Norfolk Southern is to
break ground Oct. 19 for its new intermodal facility near Greencastle, Pa., the
Chambersburg Public Opinion reports. NS CEO Wick Moorman, Gov. Ed Rendell,
Federal Railroad Administration Deputy Administrator Karen Rae and U.S. Rep.
Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, are expected to take part in a ceremony at the
site of the new rail-truck yard.
A transportation project
that has been planned for more than a decade and that will ease congestion and
delays at a busy Manassas, Va., intersection is under way, the Washington Post reports.
With almost $20 million in federal stimulus funding, the Wellington Road and
Route 28 overpass project has started, city officials said at the Oct. 18
Manassas City Council meeting. The project has been in the city’s capital
improvement program since 1998 but has been stalled because of a lack of
funding, City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said.
MTA New York City Transit
is closing the No. 1 northbound platform beginning Oct. 18 and continuing
through August 2011 for the first phase of the Dyckman Street station
rehabilitation. Uptown No. 1 trains will bypass Dyckman Street.
The Santa Clara, Calif.,
Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) will host a public meeting in Milpitas,
Calif., to inform the community about the Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley’s
Berryessa Extension Project. This is the first of two meetings.
Union Pacific has donated
another $33,000 to Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program. This marks the
fourth consecutive year that Union Pacific has supported the program.
Los Angeles Metro will
hold several station area planning community workshops for the Crenshaw/LAX
Transit Corridor project beginning October 28 that will include an update on
the evaluation of maintenance facility locations for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit
Corridor Project.
After careful
consideration, the TransLink Board in the Vancouver, B.C., area has authorized
the organization to move forward with planned public consultation on funding
the proposed supplement required to build the Evergreen Line and complete the
first phase of the North Fraser Perimeter Road project and, possibly, to
proceed with a number of other priority projects, which include key SkyTrain
station upgrades, restoring funding to bike and major road network capital
programs, additional service throughout the existing bus network and new rapid
bus services on King George Boulevard and Highway 1.
The Detroit Department of
Transportation has awarded a contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff for preparation
of an Environmental Impact Statement for a new light rail transit (LRT) system.
The approximately $400-million project is a proposed 9.3-mile LRT system along
Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to 8-Mile Road and is expected to be
operating by 2016.
Amtrak selected TKDA to
complete the design of Phases 3 and 4 of its Maintenance and Welfare Facilities
at the King Street Coach Yard in Seattle, Wash. The design includes two coach
maintenance buildings, a locomotive repair facility, stair tower and pedestrian
bridge. TKDA is currently providing support for Phases 1 and 2 of this project,
and is on multiple design-build teams completing ADA upgrades at Amtrak
passenger stations throughout the United States.
Swiss manufacturer Amberg
Technologies said that RailWorks has taken delivery of a GRP Track Measurement
System. The system has been deployed in New York and is currently being used on
various transit projects for MTA. The system was purchased from Amberg’s North
American distribution partner, the Kara Company of Countryside, Ill.
Work will continue on the
new pedestrian underpass at the Santa Clara, Calif., 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.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is planning to rehabilitate escalators and elevators, repair crumbling platforms, upgrade station air conditioning and install new directional signs among other enhancements to its Blue and Orange lines.
The Metro Board Finance and Administration committee endorsed awarding a six-year, $272.7 million comprehensive infrastructure and rehabilitation contract designed to improve customer service, service reliability and maintain a state of good repair. The full Board of Directors will vote on the proposal on Oct. 28.
The rehabilitation program would encompass 27 miles of track and 23 Metrorail stations along the Blue and Orange lines between the New Carrollton and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations. The design work would start next month with the physical work beginning in late 2011.
This long-term project is the second major maintenance contract focused on upgrading the Metrorail system. The first was awarded last year for work on the Red Line. Currently, under the four-year, $177 million Red Line program, personnel are repairing the crumbling platforms at the Rockville Metrorail station and making station improvements between the Judiciary Square and Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood Metrorail stations, which includes rehabilitating elevators and escalators at Union Station and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations.
Under the Blue and Orange contract, Metro will make the following improvements:
Safety Enhancements
• Replace tunnel safety lights to enhance customer and employee safety.
• Rehabilitate tunnel ventilation and exhaust fans used in the event of a smoke incident in a rail station or tunnel.
• Upgrade and replace emergency telephone system to enhance safety.
Customer Experience
• Rehabilitate or replace 22 elevators and 103 escalators between the Stadium-Armory and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations
• Reconstruct crumbing platforms at the Minnesota Ave and Deanwood Metrorail stations to improve customer service.
