Fifteen years of service
and 30 million riders later, Vancouver’s West Coast Express commuter rail line had
reason to celebrate. Doug Kelsey, TransLink’s executive vice-president and president
of British Columbia Rapid Transit Company, Ltd., and Maple Ridge-Mission MLA
Marc Dalton joined hundreds of daily commuters at the Waterfront Station to
commemorate the anniversary.
BNSF is suing Kootenai
County, Idaho, over new regulations proposed for the railroad’s Hauser diesel
refueling depot, the Spokesman-Review reports.
When the Link light rail
system first began running in July 2009, Rainier Valley and Tukwilla residents
in south Seattle were upset with the noise.
Federal Signal
Corporation named Dennis J. Martin president and chief executive officer,
following the resignation of William H. Osborne. Martin, 60, has served on
Federal Signal’s Board of Directors since 2008.
BNSF Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Matt Rose today announced the promotion of Carl Ice to the
newly-created position of president and chief operating officer of BNSF Railway
Company, with responsibility for operations, marketing and technology services.
Beginning November 3 and
continuing as long as the weather permits, the MBTA contractor, J.F. White,
will be performing necessary track work to replace the deteriorating concrete
ties between Plymouth Station and the Rte. 3 Overhead Bridge in Kingston, Mass.
During this time Plymouth Station will be closed. Train service will be
provided to and from Kingston Station only.
Just days before an
election that could decide the fate of a planned high-speed rail line, state
and federal administrators quietly signed a deal to commit the state to
spending all $810 million of the federal stimulus cash allocated to the
Milwaukee-to-Madison route, transportation officials confirmed Nov. 1, the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
With support from Escanaba
and Lake Superior Railroad, officials in Ontonagon, Mich., are moving forward
with the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region working to
preserve the railroad located in Ontonagon, the Daily Mining Gazette reports.
Work will continue on the
new pedestrian underpass at the Santa Clara 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. Passengers are
asked to observe all posted signs and follow direction from identified
ambassadors in the station. The temporary platform will be in use for
approximately six months.
CN and North America
Stevedoring Company, LLC (NASCO) will construct of a new multi-modal steel
transloading facility in Chicago, the North American hub for steel
transportation. NASCO is a division of Quebec Stevedoring Company Ltd. (QSL).
BART customers will soon
have rail service to East Contra Costa County thanks to the eBART extension
project, which officially broke ground in a ceremony October 29. eBART,
shorthand for east Contra Costa BART extension, is a 10-mile extension from
Pittsburg/Bay Point Station to the City of Antioch.
MBTA General Manager Rich
Davey joined Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to celebrate the $61-million
modernization of Copley Station, located on the MBTA’s Green Line. Copley
Station is now fully accessible and in compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
MTA NYC Transit said that
Stephone Montgomery, a 27-year veteran of the MTA family, has been named to the
post of vice president and chief officer for Staten Island Railway by Senior
Vice President, Department of Subways, Carmen Bianco. Montgomery, who succeeds
John Gaul, has served at MTA Long Island Rail Road and MTA New York City
Transit, in several positions during his career in rail, most recently as the
Line General Manager for the No. 4 and 5 lines as well as the Grand Central
Shuttle at NYC Transit.
You have to hand it to
the Island Corridor Foundation, which owns the 289-kilometre rail corridor on
Vancouver Island, for its ambitious plans to resurrect the ailing rail service,
according to a column in The Daily News. Graham Bruce, the executive director of the ICF, a
coalition of 13 First Nations and local governments formed in 2005 to
revitalize the railway system, said that the foundation has made a formal
application to Via Rail, operator of the Dayliner service, to begin a new
morning southbound train to Victoria that would leave Nanaimo at 6 a.m.
Funding for the
Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail (PMLR) project will not affect money available
for bus service, TriMet points out. In Fiscal Year 2013, TriMet is slated to
sell bonds to generate roughly $40 million for its contribution to the
Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Line. Like a mortgage, these bonds will be paid
incrementally over 25 years or so. TriMet’s annual payment will be
approximately $3.2 million for debt service on the bonds. It is important to
stress that this borrowing won’t begin until FY13 and has no impact on current
service levels.
The Michigan Department
of Transportation’s looming purchase of privately-owned railroad tracks between
Dearborn and Kalamazoo as part of an improved high-speed rail corridor to
Chicago also will directly benefit a commuter rail project linking Detroit and
Ann Arbor, Crain’s Detroit Business reports.
The South Shore is alerting
passengers to the last in a series of planned temporary weekend construction
outages for 2010. The final weekend outage is planned for November 6-8. During
this construction related weekend outage the South Shore Line will not operate
trains or shuttle bus service in either direction between South Bend, Ind., and
Gary Metro Center beginning 2:30 a.m. Saturday, November 6 thru 3:00 a.m.
Monday, November 8.
With the aim of heightening
safety standards, Kootenai County, Idaho, is proposing several permit
amendments for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway refueling station
in Hauser, the Coeur d’ Alene Press reports. Required by the county
commissioners after the station’s compliance hearing last December, the
amendments would specify when the facility shuts down for a major leak, plus
establish new well testing and groundwater monitoring.
Wisconsin & Southern
Railroad Co. continues with its welded rail installation on the Madison Sub. As
of October, 14 miles of rail have already been installed by crews, extending
from Vincent Street at Milton Jct. to just east of Stoughton, Wis. M/W forces
are currently focusing on dumping ballast on the track and raising and tamping
for final alignment before winter freeze-up.
The Gary/Chicago
International Airport on reached a pivotal deal for its runway extension
project, the Gary Post-Tribune reports. The agreement with Canadian National
Railway allows the Gary airport to proceed with the removal of CN’s embankment
at the end of the runway — one of the biggest undertakings of the project. The
Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority approved the deal Oct. 28, with CN
expected to sign on within 10 days.