Sparks have been flying
along Yuba-Sutter railroad tracks near Marysville, Calif., in the last few days,
the Appeal-Democrat reports. Loram Maintenance of Way Inc. wrapped up its
periodic grinding of area Union Pacific rails March 22 after smoothing nearly
100 miles of local tracks. The routine maintenance eliminates cracks caused by
typical train traffic.
Work to upgrade the
electrical system at the Mineola Intermodal Center will make it necessary to
close the four-level parking facility on the weekend of March 27 and 28. The
seven Long Island Bus routes will still operate as will Long Island Rail Road
train service at the Mineola station. However, shutting off the electricity so
the system upgrades can be done will affect the lights, LIRR ticket selling
machine in the Center’s pedestrian overpass, electronic signs and elevators
serving the Center’s overpass.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa, who leads the second-largest U.S. city, said his plan to
accelerate public-transit construction with a mix of local funding and federal
aid can be used elsewhere as well, Bloomberg reports.
The Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Authority passed five resolutions at its recent meeting, including: To commit $45,500
for Standard Contracting and Engineering Inc. to reconstruct the sidewalks and
entrance to the West 25th Street station to meet ADA regulations.
The firm is also working on replacing the station stairs. The station will be
closed for one week during April or May, but it will be open for the Indians
home opener on April 12. RTA will give a two-week notice before closing the
station. About 80 percent of the work is being done with federal funds.
Metro in Washington, D.C., has increased the
speeds of Red Line trains between the Friendship Heights and Bethesda Metrorail
stations as track maintenance personnel continue to replace rail and rail
fasteners during the overnight hours when the system is closed.
Inbound Red
Line trains traveling in the direction of Glenmont are operating at normal
speeds, up to 59 mph. Outbound trains traveling in the direction of Shady Grove
between Friendship Heights and Bethesda are operating at 35 to 40 mph. Metro
anticipates having trains return to their normal speeds by next week.
On March 22, Capital
Metro marked a momentous milestone as the transit agency welcomed its first
passengers on Capital MetroRail, the first modern passenger rail system in
Central Texas.
Governor Deval Patrick and
Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary and CEO Jeffrey Mullan appointed
Richard A. Davey as MassDOT’s new Rail and Transit Administrator.
A slew of west Vancouver,
Wash., railroad construction projects appear to be on the fast-track to begin
construction this spring, The Columbian reports.
Before the excavation
of the Capitol Hill Station of the University Link light rail project can
begin, there is a great deal of work needed to prepare the site. To
prevent the sides of the excavation from collapsing once excavation begins, the
contractor will use walls made of soldier piles and lagging. Steel beams are
dug into the ground, and wooden or steel planks are placed between the beams to
hold the earth in place.
The plan to relocate a rail
switching yard in downtown Sioux Falls, S.D., got a $40-million boost five
years ago, but the project hasn’t even begun, the Argus Leader reports. Though
the project was scheduled to be completed 2009, the city still is working its
way through an environmental review that could take the rest of this year.
Amtrak said it is
reorganizing and establishing a new department to pursue opportunities to
develop new intercity high-speed rail service in select corridors around the
country and to plan for major improvements on the Northeast Corridor, including
determining the feasibility of increasing top speeds up to 220 mph.
MTA Metro-North
Railroad’s new April 11 timetable will make temporary, minor schedule changes
on all three lines to allow for track maintenance projects. On the Upper Hudson
Line, schedule adjustments will allow for installation of concrete ties until
June 2010. Poughkeepsie, New Hamburg and Beacon customers in all time periods
will be affected by schedule changes requiring trains to depart earlier or
later, and in some cases, to travel up to seven minutes slower or 10 minutes
faster.
Washington, D.C.’s Metro
has a 15 mph speed restriction in place on the Red Line between the Friendship
Heights and Bethesda Metrorail stations due to track work that is taking place
during the overnight hours to change out rail and rail fasteners.
The speed
restrictions were installed late the week of March 15 after an assessment
identified the immediate need to replace running rail and fasteners on both
tracks between the Friendship Heights and Bethesda Metrorail stations.
L.B. Foster Company and
Portec Rail Products, Inc., said that they have each received a formal second
request for additional information and documentary material from the Antitrust
Division of the Department of Justice regarding the Agreement and Plan of
Merger dated February 16, 2010 pursuant to which L.B. Foster proposed to
acquire Portec through a tender offer and subsequent merger.
The Winter Haven, Fla.,
City Commission approved the first reading for a land-use change enabling
progress to continue on the proposed Integrated Logistics Center to be
developed in conjunction with the CSX Intermodal Terminal planned for the
southern portion of the city, the News Chief reports.
Senior executives from
Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern recently made their annual inspection trip across the Meridian
Speedway to see the capital improvements that have been made to increase
capacity and improve transit over the line from Shreveport, La. to Meridian,
Miss., KCS News, the company newsletter, reports.
Denver’s RTD has reached a
total $143.8-million agreement with BNSF that will move progress forward on two
FasTracks corridors to Arvada/Wheat Ridge and Westminster, Colo.,
according to a column by Kevin Flynn in InDenver Times. The
comprehensive agreement includes $102.7 million for the outright purchase of
railroad right-of-way for the Gold Line and several miles of the Northwest Rail
FasTracks corridors; a lump sum of $36.9 million in relocation funding for BNSF
to move and replace its facilities that are in the way of RTD’s projects; up to
$4 million in direct reimbursements of BNSF’s other costs for additional
construction or relocation that may occur incidental to the projects and
$200,000 for title insurance, closing costs and escrow fees.
Metra plans to spend $100
million to install a high-tech system that would keep trains from colliding or
prevent a distracted engineer from speeding through a warning signal to slow
down or stop, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Repairs to the
Fredericksburg, Va., train station could be under way this summer, The Free
Lance-Star reports. Virginia Railway Express received permission from its
Operations Board to issue an invitation for construction bids to repair the
drainage system in the station’s railroad bridge.
Momentum is building for
running conventional passenger trains between Norfolk and Richmond, Va., as an
interim step to getting high-speed rail, The Virginian-Pilot reports. The budget
approved by the Virginia General Assembly last week waives a 30 percent match
on state Rail Enhancement Funds, clearing a financial hurdle that will allow
construction to begin later this year and for trains to run within three years.
