Swiss manufacturer Amberg
Technologies said that RailWorks has taken delivery of a GRP Track Measurement
System. The system has been deployed in New York and is currently being used on
various transit projects for MTA. The system was purchased from Amberg’s North
American distribution partner, the Kara Company of Countryside, Ill.
Work will continue on the
new pedestrian underpass at the Santa Clara, Calif., station. The underpass
will connect the north- and southbound platforms, allowing two trains to pass
through the station at the same time and improving safety for pedestrians in
the station.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is planning to rehabilitate escalators and elevators, repair crumbling platforms, upgrade station air conditioning and install new directional signs among other enhancements to its Blue and Orange lines.
The Metro Board Finance and Administration committee endorsed awarding a six-year, $272.7 million comprehensive infrastructure and rehabilitation contract designed to improve customer service, service reliability and maintain a state of good repair. The full Board of Directors will vote on the proposal on Oct. 28.
The rehabilitation program would encompass 27 miles of track and 23 Metrorail stations along the Blue and Orange lines between the New Carrollton and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations. The design work would start next month with the physical work beginning in late 2011.
This long-term project is the second major maintenance contract focused on upgrading the Metrorail system. The first was awarded last year for work on the Red Line. Currently, under the four-year, $177 million Red Line program, personnel are repairing the crumbling platforms at the Rockville Metrorail station and making station improvements between the Judiciary Square and Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood Metrorail stations, which includes rehabilitating elevators and escalators at Union Station and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations.
Under the Blue and Orange contract, Metro will make the following improvements:
Safety Enhancements
• Replace tunnel safety lights to enhance customer and employee safety.
• Rehabilitate tunnel ventilation and exhaust fans used in the event of a smoke incident in a rail station or tunnel.
• Upgrade and replace emergency telephone system to enhance safety.
Customer Experience
• Rehabilitate or replace 22 elevators and 103 escalators between the Stadium-Armory and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations
• Reconstruct crumbing platforms at the Minnesota Ave and Deanwood Metrorail stations to improve customer service.
• Upgrade station air conditioning (chiller units) at the Rosslyn and Stadium-Armory Metrorail stations
• Install ADA bumpy tiles at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington Cemetery, Eastern Market, Potomac Avenue, Deanwood and Minnesota Avenue Metrorail stations for blind or vision impaired.
• Upgrade and enlarge station manager kiosks to be equipped with a new public address system and new monitors at 18 stations that will enable station managers to provide improved service to riders.
• Rehabilitate station restrooms used by customers and employees.
Infrastructure Upgrades
• Repair the rail bridge at the Deanwood Metrorail station.
• Repair 83,700 feet of tunnels including water leaks and cracks.
• Install new cross ties on the rail tracks.
• Upgrade traction power and train control systems.
• Repair station domes and acoustical walls.
• Replace and upgrade drainage pumping stations.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors, in a 7-to-1 vote, approved the first construction contract to build a 10-mile extension from the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station to the City of Antioch, called eBART or Eastern Contra Costa County BART. The Board awarded West Bay Builders, Inc., of Novato, Calif., a $26 million contract to build the transfer platform and make some of the necessary rail improvements to begin extending the line to a terminus station at Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.
To learn more about the project, watch the BARTtv News story or visit www.bart.gov/eBART.
The Twin Cities has been awarded a $5 million planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. With the help of local matching funds, the grant will support planning along the region’s growing network of transit corridors.
The grant is part of HUD’s $100 million Sustainable Communities Initiative to build on existing regional planning efforts to advance multi-modal transportation choices and promote affordable housing with access to jobs and housing, transit- and pedestrian-friendly development, environmental preservation and energy efficiency. In a nutshell, planning that promotes sustainable, vibrant and healthy communities.
While details of implementation will be fleshed out more fully now that the grant award is official, the application calls for vigorous public involvement in creating corridor-wide plans and strategies for optimal development along five major corridors, including Southwest LRT, Bottineau, Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit, Northstar Commuter Rail and the Gateway Corridor (I-94 East), using "beyond the rail" planning of Central Corridor LRT as a model.
Middletown and New Jersey Railroad L.L.C., a subsidiary of Regional Rail L.L.C., will lease and operate 36 miles of track from Norfolk Southern Corp. M&NJ will operate a group of tracks known as the NS Campbell Hall Cluster in Orange County, New York.
