Author: jrood

Caltrain construction, maintenance update, 12/5-11






Work on Caltrain’s Grade
Crossing Improvement Program, which will enhance safety at 25 grade crossings
in San Mateo County, continues in Atherton and Menlo Park. Work will take place
Dec. 5 and Dec. 7 – 10 between the hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. at Fair Oaks Lane
and Watkins Avenue in Atherton and Ravenswood and Oak Grove avenues in Menlo
Park. Work also will be done from 10:00 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5 to 1:00 a.m.
Sunday, Dec. 6 at the Broadway crossing in Burlingame.


U.S. DOT grants $7 Million for Iowa Bridge Repair

The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway Company (CRANDIC) will receive $6.965 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for repair of the CRANDIC railroad bridge in Cedar Rapids.

The bridge sustained substantial damage during flooding of the Cedar River in 2008, resulting in the disruption of freight shipments in the area.

CRANDIC’s infrastructure sustained $11 million in damage from the spring floods. Of that, the CRANDIC bridge suffered $9 million in damages. The grant is designed to cover 80 percent of the total cost of the project. The award will rebuild a portion of the bridge, repair or replace damaged signals and repair the main line infrastructure.

Funding comes from the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act 2009 for the Railroad Rehabilitation and Repair competitive grant program. The award requires a $1.741 million match by the Iowa DOT.

 

TRAX celebrates 10 years; BNSF’s Orin Line turns 30

Utah Transit Authority’s TRAX light rail system will
celebrate 10 years since its launch on Dec. 4, 1999.

The light rail system began with a single 15-mile
north-south line connecting Sandy City to downtown Salt Lake City with more
than 600,000 riders during its first month of operation. To date, TRAX has
provided more than 110 million rides and now averages between 40,000 and 50,000
riders every weekday.

A second light rail line from downtown Salt Lake City to the
University of Utah Rice-Eccles Stadium opened in December 2001, just prior to
the 2002 Winter Olympics. During the two weeks of the Olympics, UTA carried
more than four million Olympic riders. Additional light rail extensions opened
to the University of Utah Medical Center in 2003 and Salt Lake Central station
in 2008. UTA also introduced its first commuter rail line, FrontRunner, in
2008, which runs 44 miles from Salt Lake City north to Pleasant View.

As part of the FrontLines 2015 program, UTA will expand its
passenger rail network more than 70 miles by 2015. Three new TRAX lines are
currently under construction-to the Salt Lake International Airport, South
Jordan,and West Valley City-with a fourth project to extend the north-south
TRAX line further south into Draper, currently in the environmental study
phase. UTA is also extending FrontRunner commuter rail 45 miles south from Salt
Lake City to Provo.

In other milestone news, BNSF Powerder River Division
employees celebrated the Orin Line’s 30-year anniversary in honor of the first
unit-coal train that traveled the 116-mile rail line across the Wyoming prairie
on Nov. 6, 1979.

"For the last 30 years, we’ve seen incredible growth on
the Orin Line," said Tom Albanese, general manager, Powder River Division.
"Moving 40 trains per day in 1979 was considered a ‘busy day.’ Today, it’s
normal to handle more than 100 trains during a 24-hour period. Employees who
were there on Day One were at the celebration, sharing stories about the many
changes they have seen over the years and the impact the line will have for
years to come."

$1.5 million Kent County line rehab underway

The Maryland Transit Administration began rehabilitation of 17-1/2
miles of the state-owned freight rail line from Massey to Worton in Kent County.
The $1.5 million project, awarded to Bullock Construction of Easton, began in
mid-September and is scheduled for completion in early May 2010. As of the end
of November, 40 percent of the work is complete.

The project includes the replacing rail, more than 6,000
ties and installing new ballast. According to MTA, the improvements will
improve safety along the line and will reduce the level of maintenance needed.

The line is leased by the State of Maryland to the Maryland
& Delaware Railroad, which carries lumber, soy meal, corn, wheat and barley
and dry fertilizer supporting the poultry industry on the Eastern Shore.

Shaw Group wins FTA Contract for the fifth time

The Shaw Group Inc. has been awarded a contract from the
U.S. Department of Transportation to provide project management oversight
services to the Federal Transit Administration for the fifth consecutive time.
Under the five-year, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract, Shaw
will be issued task orders to evaluate and oversee the execution of selected
federal transit projects across the country.

