRA had accepted the city’s application and placed it on the agency Website. ??In September, letters were sent to police, fire and ambulance services saying the designation would become reality. Things then came to a standstill until Morrison was notified about the parking lots and then the curbs.
The city started more than three years ago trying to get a quiet zone as increasing train traffic made it harder to conduct business downtown. The city closed North Second, Third, Fifth and Sixth street crossings and gated crossings at Walnut-South Grand, Fourth and DeSiard streets. The plan eventually is to construct an underpass at North Fourth Street.
Councilman Jay Marx said the designation would mean a quieter working environment for downtown businesses and better traffic flow. He said by closing the four crossings downtown, trains are already moving faster and making fewer stops that block traffic.
The public is invited to a community meeting July 29 at Ayer, Mass., Town Hall on protecting the underground wells at Spectacle Pond, organized by Congresswoman Nikki Tsongas, local newspapers report. Representatives from the Surface Transportation Board, EPA, DEP and railroads will hear community input and questions about the plans to protect the aquifer that supplies drinking water to 15,000 people in Ayer and Littleton, Mass.
Pan Am Railways is building a 25-acre parking lot on the Ayer/Littleton town line, over underground wells that supply 60 percent of Ayer’s drinking water and is a Zone III aquifer for Littleton. The water supply could be permanently contaminated by runoff and spills from the railroad and new Ford cars to be unloaded at the 800-space lot. The handling of toxic chemicals by a known polluter over an irreplaceable water source poses a huge risk for Ayer and Littleton. The public is invited to comment on the plan and ask questions.
In March 2009, Pan Am Railways was fined $500,000 for a spill of 900-1,700 gallons in Ayer, which was the largest criminal environmental fine in the history of the Commonwealth. The fine was one of many imposed against Pan Am Railways because of scores of spills in New England. Ironically, the fine was levied while the company broke ground on the lot, without giving the town 60 days notice, as stated in the 2003 Consent Decree, which the towns and company are legally bound by.
Pan Am was back in federal court July 8 with its parole officer (yes, Pan Am Railways has a parole officer) to ensure it had implemented environmental protections and trained employees to prevent spills. It hadn’t. Another hearing is set for Oct. 15, with Pan Am’s parole officer. The $500,000 fine is in escrow because Pan Am Railways appealed the fine.
The towns of Ayer and Littleton have been fighting this project for more than a decade.
Attorney General Martha Coakley described Pan Am in the March 2009 memorandum on sentencing: “The defendants have a long track record of violating the environmental laws, including a particularly long record of unreported releases of oil and other hazardous materials to the environment, and have utterly failed to develop reliable or consistent environmental management systems despite having been ordered to do so repeatedly.”
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge [D-Ayer/Littleton] is working to intervene.
“I am deeply concerned about Pan Am and Norfolk Southern Railroads’ proposed car unloading facility being placed so close to an aquifer. A spill at the site would be devastating to our local communities, deeply compromising the safety of the water we drink. We have the responsibility to protect our supply for current residents and generations to come.”
(This article by Frank Busalacchi was published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is chair of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.)
Everyone who travels the nation’s roads, bridges and rails has a stake in a major project under way in Congress this year: the reauthorization of the country’s surface transportation law. This mammoth law, rewritten every six years, determines how much money will be available to maintain and expand the country’s transportation system. Moreover, the legislation determines how this huge pot of money — $286.5 billion in the last bill — will be spent.
As chair of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, I strongly urge Congress to revisit our transportation priorities, which for too many years have favored highways and airlines. It’s time to reinvest in a highly valuable and underused transportation mode: intercity passenger rail service.
The reasons for spending more on rail are many. Perhaps the most important reason is public demand. Travelers are voting for more intercity passenger rail service by boarding trains in record numbers. In 2008, Amtrak carried a record 28.7 million passengers — the highest number in the passenger railroad’s history. When gasoline prices broke the $4-a-gallon barrier last summer, increasing numbers of travelers changed their travel plans to rail, including nearly 900,000 travelers in Wisconsin.
Price alone is not the only reason many travelers are switching to rail. Growing congestion on our nation’s highways and increasing delays in the air are making rail an attractive option for millions.
Of course, as more people choose to travel by rail, the demand on the system rises. Amtrak is facing an unprecedented equipment shortage: 17 percent of Amtrak’s locomotives and 15 percent of its passenger fleet are out of service. Investment in track and signal infrastructure is needed now to deal with existing rail congestion and to add new passenger rail service for the future.
In the midst of an economic recession, investing in rail is a wise use of federal dollars. It is estimated that for every $1 billion invested in passenger rail projects, 30,000 new, good-paying jobs are created. In Wisconsin, Amtrak pays $4.3 million annually in wages.
Last year, I had the pleasure of serving on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The commission’s most significant finding illustrated the financial magnitude of the need: $357.2 billion in capital improvements required by the year 2050. Additionally, a commitment of $5 billion per year will be needed for the 80/20 federal rail grant program over the six-year reauthorizing period.
This important program provides 80 percent federal and 20 percent state funding for passenger rail projects, mirroring the funding split in highway projects. This funding split finally recognizes the importance of passenger rail in our national transportation system. The commission also identified a series of inherent advantages in passenger rail that further demonstrate the value in greater funding for this important transportation mode. Chief among them are:
Mobility: Intercity passenger rail offers an alternative to using the private automobile, bus or airplane for transportation. At the current average of 2.2 million monthly riders, this means that several million people every month are removed from the already overcrowded roadways and airports.
System redundancy: Intercity passenger rail creates system redundancy in the intercity corridors it serves. Redundancy helps to ensure that transportation is possible even when an event occurs that disrupts the primary transportation system.
Delay reductions: One of the potential benefits of intercity passenger rail service is reduced highway congestion. In congested corridors, intercity passenger rail would only have to capture a small share of the total traffic in order to generate a substantial public benefit for all corridor travelers.
Environmental: Intercity passenger rail may also generate potential health benefits by reducing vehicle emissions, lowering pollution, and indirectly mitigating health and environmental costs.
Safety: Passenger rail is one of the safest modes of travel — far safer than highway travel.
The reasons to invest more in passenger rail are compelling and in the national interest. The question is whether Congress has the will to take a fresh look at the nation’s surface transportation system and increase funding for rail — the transportation mode that moves people efficiently while reducing the burden on our congested highways and airlines.