MARTA has closed a majority of its escalators and is
conducting a comprehensive and independent system-wide review of all 149
escalators in its system. This action is being taken after MARTA recently
discovered that a private contractor had intentionally bypassed safety controls
on an escalator at the Dunwoody rail station.
An independent team of
consultants charged with looking at competitiveness in the U.S. rail industry
has found that railroad rates have been steadily increasing since 2004, with a
particularly steep increase in 2008. But Christensen Associates, Inc., of
Madison, Wis., found that the rate increases were driven by fluctuating fuel
prices and other costs and did not appear to reflect a greater exercise of
railroad market power over captive shippers.
A
national environmental group with deep pockets and specialized legal expertise
is joining the effort to block a permit for one of the area’s biggest development
projects, The Kansas City Star reports. The Natural Resources Defense Council
filed a lawsuit Feb. 1 to halt the environmental permit issued for a rail yard
proposed for southwest Johnson County.
The
lawsuit is separate from one brought by Hillsdale Environmental Loss Prevention
Inc. and several other plaintiffs. Unlike the earlier lawsuit, BNSF Railway is
not named as a defendant.
The
defense council’s entrance into the case is significant because of the hefty
resources at its disposal. During 2007-08, the organization raised $108
million, according to its tax returns from that year. As of mid-2008, the group
had assets of $186 million.
Its
decision to join the legal dispute "guarantees there will be some funding at
least for the plaintiffs," said John Ragsdale, who has taught environmental law
at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Groups
like the council have national constituencies with dues paid by thousands of
people, enabling the groups to assemble lots of money with small donations,
Ragsdale said.
"Many
of these groups have staffs of attorneys … that are very, very competent and
skilled," Ragsdale said. "They can bring a strong force to bear."
BNSF
wants to build what’s known as an intermodal hub for transferring freight
arriving on West Coast trains to trucks for shipment elsewhere. The railroad
plans to develop the hub on 492 acres while a private developer builds a nearby
distribution and warehouse complex to store some of the incoming freight. Overall,
the project promises the creation of 13,000 jobs when fully built in about 20
years.
BNSF
is seeking $50 million in federal stimulus money to get the project started.
Bayer MaterialScience AG
has acquired the worldwide marketing and usage rights for the DURFLEX® track
superstructure system from Hyperion Verwaltung GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
The two companies have signed an agreement to this effect. Financial details
have not been disclosed. The superstructure system stabilizes the ballast
stones under rail tracks, thus enabling more cost-effective railroad operation
in the long term. It is based on the flexible Bayflex® polyurethane foam system
from Bayer MaterialScience.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn visited
Moline, Ill, Jan. 30 to announce $45 million in state capital funds to establish
passenger rail service from Chicago to the Quad Cities. The new service will
result in up to 825 new jobs, including 440 construction jobs.
Infotech Enterprises Limited, a global technology
solutions provider with headquarters in Hyderabad, India, said its wholly-owned
subsidiary Infotech Enterprises America Inc., acquired Daxcon Engineering Inc.
located in Peoria, Ill.
In February, in addition to
the Presidents Day holiday weekend closure of the Rosslyn and Arlington
Cemetery Metrorail stations on the Orange and Blue Line, Washington, D.C., Metro
will replace fasteners and weld rail that will help ensure reliable Metrorail
service. Customers should expect travel delays during the weekends of Feb. 5-7,
Feb. 12-15, Feb. 19-21 and Feb. 26-28.
New Lenox, Ill., Mayor
Tim Baldermann is "confident" that he soon will be talking to
Canadian National Railway officials before the village’s battle against the
company reaches the courts, the Southtown Star reports.
The steel railroad bridge
crossing high above Alhambra Avenue in Martinez, Calif., is known to local
train buffs as both the Muir Trestle and Alhambra Trestle. Owned and operated
by BNSF, the trestle has long been a recognizable Martinez landmark, and lately
a conversation has resurfaced among local denizens about the trestle’s
appearance, the Martinez News-Gazette reports. Splotched with large
patches of rust in between its fading gray paint, the structure is in need of a
face-lift.
The
Alaska Railroad invites the public to an open house February 19 in Seward to provide
an opportunity to review and comment on a proposed Program of Projects for 2010.
Open House displays are open to the public and will be set up in the inn’s
Mount Marathon meeting room. Displays will showcase continuing and proposed
capital improvement projects that are in various stages – from conceptual
planning to engineering and construction.
The CREATE Partners said
that the CREATE Program will receive $133 million as part of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a critical rail/rail flyover near 63rd
and State Streets in the Englewood community on the south side of Chicago.
The flyover will carry the north-south Metra Rock Island commuter rail line
over the east-west Norfolk Southern/Amtrak line, eliminating conflict between
78 Metra Rock Island trains and approximately 60 freight and Amtrak trains that
presently cross at grade each day.
HNTB
Corporation and HNTB Holdings Ltd. named Peter Gertler a senior vice president.
Gertler, who leads the firm’s high-speed rail services group, is located in the
firm’s Oakland, Calif., office. Gertler has 23 years of experience in public
transportation and program management, including conventional and high-speed
rail across the United States and around the world.
Stressing the importance of
its intercity passenger rail service in Michigan, Amtrak said it will perform a
high-speed rail improvement study that will focus on determining what
infrastructure upgrades are needed to provide 110 mph train service on the
Norfolk Southern-owned rail corridor between Kalamazoo and Detroit.
A McMaster University researcher
says the chance to save lives is a powerful motivation to develop a new safety
system for rail transit workers, the Hamilton, Ont., Spectator reports. The
university and Bombardier Transportation are working together on a C$1.4-million
project to develop an automated system that could warn track workers and
on-board personnel of possible danger while there is still time to avoid
accidents.
Supporters of consolidating
Springfield, Ill., rail traffic on the 10th Street corridor plan to take a wish
list of overpass construction, track relocation and other design improvements
on an annual trip to Washington D.C. next month, The State Journal-Register reports.
The list will exceed the $26.5 million sought for the same project last year,
Gary Plummer, president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce,
said Friday.
In broad strokes and
fine detail, officials have revealed how they will pay $340 million for
"the biggest project in the history" of Lincoln, Neb. — turning a
windswept rail yard into a home for a new downtown arena, the Lincoln Journal
Star reports.
The MTA Long Island Rail
Road’s Stony Brook Station, on the Port Jefferson Branch, will undergo a $2.7-million
renovation project starting February 1. A temporary trailer will serve as a
waiting room during part of the work. Nine parking spaces will be temporarily
out of service in order to stage materials and the trailer.
A new express train on
the Fredericksburg, Va., line is one way Virginia Railway Express Board Chair
Paul Milde says the commuter railroad is working to fix the region’s
transportation problems, according to Inside NoVA.com. An 11-mile stretch of
tracks to be built thanks to federal stimulus money from Powell’s Creek near
Dumfries into Stafford County will aid future VRE express trains, the agency
says, and will spur the growth of passenger rail service in the state.
The state of Kentucky has
given preliminary approval to $400,000 in tax incentives for the Paducah &
Louisville Railway to build a new "green" headquarters. The Paducah
Sun reported that the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave
initial go-ahead for the tax credits, which will go toward a $4.2-million
headquarters and end the company’s search for a new home.
With the formal
acquisition this week of one of the key chromite deposits among the remote Ring
of Fire properties northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada, U.S. iron-ore giant
Cliffs Resources positioned itself as the most likely company to build the mine
everyone‘s been talking about, The Chronicle Journal reports. But while the
euphoria associated with the development of what could the largest chromite
mine in the world is understandable, the company says many details still have
to be hammered out.