The Port of Seattle will
be joined by several local agencies in preserving the Eastside Rail Corridor
and placing it in public ownership. King County, Sound Transit, the City of
Redmond, Puget Sound Energy, and the Cascade Water Alliance will partner with
the port in maximizing the corridor’s benefit for the region.
There was an almost
euphoric tone to the news last week when the nation’s beloved sugar daddy,
Warren Buffett, sprung for the rest of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., a
big part of Lincoln’s economy, Nebraska’s and the nation’s, the Lincoln, Neb.,
Journal Star reports. The guys on CNBC acknowledged they just couldn’t get
enough of their videos of BNSF trains chugging mightily across America’s TV
screens. A hard-headed business decision can pull at least a couple of carloads
of railroad nostalgia, if the whistle is far enough away.
In the fall of 1934,
several Buffalo businessmen joined forces to create the Osmose Wood Preserving
Company of America, building on patents for a unique, non-pressurized wood
preservation. During the following 75 years, Osmose continued to advance the wood preservation science
and grew into various related divisions serving the railroad, utility and consumer
marketplaces. Close relationships with an evolving customer base encouraged
Osmose to embark on infrastructure inspection, maintenance and repair solutions
for the railroad industry.
Freight cars from Radio
Island rolled over the Newport River to Morehead City Port on Nov. 5 for the
first time since a ship knocked out the railway trestle on June 5, according to
the Sun Journal.
Like other railroads
across the country, Metro-North Railroad is considering how to outfit its
trains to comply with a federal safety technology mandate that would alert
engineers when trains become dangerously close, the Connecticut Post reports.
Pittsburgh area motorists
can expect intermittent lane closures Nov. 9-14 near the intersection of
Allegheny Avenue and Reedsdale Street on the North Shore due to construction
activity in the area. Contractors will intermittently close lanes beginning Nov.
9 at 6:00 a.m. and ending at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14. Work will be
conducted around the clock, and police will help direct motorists through open
lanes.
Pennsylvania and four other
states are seeking stimulus money to make upgrades to their rail systems,
including the proposed intermodal terminal in Greencastle, the Chambersburg
Public Opinion Website reports. Pennsylvania was a co-signer of an application
for $300 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, according to
PennDOT spokesperson Rich Kirkpatrick.
Drivers on Allen Road in
Woodhaven, Mich., will be traveling under the railroad tracks near Van Horn
Road by 2013, Wayne County officials said, according to local newspapers.
County
and engineering officials from Wade Trim and Hennessey Engineering met at City
Hall to discuss the project and answer questions from residents.
Residents were updated on
an ongoing transit study during a recent public workshop in Hallandale Beach, Fla.,
the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.
The workshop, at the Cultural
Community Center, is part of a series of meetings offered to residents to
gather input on the South Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis Study.
The
study, managed by the Florida Department of Transportation, is exploring
options to mitigate roadway congestion in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach
counties.
The majority of
construction activities at the Fridley, Minn., Northstar commuter rail station
are complete. Milling and overlay of 61st Way was completed the week of Nov. 2.
All three station elevators have passed inspection. Plumbing/mechanical and
electrical passed inspections are set for the week of Nov. 9. Installation of
station signage and landscaping continue.
A proposed $500-million
project to improve commuter train service in Chicago and its suburbs includes
adding four stops in McHenry County, the Chicago Tribune reports. Prairie Grove
and Johnsburg would get train depots. Those communities are along a branch line
off the Metra UP Northwest Line that veers north near Crystal lake, Ill., to
the city of McHenry. The other proposed stops would be about 1.5 miles apart
along tracks that run parallel to U.S. Highway 14. Those stops would be between
existing downtown depots in Crystal Lake and Woodstock.
Vancouver’s TransLink Board Chair Dale Parker said
that TransLink President Tom Prendergast would leave the organization to take
the helm of North America’s largest subway and bus system, New York City
Transit Authority.
Weekend motorists, cyclists
and pedestrians using the intersection of Almaden Boulevard and San Carlos
Street, and VTA light rail riders using or passing through the Convention
Center Light Rail Station insane Jose, Calif., should allow more time for their
trips the weekend of Nov. 7-8.
BNSF
has reached a tentative agreement with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
and Trainmen to settle wage and work rule matters concerning BNSF’s locomotive
engineers for the major round of collective bargaining that will begin Jan. 1,
2010.
It’s been decades since
select ground just east of Floyd Boulevard in Sioux City, Iowa, was exposed to
sun and other elements, the Sioux City Journal reports. Now, the area is being
laid bare by workers moving southward, pulling out old railroad spikes and
prying up the steel track.
CSX Transportation is the
first transportation provider selected to join the Maryland Green Registry, a
voluntary self-certification program that promotes and recognizes sustainable
practices by organizations throughout the state.
Track maintenance on the
Washington, D.C., Metro Orange, Blue and Yellow lines Nov. 6-8 will cause
inbound and outbound trains to take turns sharing one track. Customers should
add 30 minutes to their trips.
CN, North America’s largest
mover of forest products, is on track to haul more than 800,000 tons of wood
pellets this year and sees more opportunities in the future for this
"green" source of heating energy.
Beneath a busy interchange
on top of the highest point in Tysons Corner, Va., crews are mining a tunnel
that will carry the Dulles Corridor Metrorail tracks from Route 123 to Route 7.
Working two 12-hour shifts per day, crews began tunnel construction, using the
New Austrian Tunneling Method to mine the first of two tunnels, the outbound
segment. Construction will start on the inbound tunnel in the coming months.
As part of Réno-Systèmes,
its asset maintenance program for stationary equipment in the métro, the Société
de transport de Montréal is undertaking the construction of a new mechanical
ventilation station to replace the existing one.