Shaw has managed many infrastructure projects for the FTA,
including the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Port Authority of Allegheny County in
Pittsburgh, Pa., and the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County,
Houston, Texas. With its current contract, Shaw’s scope of services will include
continuous review and evaluation of FTA processes for transit project grantees
to ensure compliance with statutory, administrative and regulatory
requirements, as well as monitoring of projects to ensure they are progressing
on time, within budget and in accord with approved grantee plans and
specifications.

CN, TCRC reach agreement to end strike

The strike by locomotive engineers at CN will end
immediately as a result of an agreement to resolve the parties’ contractual
disagreements through further negotiations and, if necessary, binding
arbitration. The union began its strike Nov. 28 and the agreement came after
Ottawa introduced "back-to-work" legislation on Monday to end the strike.

CN and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have agreed to
continue negotiations to resolve all issues related to wages, benefits and work
rules. If there is no agreement, the parties’ wages and benefits offers will be
subject to final, binding arbitration.

The key issue leading up to the strike was CN’s decision to
increase engineers’ wages by 1.5 percent and raise its monthly mileage cap to
4,300 miles from 3,800 miles. TCRC-represented conductors currently have a
4,300-mile monthly cap and TCRC-represented engineers have a 3,800-mile monthly
cap. Under the new rule, both groups working in a cab would be held to one
consistent standard.

As part of this process, CN will roll back the monthly
mileage cap for locomotive engineers to the previous 3,800 miles from the
4,300-mile cap initiated Nov. 28, and withdraw its plan to apply a 1.5 per cent
wage increase to TCRC members. The union’s current contract expired on Dec. 31,
2008.

The parties can also agree to submit work-rule issues to
binding arbitration but only if they mutually agree on the ones that should be
subject to arbitration. If there is no agreement, the issues in dispute will
not be subject to arbitration.

E. Hunter Harrison, president and chief executive officer,
said, "CN is pleased that an agreement has been reached to end the strike by
the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference immediately and to move forward with a process
that gives the parties flexibility to negotiate issues further, but also
ensures finality through binding arbitration of issues that remain in dispute.
We have always sought, since starting negotiations 14 months ago, to achieve a
settlement with the TCRC through negotiations or binding arbitration."

APTA, Oberstar call for transit funds






If the American Public Transportation Association and House
Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar are correct, the answer to the
nation’s jobless rate and economic woes is funding for transit. APTA wants $15
billion for public transportation, while Oberstar wants $69 billion for highway
and transit projects.

APTA called on Congress to invest at least $15 billion in
public transportation citing it’s recently completed survey of public transit
systems nationwide, which identified more than $15 billion in public
transportation capital projects that can be started in 90 days. It is estimated
that this investment in public transportation would support and create more
than 450,000 jobs. The vast majority of public transit systems also identified
additional needs beyond $15 billion for federal assistance to avoid employee
layoffs and service cuts.

According to APTA, research has shown that new jobs in
public transportation provide jobs to American workers in industries, which
have been hit hardest by the economic downturn, particularly construction and
manufacturing.

Meanwhile, Mr. Oberstar (D., Minn.) called for a second
stimulus bill to provide at least $69 billion for highway and transit projects.
About $48 billion was secured for highway, transit and rail projects in this
year’s economic stimulus package. According to a report in the Wall Street
Journal, Mr. Oberstar said stimulus spending on transportation has directly
sustained 21,000 jobs and supported an additional 130,000 indirectly.

 

CSXT officially opens Alabama facility

The Central Alabama Intermodal Container Transfer Facility
in Bessemer, Ala., has been operating since September, but had its official
opening on Dec. 1. The $6 million hub operates on 25 acres, with an option to
develop 25 additional acres, has 5,000 feet of working track, parking for 1,000
stacked 40-foot containers and 307 40-foot containers on truck chassis. The
facility can move more up to 40,000 containers annually.

According to CSXT, initial demand should be
about 10,000 to 15,000 containers per year, but the railroad is pursuing
additional business.

Chester Branch rail line gets green light from feds

The Federal Highway
Administration has issued its authorization for the Chester Branch
Rehabilitation project, enabling Morris County to seek bids to improve the
four-mile active freight line in Roxbury, NJ.

In February, the county applied
to the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority for $5.8 million in
federal stimulus funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for
this project, contingent upon federal authorization being received.

The freight line was donated to
the county by Chester Branch, LLC, and the Morristown & Erie Railway has a
management agreement with the county to continue to operate on the Chester
Branch, as well as two other county-owned rail lines.