• Upgrade station air conditioning (chiller units) at the Rosslyn and Stadium-Armory Metrorail stations
• Install ADA bumpy tiles at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington Cemetery, Eastern Market, Potomac Avenue, Deanwood and Minnesota Avenue Metrorail stations for blind or vision impaired.
• Upgrade and enlarge station manager kiosks to be equipped with a new public address system and new monitors at 18 stations that will enable station managers to provide improved service to riders.
• Rehabilitate station restrooms used by customers and employees.
Infrastructure Upgrades
• Repair the rail bridge at the Deanwood Metrorail station.
• Repair 83,700 feet of tunnels including water leaks and cracks.
• Install new cross ties on the rail tracks.
• Upgrade traction power and train control systems.
• Repair station domes and acoustical walls.
• Replace and upgrade drainage pumping stations.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors, in a 7-to-1 vote, approved the first construction contract to build a 10-mile extension from the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station to the City of Antioch, called eBART or Eastern Contra Costa County BART. The Board awarded West Bay Builders, Inc., of Novato, Calif., a $26 million contract to build the transfer platform and make some of the necessary rail improvements to begin extending the line to a terminus station at Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.
To learn more about the project, watch the BARTtv News story or visit www.bart.gov/eBART.
The Twin Cities has been awarded a $5 million planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. With the help of local matching funds, the grant will support planning along the region’s growing network of transit corridors.
The grant is part of HUD’s $100 million Sustainable Communities Initiative to build on existing regional planning efforts to advance multi-modal transportation choices and promote affordable housing with access to jobs and housing, transit- and pedestrian-friendly development, environmental preservation and energy efficiency. In a nutshell, planning that promotes sustainable, vibrant and healthy communities.
While details of implementation will be fleshed out more fully now that the grant award is official, the application calls for vigorous public involvement in creating corridor-wide plans and strategies for optimal development along five major corridors, including Southwest LRT, Bottineau, Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit, Northstar Commuter Rail and the Gateway Corridor (I-94 East), using "beyond the rail" planning of Central Corridor LRT as a model.
Middletown and New Jersey Railroad L.L.C., a subsidiary of Regional Rail L.L.C., will lease and operate 36 miles of track from Norfolk Southern Corp. M&NJ will operate a group of tracks known as the NS Campbell Hall Cluster in Orange County, New York.
The deal includes associated trackage rights. Regional Rail also owns or operates 111 miles of rail line in eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The Campbell Hall Cluster include the Hudson Secondary, which runs from Campbell Hall to a connection with New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in Warwick; the Walden Secondary, which runs from Campbell Hall to Walden; and the Maybrook Industrial Track between Campbell Hall and Montgomery.
In a report in the Times Herald-Record, Al Sauer, M&NJ’s regional vice president, said the new lines will allow M&NJ to expand rail services in southeastern New York, and that the lines are "well positioned to serve expanding warehouse and distribution operations in the area."
The Association of American Railroads reports that weekly rail traffic continues to post gains over 2009 levels with U.S. railroads originating 297,029 carloads for the week ending Oct. 9, 2010, up 8.8 percent compared with the same week last year. AAR will no longer report 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weekly data in 2008 since October 2008 marked the beginning of the recession-related downturn in rail traffic.
Intermodal traffic for the week totaled 236,272 trailers and containers, up 13.1 percent compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 14.1 percent and trailer volume up 7.4 percent.
Fifteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with metallic ores posting the most significant gain, up 199.7 percent. Commodity groups posting declines included non-metallic minerals, down 18.9 percent, primary forest products, down 5.6 percent, grain mill products, down 2.7 percent, and food and kindred products, down 0.7 percent.
Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 4.7 percent compared with last year. In the West, carload volume was up 11.6 percent from the same week in 2009.
For the first 40 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,425,258 carloads, up 7.2 percent from last year, and 8,658,978 trailers or containers, up 14.7 percent from the comparison week in 2009.
Canadian railroads reported volume of 75,084 cars for the week, up 10.9 percent from last year, and 52,120 trailers or containers, up 15.1 percent from 2009. For the first 40 weeks of 2010, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,912,392 carloads, up 19.1 percent from last year, and 1,890,736 trailers or containers, up 15.8 percent from last year.
Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 13,573 cars, up 16.2 percent from the same week last year, and 8,102 trailers or containers, up 14.9 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 40 weeks of 2010 was reported as 549,304 carloads, up 20.4 percent from last year; and 268,864 trailers or containers, up 27.4 percent.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 40 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 14,886,954 carloads, up 9.8 percent from last year, and 10,818,578 trailers and containers, up 15.1 percent from last year.
U.S. Department of Transportation will grant more than $18.7 million to 11 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) that are using new technologies and developing innovative approaches to improve transportation systems throughout the country.
