As traffic continues to
build up in Hampton Roads, Va., the money to add more roads or expand them is
drying up on the state and federal level. Virginia DOT doesn’t plan to give a
cent to local cities for road projects for the next six years. Virginia’s
Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer says drivers in Hampton Roads need to
look at alternative transportation like light rail.
The New Mexico Rail
Runner slips into Santa Fe on new tracks with modern signals to guard
crossings. But the old tourist train travels to Lamy, N.M., on outdated
infrastructure, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. That discrepancy was
highlighted recently when the Santa Fe Southern Railway tourist train collided
with a car crossing the spur line on Rabbit Road, just south of the city
limits.
BNSF has agreed to fund a
significant amount of the cost of closing eight railroad crossings in Galesburg,
Ill., to develop quiet zones, according to city engineer Wayne Carl,
The
Register-Mail reports.
Amtrak is making major
investments in the New York area to bring its bridges, tracks and other
infrastructure up to a state of good repair, increase track speeds and improve
operations, including a soon-to-start $10-million project to rehabilitate the
Pelham Bay Bridge located along the Northeast Corridor.
Work is now under way on
a construction project that will completely replace the 80-year old Vandeventer
Bridge is St. Louis. The bridge currently supports three rail tracks: two for
MetroLink, and a third for limited freight use. Constructed in 1929, the
bridge that spans Vandeventer Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the City of St.
Louis, is experiencing significant settling and deterioration. In addition, the
bridge is supported by four piers that are obstacles to vehicular traffic.
A plan to build a major
passenger terminal in downtown Atlanta might soon boast new life, in the form
of an $80 million-plus jump start, state officials said at Transportation Board
meetings, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The idea has reeled in
big supporters, but raised questions too — including whether it’s legal.
State and town officials
from Ashland and Framingham, Mass., met with the state’s new transportation
chief last night for a conversation about the state’s purchase of CSX
Transportation rail lines and what can be done to ensure that increased rail
traffic won’t further cripple their downtowns, MetroWest Daily News reports.
Seventy percent of Metra
bridges and 42 percent of CTA bridges are past their "useful life,"
according to a preliminary report presented to the RTA board Nov. 19, the Chicago
Daily Herald reports. A final report is expected in January, along with a plan
on how to address the problem, RTA spokeswoman Diane Palmer said.
SEPTA took another step
toward restoring rail service to Wawa in Delaware County with approval
yesterday of nine property easements necessary for the construction, the Philadelphia
Inquirer reports.
Union Pacific and San
Antonio River Authority officials adopted new practices for removing drift from
the river, the Victoria, Texas, Advocate reports. The agreement came a month
after a 500-yard logjam built up at the railroad company’s bridge on the San
Antonio River, over which the river authority has jurisdiction. The bridge is
near the Victoria-Refugio county line.
MTA NYC Transit said that
due to Phase II construction on the Fulton Street Transit Center Project, ramp
and passageway access will be closed from 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 21 to 5
a.m. Monday, November 23. Customers will not be able to transfer between the 23
and A trains. In addition, there are no transfers at Fulton Street/Broadway
Nassau Street between 23 and 45 trains.
A
bumpy half-mile missing link on the North Shore Trail will be filled handsomely
this winter by a $5-million elevated structure stretching from near the 31st
Street Bridge to the Three Rivers Rowing Association’s boathouse in Millvale,
Pa., according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Metropolitan
Transportation Authority in New York released its Final Proposed 2010 Budget
and November Financial Plan for 2010-2013. The approximately $11-billion 2010
Final Proposed Budget is balanced with no fare increase or reductions to
scheduled service, with the help of rescue legislation enacted in Albany in
May. The MTA acknowledged significant potential risks to the budget, however,
setting aside an $85-million reserve and pledging an overhaul of operations to
improve efficiency and address the current fiscal reality.
On Nov. 16, SEPTA General
Manager Joseph Casey joined Pennsylvania State Senator Dominic Pileggi, State
Representative Thomas Killion, along with local government and community
leaders to announce the start of a SEPTA Regional Rail parking expansion
project in Delaware County. In an effort to address rider demand, SEPTA in
partnership with the Elwyn Institute, will expand the parking facilities for
commuters who use Elwyn (R3) Regional Rail Station.
Vans will replace trains
between Oyster Bay and Locust Valley on the MTA Long Island Rail Road’s Oyster
Bay Branch November 21-22 as work continues on the replacement of the West
Shore Road railroad bridge in Mill Neck. While the work is performed this
weekend, West Shore Road will remain open for highway traffic, there will be no
detour route required.
All trains on the Blue Line
rapid transit line from Boston to Revere, Mass., have been upgraded from four
to six cars, enabling the "T" to carry more passengers. The
transition began and was completed this fall.
The Chicago Transit
Authority is undertaking a study of the Red Line North and Purple Line – from
the Addison Red Line station to Linden on the Purple Line – that will provide
guidance for doing major rehabilitation work in the future, pending funding
availability. As part of this Vision Study, the public is invited to provide
input and feedback regarding these stations at a series of four open houses at
various locations on the North Side and in Evanston.
CSX Transportation has
put on hold two bridge projects in Medina County, Ohio, while details are
worked out between the railroad company and county officials, according to the
Medina County Gazette. A third project – replacing the 103-year-old bridge at
Mud Lake Road in Westfield Township – is scheduled to begin early next year.
The rebuilt bridge will allow double-stacked containers on rail cars to pass
under it.
A $4.8-million federal
grant will let Riverhead Town, N.Y., live out its longtime dream of having
freight trains running to and from the Enterprise Park at Calverton, the
Riverhead News Review reports. The entire cost of rehabbing the Calverton rail
spur, which leads into the park, will be funded with federal stimulus money,
lawmakers said.
For the first time in 38
years, passenger rail service is returning to the community of Stanwood/Camano
Island with daily Amtrak Cascades train
service making two morning and two evening stops at a new rail station
beginning the morning of Saturday, November 21.