There was something poetic
about the pouring rain when Union Pacific and Iowa state officials gathered Oct.
1 to dedicate the new Kate Shelley Bridge across the Des Moines River west of
Boone, Iowa, The Omaha World Herald reports. It was, of course, a stormy night
when the young teenager crawled across a rickety bridge in the dark and rain to
stop a train filled with hundreds of passengers from plunging into a creek. That
was 1881.
Passenger-rail giant Amtrak
has selected a site at the end of Malaga Street, across U.S. 1 and north and
west of the Main Fire Station in St. Augustine, Fla., as the site where a new
railroad passenger terminal should be built, local media report.
RailComm has provided a
wireless remote control yard system at CSX Transportation’s Tilford Yard in
Atlanta, Ga. The RailComm Domain Operations Controller (DOC®) System
remotely controls 17 GETS HydraSwitch machines and a crossing gate. RailComm’s
DOC® system is configured to control all switches individually as
well as provide eNtrance eXit (NX) routing functionality.
(Statement by APTA President
William Millar)
"The ‘Clean Energy Jobs and
American Power Act’ introduced by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John
Kerry (D-Mass.) this week potentially offers important new funding to expand
access to public transportation and improve our daily travels while reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and oil consumption. APTA supports their efforts to
move our nation toward a vibrant clean energy economy while controlling global
warming.
Sound Transit’s design
for a commuter rail line from Tacoma Dome Station to Lakewood is dividing city
leaders and residents and creating an election-season stir, according to the Tacoma
News Tribune. The debate is likely to erupt again when the Tacoma City Council
holds a public hearing on the master development agreement between Sound
Transit and the city. The council is expected to vote on the issue Oct. 13.
In the Washington, D.C.,
area, the Waterfront-SEU and Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Metrorail
stations will be closed, and the Green Line also will be closed at the L’Enfant
Plaza Metrorail station from 10:30 p.m., on Friday, Oct. 9, through Monday,
Oct. 12, with no service at these stations for three consecutive days. The Blue
and Orange Line at the L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station will not be affected.
Service will resume at all Metrorail stations on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
North Carolina Gov. Bev
Perdue said that the state submitted the second round of high-speed rail
applications for competitive funding under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act. North Carolina is applying for funds totaling more than $5
billion for four projects to help further develop the federally designated
Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.
They don’t look like much
at first glance: Narrow, freshly installed medians jutting up in the middle of
the road on either side of two railroad crossings, the Grand Island, Neb.,
Independent reports. But since Sept. 1, those medians have allowed Broken Bow’s
east side to finally experience some respite from the horns of the trains that
regularly rush through town.
The Kansas Department of
Transportation has submitted a final grant application totaling $10 million to
the Federal Railroad Administration for funding under the High Speed/Intercity
Passenger Rail program using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act, said Ron Kaufman with KDOT, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
At the Northstar commuter
rail station in Fridley, Minn., installation of station platform pavers was
completed and roofing on the station shelters and east and west entrances continues.
Installation of glass for the station shelters and east and west entrances has begun.
Painting of the steel on the station platform and the east and west entrances
is completed for now and will continue after glass installation occurs.
(Below is a letter to The Honorable Peter M.
Rogoff, Administrator,
Federal
Transit Administration
, from the National Association of Rail Pasengers. The letter was co-signed by several other organizations interested in rail passenger service.)
Joined by federal, state and local officials in
united support, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger discussed his submission of the
state’s application for nearly $4.7 billion in federal American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act funding for engineering, design and construction on California’s
high-speed train system. Pledging a dollar-for-dollar match from state and
local funds, including the high-speed rail bond passed by California voters in
November 2008, the state’s application would generate a nearly $10 billion
investment. This funding would collectively create nearly 130,000 jobs
throughout California.
A map from 1900 that
highlighted Kansas railways would have just been one giant black blob from all
the crisscrossing railways, The Morning Sun in Pittsburg, Kan., reports.
That’s
no longer true. Five counties in the state no longer have any railway of any
sort (Rooks, Graham, Greenwood, Chautauqua and Comanche).
Railroads might have their
roots in the 19th century, but they still are important to the area economy,
say transportation and economic development officials, The Longview News-Journal
reports. Two area groups, meanwhile, are working to provide more rail options.
Prisco R. Morella expects
a delivery every day. On Wednesday, it came at 1:45 in the afternoon – 126,000
gallons of vegetable oil, The Telegram and Gazette in Worcester, Mass., reports.
Cowboys Stadium will get
temporary commuter rail service for the 2011 Super Bowl, but it might not be
the plan that was previously announced, The Dallas Morning News reports.
The new Mission Bay Drive
crossing in San Francisco is scheduled to open to pedestrian and vehicle
traffic Oct. 7. The crossing will provide access to Mission Bay residential
neighborhoods and eventually, to the UCSF Mission Bay campus from the west side
of The City. The new Caltrain grade crossing is wider than most because it
crosses three tracks instead of the usual two tracks. There is a pedestrian
crossing on the south side of the grade crossing that includes safety gates
with emergency swing gates, tactile warning strips, sidewalks and pavement
markings. There is no pedestrian crossing on the north side of grade crossing.
For the first time,
SkyTrain passengers will be able to access platforms 3 and 4 at the Commercial-Broadway
SkyTrain station in Vancouver, B.C., from the new 10th Avenue entrance. Transit
customers should be advised that the elevator at 10th Ave is awaiting final
inspection. Passengers who need assistance should still use the elevator on the
north side of Broadway street.
Union Pacific
Chairman and CEO Jim Young, Iowa Department of Transportation Director Nancy
Richardson and Boone, Iowa, Mayor John Slight commemorated one of North America’s
tallest double-track railroad bridges, the new Kate Shelley Bridge in Iowa
spanning the Des Moines River. Young, Richardson and Slight rode a Union
Pacific train over the bridge, which is more than 2,800 feet long and 190 feet
high.
The California High-Speed
Rail Authority on released its much-anticipated "alternatives
analysis," the most detailed view yet of how the massive transportation
project might forever transform the region from San Francisco to San Jose, the
Mercury News reports.