TriMet’s MAX Green Line in
Portland, Ore., turned one on September 12, with 6.1 million trips taken on the
line during its first year. The Green Line is the agency’s fifth MAX line to be
built, and added a new alignment in downtown Portland along the Portland
Transit Mall and new tracks between Gateway Transit Center and Clackamas Town
Center.
Illinois’ ongoing financial
crisis could thwart plans to expand the Metra line that runs through McHenry
County, Ill., the Northwest Herald reports. About $29 million in federal
funding has been earmarked to pay for the next step in improving the Union
Pacific Northwest line and three other commuter rail projects. But unless the
state can match those funds dollar for dollar, Metra will lose access to the
money.
Triangle Transit still
likes the idea, but there aren’t many cheerleaders left for a proposal to run
high-speed passenger trains through the Norfolk Southern freight yard along the
west side of Capital Boulevard, the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer reports. Norfolk
Southern blasted that notion last week in a 17-page letter to the state
Department of Transportation.
The Federal Railroad
Administration said that Amtrak is joining the agency’s Confidential Close Call
Reporting System (C3RS), a safety pilot project that permits rail employees to
voluntarily and anonymously report "close call" incidents that could have
resulted in an accident or injury but did not.
A century ago, downtown
Vancouver, Wash., was built into a corner. The BNSF line and the berm on which
it sits have separated the city center from the industrial yards along the
Columbia River, The Oregonian reports. The city recently broke ground on a
project to punch through the berm, giving downtown access to the waterfront and
giving developers access to the 31 acres they intend to turn into offices,
retail space and 3,300 residences.
The NJ TRANSIT Board of
Directors approved the lease of retail spaces at two of the state’s busiest
train stations-a food court at Hoboken Terminal and a coffee stand at Princeton
Junction Station-as part of the corporation’s effort to maximize the value of
its facilities while offering additional amenities to customers.
The Alaska Railroad
Corporation Board of Directors has voted unanimously to hire Christopher
Aadnesen as the railroad’s new president and chief executive officer. Aadnesen
is scheduled to start later this month.
U.S. Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood opened the first meeting of the Transit Rail Advisory
Committee for Safety (TRACS), an advisory group created to guide Federal
Transit Administration safety rulemakings when the Obama Administration’s
Public Transportation Safety Program Act of 2009 becomes law.
Officials from the city
of Sioux Falls, S.D., the state of South Dakota and BNSF celebrated the closure
of the 5,000th grade crossing on BNSF’s rail network, setting a new
national record for grade-crossing closures and safety improvement.
At a press conference
hosted by Houston Mayor Annise Parker, METRO’s leaders commented on the
findings of the Federal Transit Administration’s "Buy America" investigation
and review of plans to purchase 103 new light rail vehicles.
At the Santa Clara Station
Improvement Project, work will be done this week on the shoring and the
foundation for the new pedestrian underpass at the station. The underpass will
connect the north- and southbound platforms, allowing two trains to pass
through the station at the same time and improving safety for pedestrians in
the station. Passengers at the station are boarding the train from a temporary
platform.
SCI Verkehr, the German
railway and logistics consultancy, has released a new edition of its World
Market for Railway Technology that calls for global railway investment to
increase from a currently estimated $168 billion to approximately $205 billion
in 2015. Of the total, 53 percent is expected to come from after-sales.
Norfolk Southern’s
Heartland Corridor – one of the most extensive railroad engineering projects in
modern times and a template for public-private partnerships that strengthen the
nation’s transportation infrastructure – officially opened for business Sept. 9.
The train that ran on the
railway between Pullman and Colfax, Wash., on the morning of Sept. 2 may have
been the last, The Daily Evergreen reports.
Trains are nothing new in
central Ohio, but they are poised to play am increasing role in the economy, the
Columbus Dispatch reports. Beginning Sept. 9, Norfolk Southern will use the
revamped Heartland Corridor line, taking advantage of what the company calls
the "single biggest railroad engineering project in modern history."
It included enlarging tunnels through mountains and raising bridges in other places.
On September 8, 1910, the
first Long Island Rail Road trains departed from a grand structure dedicated to
transportation-Pennsylvania Station-and traveled under the East River using
four tunnels. Long Island celebrated. LIRR is celebrating that century-old
achievement with the opening of a special photo display in the 34th Street
Entrance Corridor, one of the LIRR’s newest Penn Station areas.
The final round of public
meetings for the Metra SouthEast Service Alternatives Analysis study in northeastern
Illinois are set for Sept. 22 and Sept. 28. The meetings are an opportunity for
the public to provide feedback on the proposed Locally Preferred Alternative identified
in the SouthEast Service Alternatives Analysis Study. The proposed 33-mile
SouthEast Service is a new transportation line that would link close to 20
communities in the south Suburban Cook and Will counties. Meetings are open to
the general public and are ADA accessible.
Washington, D.C., Metro
will close two Blue and Orange Line stations and there will be no Blue and
Orange Line service at the Metro Center Metrorail station during the three-day
Columbus Day Holiday Weekend from 10 p.m., Friday, Oct. 8, to closing on
Monday, Oct. 11, as the agency undertakes a major rehabilitation and rebuilding
project to improve safety, to comply with a recommendation made by the National
Transportation Safety Board and maintain service reliability and a state of
good repair.
A summit bringing together
parties from all sides of the North Charleston commercial rail debate was
always likely to be somewhat contentious, the Charleston Regional Business
Journal reports. But an economic impact study released by a public-private
partnership could ratchet up tensions ahead of the Sept. 9 meeting of the
Review and Oversight Commission on the State Ports Authority.
The Metropolitan
Transportation Commission voted 6-2 to allocate all $20 million of this year’s
state transportation improvement funding to the Oakland, Calif., Airport
Connector (OAC) project.