The deal includes associated trackage rights. Regional Rail also owns or operates 111 miles of rail line in eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The Campbell Hall Cluster include the Hudson Secondary, which runs from Campbell Hall to a connection with New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in Warwick; the Walden Secondary, which runs from Campbell Hall to Walden; and the Maybrook Industrial Track between Campbell Hall and Montgomery.
In a report in the Times Herald-Record, Al Sauer, M&NJ’s regional vice president, said the new lines will allow M&NJ to expand rail services in southeastern New York, and that the lines are "well positioned to serve expanding warehouse and distribution operations in the area."
The Association of American Railroads reports that weekly rail traffic continues to post gains over 2009 levels with U.S. railroads originating 297,029 carloads for the week ending Oct. 9, 2010, up 8.8 percent compared with the same week last year. AAR will no longer report 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weekly data in 2008 since October 2008 marked the beginning of the recession-related downturn in rail traffic.
Intermodal traffic for the week totaled 236,272 trailers and containers, up 13.1 percent compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 14.1 percent and trailer volume up 7.4 percent.
Fifteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with metallic ores posting the most significant gain, up 199.7 percent. Commodity groups posting declines included non-metallic minerals, down 18.9 percent, primary forest products, down 5.6 percent, grain mill products, down 2.7 percent, and food and kindred products, down 0.7 percent.
Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 4.7 percent compared with last year. In the West, carload volume was up 11.6 percent from the same week in 2009.
For the first 40 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,425,258 carloads, up 7.2 percent from last year, and 8,658,978 trailers or containers, up 14.7 percent from the comparison week in 2009.
Canadian railroads reported volume of 75,084 cars for the week, up 10.9 percent from last year, and 52,120 trailers or containers, up 15.1 percent from 2009. For the first 40 weeks of 2010, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,912,392 carloads, up 19.1 percent from last year, and 1,890,736 trailers or containers, up 15.8 percent from last year.
Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 13,573 cars, up 16.2 percent from the same week last year, and 8,102 trailers or containers, up 14.9 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 40 weeks of 2010 was reported as 549,304 carloads, up 20.4 percent from last year; and 268,864 trailers or containers, up 27.4 percent.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 40 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 14,886,954 carloads, up 9.8 percent from last year, and 10,818,578 trailers and containers, up 15.1 percent from last year.
U.S. Department of Transportation will grant more than $18.7 million to 11 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) that are using new technologies and developing innovative approaches to improve transportation systems throughout the country.
The awards were made by the U.S. DOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). UTCs conduct research that directly supports Department’s priorities and are a critical part of the national transportation strategy.
The largest grant when to the Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., which will use its $3,324,400 grant to extend experimental work in monitoring the health of the infrastructure of rapid transit and commuter railroad structures through partnerships with the Chicago Transit Authority and Metro North Railroad in New York. ITI will also continue long-term studies of bridge performance, combining measurements of live loads, predictions of structural responses, and measurements of actual structural response. Funds will also allow for the expansion of an already successful infrastructure summer institute for high school students.
A full list of grant recipients can be viewed at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/index.html.
RITA provides $81 million in annual funding to 136 colleges and universities conducting transportation research and providing the training needed to manage today’s transportation infrastructure through the UTC program. UTC colleges and universities trained 32,000 practicing transportation professionals in 2009. More information about the UTC program can be found at http://utc.dot.gov/.
This month marks the beginning of the 100th Anniversary of the construction of New York Penn Station, and on Monday, October 18th, Amtrak will celebrate the anniversary of this historic station. Beginning at 9:15 a.m., the public is invited to enjoy rare photo imagery, artifacts and other items commemorating the station’s deep and rich history, including the vital role Amtrak plays in the history of passenger rail travel.
Representatives from Amtrak and its partners at New Jersey Transit, Long Island Rail Road and renowned author Lorraine Diehl ("The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station") will be on hand to reminisce about some of the station’s most memorable moments over the past 100 years.
Approximately 550,000 passengers pass through New York Penn Station each day, which makes it the busiest station in Amtrak’s system, and one of the busiest transportation hubs in the world. This terminal is also served by Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit trains, as well as Amtrak’s high-speed trains and other intercity services. Together, these three agencies operate more than 1,000 weekday trains at Penn Station.
