CP opens Regina intermodal facility at GTH

Canadian Pacific opened its new Intermodal Facility at Saskatchewan’s Global Transportation Hub (GTH) in Regina, SK, Canada.

CN opens new intermodal terminal at Calgary Logistics Park

The first Canadian National trains to serve the intermodal terminal for containerized goods at the company’s new Calgary Logistics Park arrived on Jan. 10.

NS opens Birmingham Regional Intermodal Facility

Norfolk Southern has officially opened the $97.5 million Birmingham Regional Intermodal Facility in McCalla, Ala.

DEIR affirms benefits of proposed BNSF rail facility in Southern California

The updated Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) released by the Port of Los Angeles affirms that BNSF’s proposed Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) facility will result in an overall improvement in air quality, health risk and traffic in both the immediate neighborhoods around the site and throughout the region.

Canadian Pacific offers faster transcon service

Canadian Pacific launched new faster intermodal train services connecting Vancouver, B.C., to Toronto, ON, or Chicago, Ill.

Simmons-Boardman and RailAdvisor join forces

Railway Age, International Railway Journal and Railway Track and Structures have partnered with RailAdvisor to present the world’s railway information in a more concise and global manner than ever before.

CSX Intermodal Terminals, EMH&T win engineering excellence award

CSX Intermodal Terminals, Inc., and EMH&T have won the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Ohio “2012 Engineering Excellence Outstanding Achievement Award” for the design of CSX Intermodal Terminal’s Northwest Ohio intermodal terminal.

Rail Link receives Wyoming Governor’s award for safety and health

Rail Link, Inc., a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc., has received the Wyoming Governor’s Award for Safety and Health in the Large Mine-Site Contractor category for the second consecutive year. The award is the highest honor given by the state of Wyoming for recognition of an employer’s commitment to excellence in workplace safety and health.

Oregon port’s South Rivergate Expansion boosts export flow

A major rail yard expansion project in Portland, Wash., is improving efficiency and capacity for exports at the city’s largest industrial park. Completed in June and now fully operational, the South Rivergate Yard expansion project was the last in a series of four recent rail and road improvement projects located in Rivergate Industrial District.

Plains All American to construct oil rail facilities in Colorado and Virginia

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., is constructing new crude oil rail facilities in Tampa, Colo., and Yorktown, Va., and making additional modifications to its Yorktown facility. The new rail facilities and modifications are expected to be completed by the third-quarter of 2013 at an aggregate cost of approximately $125 million.

Expanded Intermodal Design Seminar now available at AREMA Conference

The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association revised and expanded the Intermodal Design Seminar to be given in association with the Annual AREMA Conference in Chicago, Ill., in September 2012. This seminar has been redesigned by railroad personnel and industry consultants into two complementary sections: planning and engineering.

Sen. Schumer urges FRA to unlock funding for international rail station

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) urged the Federal Railroad Administration to work with western New York stakeholders and City of Niagara Falls officials to finalize the last procedural steps to unlock an approved $16,500,000 in Department of Transportation funding for the Niagara Falls Intermodal Transportation Center.

It’s official: USDOT’s TIGER IV grants doled out to 47 projects

Forty-seven transportation projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia will receive a total of almost $500 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) 2012 program.

TIGER IV funding light on rail

No official word from the U.S. Department of Transportation has been released regarding awards of the fourth round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, but news from various congressional offices is revealing what projects will benefit from the latest round of grants. The initial tally indicates rail related projects did not fare as well as they had in past TIGER funding cycles, but several key projects will see federal money.

Not quite the end of the line

To all my faithful readers, this will be the last monthly installment of “Chicago Perspective.” I thank you for giving me a platform for 13 years where my thoughts, opinions, theories and assessments of the industry have been allowed to flourish.  

OneRail Coalition hosts “The American Rail Industry: Investing in Infrastructure, Creating Jobs”

On Thursday May 10, 2012, the OneRail Coalition will host a briefing on “The American Rail Industry: Investing in Infrastructure, Creating Jobs” at 2:00pm in the Capitol Visitor Center, Meeting Room North (CVC 268).

Massachusetts intermodal center opens

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff and other dignitaries dedicated the The John W. Olver Intermodal Center in Greenfield, Mass., which will serve as a central hub for transportation in the heart of the northwest community’s urban renewal zone.

HDR acquires Stetson Engineering, Inc.

HDR, Inc., has acquired the business of Stetson Engineering, Inc., a Wyoming-based firm with offices in Gillette and Riverton. Stetson Engineering, Inc., specializes in design, engineering and consulting services related to water, sewer, storm sewer, hydrology and transportation.

CSX honors Gannett Fleming’s El-Aassar

Ahmed El-Aassar, Ph.D., INCE, ASA, a vice president with Environmental Acoustics, Inc., an affiliate firm of Gannett Fleming specializing in noise and air quality, has been recognized by CSX Transportation with an Outstanding Service Award in the Environmental Services Category. Based in the firm’s Lemoyne, Pa., office, El-Aassar serves as a project manager for noise and air quality projects.

Lilee Systems earns Red Hat Hardware Certification

Lilee Systems, provider of communication systems designed exclusively for the railroad industry, has achieved Red Hat Hardware Certification for the company’s WMS-2000 wayside messaging server, making it the first wayside messaging server with internal 3G, GPS and IP KVM options to achieve Red Hat certification. Now, Lilee says customers deploying WMS-2000 with embedded Red Hat Enterprise Linux are offered proven performance and reliability.