With the prospect of
high-speed rail at least six years off, Virginia officials want to spend $75
million on an intermediate step that they say could become reality in half that
time: a conventional passenger train from Norfolk to Richmond, The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
reports.
Track maintenance on the
Red Line in Washington, D.C., Feb. 26-28 will cause inbound and outbound trains
to take turns sharing one track. Customers should add 20 minutes to their trips.
Los Angeles Metro Blue
Line passengers will experience travel delays of up to 30 minutes February
26-28 due to construction of the Expo light rail line, which will connect with
the Metro Blue Line in downtown Los Angeles. Work will begin at 9 p.m. on
Friday night and continue until the close of rail service on Sunday night
February 28. Every attempt will be made to have service restored by Monday
morning. Should any unforeseen delay occur, train service will be supplemented
by buses between Washington and 7th St./Metro Center Stations. All
work is subject to weather delays.
When the Department of
Transportation doled out $1.5 billion in infrastructure grants last week, one
of the largest checks went to a rail overhaul in the Chicago area, the New York
Times reports. Almost all of the country’s freight railroads converge there.
The region handles so much cargo that only three cities outrank it: Hong Kong,
Singapore and Shanghai.
Medina City, Ohio, will
not be a railroad quiet zone, at least not any time soon, the Medina Sun
reports. At its most recent meeting, Medina City Council chose not to pursue a
quiet zone in city limits as part of the city’s planned railroad improvements.
A quiet zone would eliminate the use of train horns while traveling through the
city.
The Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority has agreed to a one-year contract extension that will
allow sheep and goats to continue providing weed abatement services at Cerone
Operating Division in North San Jose, Calif.
Utility relocations
associated with Texas Department of Transportation construction on portions of
State Highway 114 will likely delay the opening of the first two segments of
the DART Rail Orange Line, DART officials said.
The California Legislature recently
passed a bill that could generate more than 6,000 transportation jobs in Orange
County. The measure will now go to Governor Schwarzenegger for approval, the
Orange County Register reports.
Nebkota Railway Inc., the
only company currently operating trains in Chadron, Neb., has withdrawn the
objection it filed just two weeks ago to the purchase of the rail line from
Chadron to Dakota Junction by a newly formed railroad company, the Chadron
Record reports. The move apparently clears the way for Nebraska Northwestern
Railroad to purchase the seven miles of track from Chadron to Dakota Junction
from the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and to lease an additional 20
miles of line from Dakota Junction to Crawford, where the tracks connect with BNSF
network.
Although not receiving
TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) federal stimulus
funding, a project to improve The San Luis and Rio Grande Railway is not dead
in its tracks reports the Valley Courier in Alamosa, Colo. Ed Ellis, president
of the railway’s parent company, Iowa Pacific, said this week he plans to look
for alternative funding sources for the project that would expand the rail’s
capabilities through the Valley.
Huron Central Railway in
Canada is once again facing a deadline for an essential capital investment for
track improvements needed to keep the line operating beyond August of this year,
Sault This Week reports. Mario Brault, president of Huron Central, said from
his Montreal headquarters that if the federal and Ontario governments do not
announce funding assistance by the end of March at the very latest, the
regional short line rail company operating between the Sault and Sudbury would
be forced to shut down this August.
RailComm
has been selected to provide the GCOR dispatch system for Genesee and Wyoming’s
New York and Pennsylvania and Ohio Central railroads. RailComm’s
state-of-the-art Domain Operations Controller (DOC®) train control system will
be accessed through a web-enabled Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model.
RailComm’s SaaS offering provides a "pay-as-you-go" model, thus eliminating
capital equipment procurement constraints. Through this SaaS delivery model,
the railroads can be remotely dispatched by G&W anywhere an Internet
connection is available. Therefore, it is possible to relocate the dispatchers
to alternative locations as required. Additionally, railroad management can log
in from an office, home or even from a hotel and directly view dispatching
activity and management reports.
Steel Dynamics, Inc., said
the company has begun commercial production of Standard Strength rails that
meet all current AREMA specifications. The Structural & Rail Division at
Columbia City, Ind., produces this rail in lengths up to 240 feet and is
capable of producing 300,000 tons of rail per year.
Virginia Transportation
Secretary Sean Connaughton has ordered an investigation into Hampton Roads
Transit’s business practices and light-rail project, The Virginian-Pilot
reports.
Philip Shucet, Hampton Road Transit president
and CEO, said, " I carefully reviewed the verbatim transcript from the May
19, 2009, Virginia Beach, Va., City Council meeting, it is clear to me that HRT
committed with certainty that no local City funds would be used to fund the
Alternatives Analysis and Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Though
our policy is clear that federal grants are locally matched by a partner city,
the firm recorded commitment made by HRT is compelling. We will honor that
commitment for this particular local match requirement. It’s the right thing to
do, especially in this case where Virginia Beach supported acquiring the
federal funding with the specific understanding that a city match was not
necessary. As such, HRT withdraws its request that the Virginia Beach City
Council supply the local match.
With an eye toward
enhancing customer and employee security, MTA New York City Transit is set to
begin a project that will put advanced video surveillance equipment onboard four
cars of a 10-car subway train that will be in operation along the lettered
lines through early 2011. This train will also be used to pilot a new handhold
configuration and rush-hour flip up seats, though the seating feature will not
be put into use at this time.
Having been largely shut
out of federal high-speed rail funding, New York transportation officials are
turning their attention to a handful of rail projects that did win federal
support – including the first tangible piece of the long-sought high-speed
passenger rail corridor across upstate New York, the Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle reports.
Federal stimulus grants
could have redrawn the map of freight rail lines throughout the Rockford, Ill.,
area and truck routes around Rochelle, Ill., GateHouse News Service reports. Instead, after the $108-million requests were rejected last week, it’s
back to the drawing board.
Federal Signal
Corporation said that it has amended its definitive arrangement agreement with
Sirit Inc. (TSX: SI), a global provider of radio frequency identification
technology. Under the terms of the amendment, Federal Signal will acquire all
of the issued and outstanding common shares of Sirit for cash consideration of
C$0.43 per share by way of a court approved plan of arrangement under the
Business Corporations Act, an increase of C$0.13 per share or 43 percent over
the original cash consideration. The transaction has a total equity value of
approximately C$72 million (US $69 million).
Amtrak awarded the Dana B. Kenyon Company a $25-million
contract for the construction of a maintenance facility located in Hialeah,
Fla., near Miami. Construction will begin this spring and will be completed in
February 2011.