The station originally opened in 1910. A reconstruction of the public areas of the station was completed in 1968, creating most of the present layout of those areas.
Canadian National has reached a voluntary mitigation with the Village of Sauk Village, Ill., located approximately 30 miles south of Chicago, addressing the municipality’s environmental and safety concerns with CN’s acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E). With this agreement, CN has VMAs with 24 of the 33 communities situated on the EJ&E in Illinois and Indiana.
CN, which completed its purchase of the EJ&E on Jan. 31, 2009, will provide funding for various measures in Sauk Village, including the creation of a quiet zone, noise mitigation, and emergency response training and communication.
CN is also working closely with communities on the EJ&E that do not have agreements with CN to ensure implementation of safety and environmental conditions in accordance with the requirements of the Surface Transportation Board.
Integration of the CN and EJ&E networks is well underway, and, as contemplated in the original plan, the company continues to expect it will be completed within three years of its acquisition of control.
A new study from HNTB Corporation takes a look at public transportation and what Americans think about using, improving and paying for it.
According to the HNTB America THINKS transit survey, nearly nine in 10 (87 percent) Americans who have access to public transportation where they work or live take advantage of it. In addition, almost seven in 10 (69 percent) Americans feel there are many times when public transit is a better option than driving and nearly three in 10 of them choose higher gas prices (29 percent) and convenience (29 percent) as the biggest motivators for riding public transportation.
Approximately one in four respondents think the most valuable feature of public transportation is that it reduces traffic congestion (28 percent) or saves users money (24 percent), while about one in seven (13 percent) say it’s most valuable feature is the environmental benefit.
The nation’s largest public transit agencies face an $80 billion maintenance backlog just to bring their rail systems to a state of good repair. Within the next six years, almost every transit vehicle (55,000 vehicles) in rural America will need to be replaced.
Even amid budget and service cutbacks due to the recession, 68 percent of Americans say the overall quality of public transportation in their area has stayed the same or improved during the last five years. Among respondents with public transportation in their area, 58 percent say it has stayed about the same, while 25 percent think it has improved.
Fortunately, transit is entering something of a "golden age" of funding in America. The Obama administration has set aside more money for transit development than any other time in the past 20 years, including Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, sustainability and planning grants – literally hundreds of millions of dollars waiting to be awarded. Rao said the problem is that those federal monies require a local match, and many cities, already forced to cut basic services, don’t have the revenue to ante up their share.
While using existing taxes is the most popular method of funding better public transportation, the survey showed millions also are willing to pay a little more for a convenient ride.
Nearly half (46 percent) of Americans think local, state and federal governments don’t spend enough money on public transportation in their area. Almost three in 10 (28 percent) think these governments should rely on a greater share of gas tax to help fund improved public transportation options. Approximately two in 10 think private investors (21 percent) or local sales taxes (20 percent) should be the primary source of public transit funding. Just one in 10 (10 percent) think property taxes are the answer.
Construction began in Yaphank, N.Y., on Long Island’s first intermodal freight rail terminal, a private venture that promises to make freight shipping more efficient in the region.
Executives at Brookhaven Rail Terminal and US Rail Corp., who have partnered on the $22 million venture, were joined by elected officials at a ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday, according to a report in The North Shore Sun.
The facility, off Sills Road just south of the Long Island Expressway, will remove thousands of trucks from area roads and bridges every year, reducing pollution, said US Rail Corp. president Gabe Hall.
An expected 50 to 60 people will be hired to construct the terminal and an additional 120 will be hired when the rail line is in operation, officials said.
Freight trains will still use existing Long Island Rail Road tracks after the facility is built but, for the first time, they will have a destination where they can get off the LIRR tracks to unload and not be at the mercy of passenger train schedules. The previous arrangement also made it impossible to run full-length freight trains through Nassau and Suffolk, officials said.
Rhode Island transportation officials say a deal has been struck to provide rail service to T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Kevin Dillon, president of the Rhode Island Airport Corp., the agency that runs Green, welcomed the news, saying it makes the state’s largest airport even more convenient for travelers seeking a less stressful alternative to Boston’s Logan Airport.
