On
behalf of the Alaska Railroad Corporation Board of Directors, ARRC Board
Chairman John Binkley expressed congratulations to ARRC President & CEO
Patrick Gamble on his selection as the new University of Alaska president. "He
is deserving of the trust that the university regents have placed in Pat’s
leadership, management and familiarity with Alaskan issues," said Binkley.
HDR has been awarded a
five-year contract for extensive on-call right-of-way services with Sound
Transit, which provides mass transit in Washington’s King, Pierce and Snohomish
counties.
The Canadian federal
government and the railways must improve safety at high-risk crossings on busy
passenger train routes, according to the country’s transportation accident
investigator, local media report.
State transportation
workers yesterday scrambled to empty the swimming pool-sized hole that opened in
Newton, Mass., beneath MBTA tracks during the weekend rainstorm and will force
thousands of commuters to rely on buses for another week or so, the Boston
Globe reports.
The Canadian National
Railway has made a good start communicating with towns along the EJ&E
railroad, but there’s room for improvement, a federal audit concludes,
according to the Daily Herald. And, it says, municipalities that have not yet
struck deals with CN are critical of how it’s handling the transition.
An agreement is near
regarding improvements around a long-sought railroad overpass in Colton,
Calif., between railroad and local officials, as the overall project’s fate
heads to a state commission, The Press-Enterprise reports.
Residents who drive near
the BNSF railroad between Arlington and Marysville, Wash., will notice some
construction until March 19, the Arlington Times reports. Gus Melonas, director
of public affairs for the railway company, said that a 35-person work crew would
be replacing wood rail ties on a seven-mile stretch of track between the two
cities starting Monday, March 15.
Officials with the N.C.
Department of Transportation’s Rail Division didn’t exactly quell the concerns
of those who gathered at a town hall meeting in Landis, N.C., the Salisbury
Post reports. The meeting, which was an informal session held at Landis’ town
hall, was for area residents to ask rail officials questions about proposed
rail corridor projects.
Buses will replace train
service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and
Valley Stream the weekend of March 20-21 as work continues on the construction
of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel.
Beginning Friday, March 19,
at 9:00 p.m., the street crossing at Steilacoom Blvd. SW in Seattle is
scheduled to be fully closed to traffic so the crossing can be demolished and
reconstructed over the weekend. The crossing is expected to reopen to vehicles
early the following Monday morning. A full weekend closure of the crossing was
scheduled to reduce the impacts of a partial mid-week closure that would
require additional working days.
On
March 15, 2010, the MERMEC Group’s American subsidiary, Imagemap Inc., changed
its company name to "MERMEC Inc." and starts a new chapter in its
history by completing transitioning to corporate identity and alignment to
group’s strategy and commercial proposition.
MTA New York City Transit
said that beginning Saturday, March 27, and continuing for 18 months through
August 2011, there will be no weekday rush hour 5 express service in either
direction between East 180th Street and 3rd Avenue-149th Street. During this
period, 5 trains will make all 2 local stops. Currently, 5 trains run express
in the peak direction during morning (southbound) and afternoon (northbound)
rush hours between East 180th Street and 3rd Avenue-149th Street. It is anticipated
that this service change will add about five minutes to customers’ trips.
Construction at the
University of Washington light rail station in Seattle is under way and during
the week of March 15, 2010 there will be several construction activities along
Montlake Blvd. adjacent to Husky Stadium that will affect the roadway and sidewalks.
Wabtec
Corporation has acquired Xorail LLC, a leading provider of signal engineering
and design services, for $40 million in cash. The company is based in
Jacksonville, Fla., and has annual sales of about $40 million. Wabtec expects
the transaction to be accretive in the first year.
Beginning April 3, 2010,
GO Transit is making several system-wide train and bus service changes to bring
schedules in line with actual travel trip times and to meet the needs of our
growing ridership across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
The South Shore commuter railroad plans to
temporarily bus mid-day passengers between South Bend, Ind., and Carroll Ave.
in Michigan City, Ind., on March 31 and April 1. South Shore maintenance crews will be replacing railroad
ties.
A number of projects vital
to SEPTA and its riders will become budget casualties if the federal government
does not approve a plan to provide dedicated funding for transportation in
Pennsylvania, according to Fiscal Year 2011 budget projections. The Federal
Highway Administration is currently reviewing Pennsylvania’s application to
convert Interstate 80 to a toll highway. This is a key component of Act 44, the
state law enacted in 2007 to create a dedicated source for transportation
funding throughout the Commonwealth.
Improvements by Pan Am
Southern to the rail route from Mechanicville, N.Y., to Ayer, Mass., in the
last year have increased capacity and speeds on the line and have the company
looking at further opportunities in New England, including the Fitchburg area,
the Worcester Telegram reports.
Where there’s a will
there isn’t always a way, if the way in question is a railway, said Toms Mills
in a column in the Sault Star. Both the federal and provincial governments are
apparently solidly behind providing money for infrastructure improvements to
keep the shortline railway operating between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.
Sault Star But though signals are showing green, the money is stalled on a
siding somewhere. Squabbling over what program will be the funding vehicle, or
whether the province will sign on to a federal cost-sharing infrastructure
scheme, seems to be holding things up.
Persistence is paying off
in a big way for Levelland, Texas, suggests the dust flying above a 300-acre
tract on the south side of Highway 114 east of the city, the Lubbock Avalanche
Journal reports. Construction is in the early phases of the Levelland
Industrial Rail Park, which already has two companies signed on the dotted line
on a site that’s expected to attract $100 million in capital improvements and
1,000 new jobs to the Hockley County seat.