Advocates for the plan say efficient use of
the rail line has the potential to reduce truck traffic along major roads
including, Route 10, Sussex Turnpike, Route 46, Interstate 80 and other
arterial roads throughout Morris County.

UP increasing train speed on Wisconsin rail line

Approximately $9 million in track improvements will allow UP
to increase the speed limit of its trains to 50 mph on nearly 26 miles of its
rail line between Eau Claire and Fairchild, Wis.

The train speed limit will be increased 10 miles per hour
starting December 11, 2009, and another 10 miles per hour starting December 18,
2009, to reach the new maximum speed limit.  Trains currently operate through the area at 30 mph because
of track and operating constraints. Recent track improvements are permitting
the higher speeds.

Union Pacific invested $9 million this year on track
improvements between Eau Claire and Fairchild. Crews replaced the rail,
installed seven switches, replaced the road surfaces at 37 crossings, replaced
25,000 ties and spread 15,600 tons of ballast. Work was completed at the end of
October.

Mississippi funds rail spur

The city of Horn Lake will receive $520,000 to construct a
railroad spur to service the plant expansion of Newly Weds Foods, a
Chicago-based company that produces food coatings, seasonings, breading and
other food processing products.

The money was given by the Mississippi
Freight Rail Revolving Loan/Grant Program, which is administered by the
Mississippi Development Authority. The project already received $1.1 million
from the federal Economic Development Administration in September and will
create 20 jobs in addition to saving 300 other jobs in DeSoto County. 

U.S. DOT: $280 million for street cars

The federal government will make $280 million available for
urban circulator projects such as streetcars, buses and bus facilities to
support communities, expand business opportunities and improve people’s quality
of life while also creating jobs.

The money represents the first batch of funding by the Obama
Administration for its Livability Initiative, a joint venture of the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

A maximum amount of $25 million per project will be made
available from approximately $130 million in unallocated discretionary New
Starts/Small Starts Program funds. Eligible projects include streetcars and
other urban circulator systems. Priority will be given to projects that connect
destinations and foster the redevelopment of communities into walkable, mixed
use, high-density environments.

A second pot of money totaling $150 million in unallocated
discretionary Bus and Bus Facility funds will be available for projects that
will foster the preservation and enhancement of urban and rural communities by
providing new mobility options which provide access to jobs, healthcare, and
education, and/or contribute to the redevelopment of neighborhoods into
pedestrian-friendly vibrant environments.

The Federal Transit Administration plans to announce grants
early in 2010. 

Florida special session on rail set for Thursday






Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker
Larry Cretul called a special lawmaking session to begin Thursday to dedicate
funds for Tri-Rail and advance plans for Central Florida’s SunRail.

The proposal, which is still being drafted, calls for $15
million annually for South Florida’s Tri-Rail system, would establish the
Florida Rail Enterprise to oversee all passenger rail, pay CSXT $1 billion for
tracks to build the 61-mile Orlando area SunRail system and spare taxpayers
from lawsuits should a freight accident occur on tracks shared with passenger
trains. Legislators hope that in passing the proposal it will show the state’s
commitment to commuter rail and improve its chances of securing stimulus funds.

Currently, the Senate has 20 votes, one shy of the total
needed for the yet to be completed legislation to pass. The sticking point in
the proposal is that it currently has no legal protections for railroad
employees who would work on the SunRail commuter line once the state bought the
tracks from CSXT.   

A final vote on the legislation will not occur until next
week, when legislators planned to be in Tallahassee for a week of committee
hearings.

 

Toronto-York Spadina subway extension underway

 

Construction is now underway on a new link that will connect the future Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension mainline to the existing Wilson Subway Yard and expand yard storage facilities.

The Government of Canada is contributing $5.5 million to this portion of the project. This contribution is part of the federal government’s overall $697-million federal commitment to the subway extension and is also a major component of FLOW, the Government of Canada’s transportation action plan for the Greater Toronto Area.

The Province of Ontario has provided approximately one-third of the funding for this component of the project. This contribution is part of the province’s $870 million for the subway extension through the Move Ontario Trust. Through the 2009 Ontario budget, the province is investing $32.5 billion in infrastructure over the next two years, creating 50,000 jobs.

The City of Toronto and The Regional Municipality of York have committed to funding one-third of the total project costs, of which Toronto will contribute $526 million and York Region will contribute $352 million.