The state Transportation Department, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Providence and Worcester Railroad and Amtrak worked together on the deal.
The trains will link the airport to Providence and Boston. The exact startup date and the schedule have yet to be determined.
GE Transportation announced the success of its Trip Optimizer, a technology that calculates the optimal locomotive speed for minimal fuel consumption, resulting in 3.3 million gallons of fuel savings on the first five million miles of track run using the technology. It is the latest example of how GE’s $4 billion-a-year software and solutions services are helping customers improve productivity and efficiency worldwide.
GE’s Trip Optimizer, an ecomagination product, is breakthrough software, which functions much like a car’s cruise control. Trip Optimizer calculates the optimal speed profile for a trip based on a specific train’s makeup and route and then automatically controls the throttle to maintain that planned speed and save fuel. Trip Optimizer operates in two ways: automatic control or advisement mode. Automatic control maintains the planned speed automatically while advisement mode informs the operator which throttle and dynamic braking levels to use to optimize fuel efficiency and speed.
Four major North American Class 1 railroads have outfitted their locomotives with GE Transportation’s Trip Optimizer and have accumulated more than five million service miles run in advisement and automatic control. Trip Optimizer generated a fuel savings of approximately seven percent and a corresponding reduction of more than 37,000 tons of CO2, or the same impact as taking more than 7,000 passenger cars off of the road or planting more than 10,000 acres of forest.
Trip Optimizer is the third in a series of transportation software advances from GE. It joins GE’s LOCOTROL Distributed Power product that increases hauling capacity and reduces operating costs and GE’s RailEdge Movement Planner that enables railroads to move more freight faster on their existing networks.
Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad named former Norfolk Southern executive Hugh Kiley Jr., general manager. Kiley previously was assistant vice president of operations at NS.
Matt Cooper, formerly business development manager, R. J. Corman Derailment Services, LLC, has been named to R. J. Corman Railroad Group’s CSX corporate account manager in Jacksonville, Fla. Cooper joined R. J. Corman Derailment Services in May 2001, where he has held a number of sales management positions before accepting his new role.
North American design firm Stantec has acquired the assets of Street Smarts, a 60-person transportation and civil engineering company headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. The addition of this well-respected Atlanta-area firm further develops Stantec’s existing transportation practice in Georgia and the southeastern United States.
"Street Smarts is a very good fit for our Transportation practice," says Bob Gomes, Stantec president and chief executive officer. "It has an impressive 20-year track record in Georgia spanning commercial development to statewide transportation projects and will help build our capabilities in this growing transportation market."
Street Smarts has worked on projects throughout Georgia, winning an ACEC Award for a guidebook it developed for the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) and its role as a subconsultant on the 22-mile (35-kilometre) Atlanta Beltline, the automated people mover system at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and an addition to the Winn Army Community Hospital at Fort Stewart. Previous work also includes bridge replacements for Georgia DOT, a transportation study of the fast-growing commercial area around Gwinnett Place Mall, innovative freeway ramp and pedestrian control designs, and park, trail, and greenway designs.
The Association of American Railroads reported that monthly rail carloads on U.S. railroads in September 2010 were up 7.7 percent compared with the same period last year, but still down 7.5 percent compared with September 2008. According to AAR’s October Rail Time Indicators Report, the weekly average of 297,502 carloads last month was the highest since October 2008.
Intermodal traffic on U.S. railroads in September was up 17.3 percent compared with the same month in 2009, and up 0.2 percent compared with September 2008. September is traditionally one of the highest-volume months of the year for intermodal as retailers begin to stock up for the holidays.
Seasonally adjusted AAR data for September showed an increase in carloads from the previous month, up 1.9 percent from August 2010, while intermodal traffic experienced declines from August 2010, down 0.1 percent.
On an unadjusted basis, September also saw carload gains in 16 of the 19 commodity groups tracked by AAR. In terms of volume change, four categories in particular made significant gains: coal up 30,111 carloads, metallic ores up 16,978 carloads, grain up 14,123 carloads, and crushed stone, sand, and gravel up 11,399 carloads, from the same period last year.
Railroads continue to take rail cars out of storage. Railroads brought 17,638 rail cars out of storage in September, the largest number since April 2010. However, 331,074 freight cars, roughly 21.6 percent of the American railcar fleet, remain in storage.