The awards were made by the U.S. DOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). UTCs conduct research that directly supports Department’s priorities and are a critical part of the national transportation strategy.
The largest grant when to the Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., which will use its $3,324,400 grant to extend experimental work in monitoring the health of the infrastructure of rapid transit and commuter railroad structures through partnerships with the Chicago Transit Authority and Metro North Railroad in New York. ITI will also continue long-term studies of bridge performance, combining measurements of live loads, predictions of structural responses, and measurements of actual structural response. Funds will also allow for the expansion of an already successful infrastructure summer institute for high school students.
A full list of grant recipients can be viewed at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/index.html.
RITA provides $81 million in annual funding to 136 colleges and universities conducting transportation research and providing the training needed to manage today’s transportation infrastructure through the UTC program. UTC colleges and universities trained 32,000 practicing transportation professionals in 2009. More information about the UTC program can be found at http://utc.dot.gov/.
This month marks the beginning of the 100th Anniversary of the construction of New York Penn Station, and on Monday, October 18th, Amtrak will celebrate the anniversary of this historic station. Beginning at 9:15 a.m., the public is invited to enjoy rare photo imagery, artifacts and other items commemorating the station’s deep and rich history, including the vital role Amtrak plays in the history of passenger rail travel.
Representatives from Amtrak and its partners at New Jersey Transit, Long Island Rail Road and renowned author Lorraine Diehl ("The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station") will be on hand to reminisce about some of the station’s most memorable moments over the past 100 years.
Approximately 550,000 passengers pass through New York Penn Station each day, which makes it the busiest station in Amtrak’s system, and one of the busiest transportation hubs in the world. This terminal is also served by Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit trains, as well as Amtrak’s high-speed trains and other intercity services. Together, these three agencies operate more than 1,000 weekday trains at Penn Station.
The station originally opened in 1910. A reconstruction of the public areas of the station was completed in 1968, creating most of the present layout of those areas.
Canadian National has reached a voluntary mitigation with the Village of Sauk Village, Ill., located approximately 30 miles south of Chicago, addressing the municipality’s environmental and safety concerns with CN’s acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E). With this agreement, CN has VMAs with 24 of the 33 communities situated on the EJ&E in Illinois and Indiana.
CN, which completed its purchase of the EJ&E on Jan. 31, 2009, will provide funding for various measures in Sauk Village, including the creation of a quiet zone, noise mitigation, and emergency response training and communication.
CN is also working closely with communities on the EJ&E that do not have agreements with CN to ensure implementation of safety and environmental conditions in accordance with the requirements of the Surface Transportation Board.
Integration of the CN and EJ&E networks is well underway, and, as contemplated in the original plan, the company continues to expect it will be completed within three years of its acquisition of control.
A new study from HNTB Corporation takes a look at public transportation and what Americans think about using, improving and paying for it.
According to the HNTB America THINKS transit survey, nearly nine in 10 (87 percent) Americans who have access to public transportation where they work or live take advantage of it. In addition, almost seven in 10 (69 percent) Americans feel there are many times when public transit is a better option than driving and nearly three in 10 of them choose higher gas prices (29 percent) and convenience (29 percent) as the biggest motivators for riding public transportation.
Approximately one in four respondents think the most valuable feature of public transportation is that it reduces traffic congestion (28 percent) or saves users money (24 percent), while about one in seven (13 percent) say it’s most valuable feature is the environmental benefit.
The nation’s largest public transit agencies face an $80 billion maintenance backlog just to bring their rail systems to a state of good repair. Within the next six years, almost every transit vehicle (55,000 vehicles) in rural America will need to be replaced.
Even amid budget and service cutbacks due to the recession, 68 percent of Americans say the overall quality of public transportation in their area has stayed the same or improved during the last five years. Among respondents with public transportation in their area, 58 percent say it has stayed about the same, while 25 percent think it has improved.
Fortunately, transit is entering something of a "golden age" of funding in America. The Obama administration has set aside more money for transit development than any other time in the past 20 years, including Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, sustainability and planning grants – literally hundreds of millions of dollars waiting to be awarded. Rao said the problem is that those federal monies require a local match, and many cities, already forced to cut basic services, don’t have the revenue to ante up their share.
While using existing taxes is the most popular method of funding better public transportation, the survey showed millions also are willing to pay a little more for a convenient ride.
Nearly half (46 percent) of Americans think local, state and federal governments don’t spend enough money on public transportation in their area. Almost three in 10 (28 percent) think these governments should rely on a greater share of gas tax to help fund improved public transportation options. Approximately two in 10 think private investors (21 percent) or local sales taxes (20 percent) should be the primary source of public transit funding. Just one in 10 (10 percent) think property taxes are the answer.