The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s reconstruction of its Piedmont & Northern Rail Corridor in Gaston County, N.C., will be significantly completed by February 20, 2012. This will allow operation of trains over the corridor for the first time in more than 20 years. Patriot Rail will provide freight rail service to customers over the line.
Yangtze Railroad Materials named Jeremy Tucker national sales manager.
U.S. Congressmen Jim Moran and Gerry Connolly and Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner said the Department of Transportation has awarded nearly $116 million funding for construction of Phase 1 of the Dulles Metrorail project in northern Virginia.
Union Pacific will improve the transportation infrastructure in San Antonio, Texas, by investing $4 million in one of two rail lines that parallel Frio City Road. The project will help trains move more efficiently through the west side of the city.
Wisconsin & Southern Railroad LLC will soon complete a major capital project to rehabilitate a publicly-owned railroad corridor between Madison and Milton, Wis. The project, expected to be completed this year, consists of installing 30,000 railroad ties, upgrading 21 public at-grade railroad crossings and installing 32 miles of continuous welded rail in the following communities: Madison, McFarland, Stoughton, Edgerton and Milton.
Union Pacific employees capped a decade of safety improvement in 2011 by achieving a 1.15 reportable injury rate, the best performance on record in the company’s history.
CSX Corporation appointed Oscar Munoz as executive vice president and chief operating officer and Fredrik Eliasson as executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective immediately.
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific reached separate 10-year agreements with Canpotex Limited to transport potash volumes that Canpotex ships to export martkets.
Union Pacific plans to put $1 billion investment in Nebraska over the next several years as part of its capital investment programs.
David L. Starling, president and chief executive officer of Kansas City Southern, has been named 2012 Railroader of the Year by Railway Age magazine. Railway Age and Railway Track & Structures are both owned by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Co.
Norfolk Southern has cleared the way for more double-stack intermodal trains to use its Heartland Corridor with the opening this week of a newly improved double-stack rail line between Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. The Heartland Connector will reduce transit times by one to two days and increase service reliability for double-stack freight traveling to and from the Port of Virginia and Cincinnati and Detroit.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a grant of $3.5 million to a multi-university consortium led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a rail transportation and engineering research center.
Canadian Pacific entered into an agreement with Canadian Tire Corporation Limited, which extends to early 2017 and awards the railway with the vast majority of Canadian Tire’s domestic container traffic.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved authorization from the Ohio Rail Development Commission, directing CSX, Norfolk Southern and Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway to install flashing lights and gates at grade crossings in Delaware, Jefferson and Lorain counties, respectively.
Canadian Pacific says that part of the company’s multi-year plan is to invest between $1.1 billion (US$1.085 billion) and $1.2 billion (US$1.18 billion) for infrastructure renewal, network enhancements and expansion projects in 2012. The 2012 Capital Plan will focus on strategic and targeted investments to improve service and increase network capacity while funding business development and initiatives with rapid return on investment.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called on CSX, Amtrak, the New York Department of Transportation and Federal Railway Administration to quickly complete a plan for the construction of the high-speed rail line from Buffalo to Albany, N.Y., that is set to begin in Genesee County. Schumer helped secure $58 million in federal funds to construct the first part of the high-speed rail line in Western New York, but the money cannot begin flowing to the project until the parties complete service, construction and maintenance agreements.
Mercuria Energy Trading, Inc., based in Chicago, has developed a terminal to ship crude oil on the Panhandle Northern Railway, which operates on 31 miles of track between the towns of Panhandle and Borger, Texas.
RailComm upgraded its existing yard system at BNSF Corwith’s mechanical facility in Chicago, Ill. RailComm’s Domain Operations Controller System is used to remotely control derails.
Members of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, Iron Ship Builders, Forgers and Helpers; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association have ratified new contracts with the nation’s largest freight railroads.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued two safety recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration related to five rear-end collisions in which crewmembers failed to operate their trains at the required restricted speed.