The Rail Time Indicators report, available at www.aar.com, comprises detailed monthly rail traffic data framed with other key economic indicators to show how freight rail ties into the broader U.S. economy.
Flooding from Tropical Storm Nicole brought record rainfall in several areas of North Carolina and resulted in a number of washouts on track along the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR). Trains were rolling within 36 hours of the damage, moving commerce on the 317-mile railroad, which runs from Charlotte to Morehead City.
Washouts occurred in three locations along the track in Craven County between Dover, N.C., and Havelock, halting rail activity until repairs could be made.
"Our priority is to keep freight moving and rail customers happy," said Scott Saylor, NCRR President. "The partnership with Norfolk Southern and our ongoing investments to make improvements throughout the corridor help us keep and create jobs. The tracks were repaired promptly and Norfolk Southern really came through for NCRR and the businesses and military installations that depend upon our line."
Beyond fixing the damage done by Tropical Storm Nicole, NCRR has kept a keen eye to improving the railroad to avoid problems. Some of those projects include two new bridges between LaGrange and Kinston, six box culverts and ongoing improvements and maintenance to rails, ties and the surface material.
"NCRR has invested over $63 million in capital improvements to the North Carolina Railroad since 2001 and has committed another $83 million through 2015," said Saylor. "Since 2006 NCRR and Norfolk Southern have invested a combined $11.5 million in bridges and culverts east of Raleigh. That is non-taxpayer money, and many times it is evenly matched with Norfolk Southern investment in the projects. The North Carolina Railroad Company is a unique and valued asset for the people of the state. We intend to keep our asset healthy, make improvements that are good for our customers, keep commerce rolling and attract economic opportunity for the state."
The North Carolina Railroad Company owns and manages the 317-mile rail corridor extending from Morehead City to Charlotte. The railroad carries 60 freight trains and eight passenger trains daily.
President Obama on Monday lobbied for Republican support from Capitol Hill for a burst of spending on transportation projects, calling his proposal a jobs creator for the middle class and an overdue investment in the country’s foundation, reports the Associated Press.
"There’s no reason why we can’t do this," Obama said in a brief Rose Garden event. "There’s no reason why the world’s best infrastructure should lie beyond our borders. This is America. We’ve always had the best infrastructure … All we need is the political will."
Obama is proposing a $50 billion plan as an initial step toward a six-year program of transportation programs. It calls for building, fixing or maintaining thousands of miles of roads, rail lines and airport runways, along with installing a new air navigation system to reduce travel delays, and other projects.
The president unveiled the idea over Labor Day. Monday’s event amounted to another chance to promote it.
The president met privately with governors, mayors, transportation officials and Cabinet secretaries and then stood with some of them before the cameras as he made his case.
The timing also comes as Obama is eager to show action on the sluggish economy just a head of the Nov. 2 congressional elections, with his party in jeopardy of losing a sizable number of seats in the House and Senate.
Obama asked for Republican support, saying infrastructure work typically draws bipartisan support. But such cooperation seems unlikely in the current partisan atmosphere.
The economy continues to dominate public concern. The public sector slashed 159,000 jobs in September, including the largest cuts by local governments in 28 years. Obama said his program would boost employment right away and help make up for what he called years of costly inattention to the country’s infrastructure.
"Everywhere else, they’re thinking big. They’re creating jobs today, but they’re also playing to win tomorrow," Obama said of some of the top economic competitors to the United States. "So the bottom line is our shortsightedness has come due. We can no longer afford to sit still."
The administration released a new analysis of Obama’s plan that said it would particularly help with middle-class jobs in construction, manufacturing and retail.
Under pressure from the Obama administration, Gov. Chris Christie agreed to rethink his decision to cancel construction of a $9 billion rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City, according to the Associated Press.
Christie, a rising star in the GOP with a reputation as a fearless protector of the taxpayers’ money, announced on Thursday that he was pulling the plug on the project because of runaway costs — a decision that led to an outcry from Democrats, who said it would cost the state thousands of badly needed construction jobs and cripple New Jersey’s long-term economy.
But after meeting for nearly an hour Friday with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the governor agreed to listen to ideas for pressing ahead with the project, known as ARC, for Access to the Region’s Core. It is the biggest public transit project under way in the nation.