CSXT: Brown to replace Ingram as EVP/COO

David Brown will be named executive vice president and chief operating officer when Tony Ingram retires at the end of the month. Cindy Sanborn will succeed Brown as vice president and chief transportation officer.

BNSF’s Rose named Railroader of the Year

Matthew K. Rose, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, has been named 2010 Railroader of the Year by Railway Age.

Matt Rose is Railway Age’s 47th Railroader of the Year.
Modern Railroads magazine founded the award, one of the most
prestigious in the railroad industry, in 1964 as the “Man of the Year.”
Railway Age acquired Modern Railroads in 1991 and has presented
the award annually since then. Rose will be honored on March 16, 2010,
at Chicago’s Union League Club. He is the first BNSF recipient since
1996, when Santa Fe’s Robert D. Krebs and Burlington Northern’s Gerald
Grinstein were selected for their role in bringing the two western
Class I railroads together.

Railway Age will tell the story of Matt Rose and the remarkable
organization he leads at BNSF with a cover story in the magazine’s
January 2010 issue.

For more information, visit www.railwayage.com.

CN engineers strike, government may force back to work

All 1,700 of CN’s Canada-based locomotive engineers began a strike Saturday, Nov. 28, after contract talks ended without an agreement. The strike does not involve CN engineers employed in its U.S. operations and should not affect passenger train service provided by VIA Rail Canada.

If the two sides can’t come to an agreement, the federal government will force striking rail workers to return by introducing back-to-work legislation.

Wages and the number of kilometers engineers can drive each month are believed to be among the issues dividing the two sides. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union said it was willing to let binding arbitration settle a dispute over wages, once the two sides settle the other outstanding issues. CN officials rejected the offer because it would not immediately end the strike.

Minnesota report says $5 billion needed for freight rail upgrades

The nearly completed Minnesota Comprehensive Statewide
Freight and Passenger Rail Plan reports that more than $5 billion will be
needed to maintain the state’s freight rail system at an average level.
However, the report says the maintenance is not optional because the rail
system "supports economic development, enhances environmental sustainability,
helps to preserve the publicly-owned roadway infrastructure and increases the
business marketability of the state."

The plan looks at big and small railroad lines and evaluated
the condition of their track, trestles, signal system and more.

The report’s goals include all lines operating at speeds of
at least 25 mph, with rail and bridges capable of handling 286,000-pound cars,
which brings the total bill to $5.1 billion. If all lines were capable of
meeting freight needs and high-priority passenger service, the total raises to
$11.3 billion.

One large project is the 23-mile branch line connecting
Montgomery and New Prague to UP’s Mankato line, which has 13 bridges that are
not capable of handling the weight of modern rail cars and needs $10.4 million
in upgrades.

The UP line between Mankato and the Twin Cities needs an
estimated $450 million including a new $44 million bridge over the Mississippi
River at Mendota Heights and $163 million for a Shakopee bypass in improve
train speeds.

Also included in the report are upgrades that
are underway, such as the more than $77 million in upgrades on the DM&E to
bridges and track along a 98-mile section in the south-central part of the
state.

Work begins on BNSF bridge connecting Iowa to Illinois






Construction has begun on a BNSF railroad bridge over the
Mississippi River in Burlington, Iowa.

The work began ahead of schedule to build a new lift-span
bridge that will more than double the navigation channel for barges up to 307
feet.

The Coast Guard has long wanted the bridge repaired because
barges frequently hit the span, which has happened 92 times between 1992 to
2001.

Congress allocated $55 million for the bridge work.
Officials still haven’t decided the full extent of work on the 118-year-old
bridge beyond replacing the lift span.

About 30 trains a day cross the bridge and
the span opens about 300 times a month for river traffic.

CSXT, Massachusetts submit rail pact for review

The state of Massachusetts submitted a comprehensive
multiyear rail transportation agreement with CSX Transportation for federal
review with the Surface Transportation Board.

CSXT has also reached an initial agreement with the
Massachusetts Coastal Railroad to take over freight rail activities on the
former CSXT South Coast Lines, which is being purchased by the state. The
agreement is a step is an important process toward bringing rail service to the
South Coast and will enhance local freight rail service to that region.

The deal with CSXT was announced in September and could mean
more passenger trains on the Worcester line. In the deal, CSXT agreed to help
defray the MBTA’s liability insurance cost and pay the deductible on liability
insurance if a collision occurs involving a freight train and CSXT is found at
fault because of willful misconduct.