Rotted wood was the only
thing holding the rails together, the San Angelo Standard Times reports. Now
government entities have secured funds to put in new railroad ties, new
railroad crossings, new rails and a new bridge, with construction having
already begun near downtown San Angelo, Texas.
An upgrade to the railway
signal system near Rahway, N.J., Station will have a major impact on weekend
rail commuters, NJToday reports.
Adrian Share and Conrad
Blankenzee have joined HNTB Corporation to work in the firm’s growing
high-speed rail practice in Florida. HNTB, in a joint partnership with Wilbur
Smith Associates, was selected by the Florida Department of Transportation in
March 2010 as the program manager for passenger rail in the state of Florida,
primarily the link between Tampa and Orlando.
The historic Union Depot in
St. Paul, Minn., is on the road to restoration, the Star-Tribune reports. The
Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority on Sept. 21 approved a $149-million
construction contract for the renovation and transformation of the building
into a transportation hub. The vote was 6 to 1, with Commissioner Janice
Rettman dissenting.
Harsco Corporation said two
follow-on orders in its Harsco Rail track maintenance business group are valued
at more than $15 million and that both of them continue Harsco’s strong
presence in providing specialized rail grinding equipment and services to
leading U.S. and international railways.
Railroad maintenance
crews have been a thorn in the side of Pittsburg, Kan., drivers for about a
month, blocking some streets for up to a week at a time, The Morning Sun reports.
And those drivers could have to wait a few more days before the repair crews
have finished their job.
Mike Cory, CN Rail’s
senior vice-president in the Western Region, attended the Prince Rupert, B.C.,
and District Chamber of Commerce lunch to speak about the bright future of
Prince Rupert’s Port, and made a donation on behalf of CN to the Prince Rupert
Heritage Advisory Committee for the Pillsbury House, The Northern View reports.
While some feel the trains
need to blow their horns for safety purposes when traveling through a populated
area, others have grown tiresome of hearing the whistle at all times of the day
and night and have called upon the city to apply for Quiet Zone status, The
Troy Record reports.
After New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie stalled the project over cost concerns, a local lawmaker is suggesting
a $2 surcharge on commuter fares to raise funds for a new underground rail tunnel
that would traverse the Hudson River, Website njtoday.net reports.
Recent track
improvements will allow Union Pacific to increase the speed of its trains in
two eastern Nebraska communities, reducing motorist wait time at
crossings. In Columbus, Neb., the
speed will increase from 50 mph to 70 mph and in Grand Island the speed will
increase from 60 mph to 70 mph.
Five years after a
federal earmark was announced for repairs to the Virginia Railway Express train
station in Fredericksburg, Va., work has begun, the Freelance Star reports. Temporary
chain-link fences and orange barrels surrounded the construction zone Sept. 20.
The first phase will run until Oct. 15. The entire rehabilitation project will
take a year.
CSX Transportation needs to
clean up its act when it comes to crumbling railroad bridges, U.S. Sen. Sherrod
Brown told the Lorain, Ohio, Morning Tribune. Citing debris falling from Lorain’s
28th Street underpass, Brown wrote to CSXT Chief Executive Officer Michael
Ward. He encouraged swift action to ensure falling concrete, wood and screws
don’t harm pedestrians or the drivers of cars and trucks going under the
railroad bridges.
Patrick Donovan,
executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority, is resigning and
taking a position as director of the National Maritime Enhancement Center at
Marshall University, one of four centers of its kind in the United States, The
Herald-Dispatch reports. He will be an employee of the Marshall University
Research Corporation and housed at the Rahall Transportation Institute.
Swiss manufacturer,
Amberg Technologies has now delivered 288 GRP track-surveying systems to China,
where they are being used for precise construction of their massive high-speed
rail program. The Amberg Slab Track surveying system includes the GRP 1000
survey trolley powered by the Amberg Rail-Slab Track software application
module.
Metra’s new Union Pacific
North schedule to accommodate bridge replacement work will begin Sunday, Sept.
26. The schedule has been adjusted to address issues that arose after the
August 22 schedule change. That change was made due to a major project to
rebuild 22 aging bridges on the north side of Chicago, which will require
inbound and outbound trains to share a single track in the construction zone.
U.S. Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood said $750,000 in grants for Georgia and $250,000 in grants
for Kansas will further develop their high-speed rail programs. The Georgia
grants, from the Federal Railroad Administration’s High-Speed Intercity
Passenger Rail (HSIPR) program, come in three portions: $250,000 to develop an
interstate rail network compact with neighboring states; $250,000 for an
Atlanta to Birmingham, Ala., feasibility study; and, $250,000 for a Macon, Ga.,
to Jacksonville, Fla., feasibility study.
Local, state and federal
officials recently celebrated the launch of a $1.1-billion high-speed rail
project in Illinois, the first in the nation, reports the Alton, Ill.,
Telegraph. The contingent touted fast, safe travel, more efficient transport of
freight and reduced need for foreign oil and less pollution with the
forthcoming high-speed rail system.
In a world of functional
but mundane MBTA entrances, the portal for inbound travelers at Copley Square
is one of a kind: a filigreed framework of flowers and curlicues in cast iron,
at once classically inspired and reminiscent of the Art Nouveau kiosks that
distinguish the Metro in Paris, the Boston Globe reports.
Grade work on the
driveway of the old Southern Railway Depot in downtown Cleveland, Tenn., is
well under way. Once the exterior work is completed, restoration of the
building will begin, the Cleveland Daily Banner reports.
BNSF has created 21 new
jobs in Galesburg, Ill., this summer and will add another 49 before the end of
the year, according to one of the railroad company’s senior officials, The
Register-Mail reports.
The jobs are signs of a recovery in the freight
business, which was hammered by the economic recession. At the height of the
recession, BNSF furloughed 187 employees in Galesburg but all of those workers
have since been recalled, said Paul Nowicki, BNSF’s vice president for
government affairs.