The U.S. Department of
Transportation has completed an agreement that will help fund West Virginia’s
portion of the Appalachian Regional Short Line Rail project, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. The project, receiving a $1.77-million
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, includes upgrades to crossties,
highway-rail grade crossings and bridges.
TriMet in the Portland,
Ore., area is nearing completion on work to improve safety and security at the
Gresham Central MAX station. This pilot project-the first of its kind in the
TriMet system-includes installation of barrier railing. The project also
includes improved lighting and making the platforms a fare zone. This change
allows fare inspection to occur on the platform rather than after riders board
the train. Other work at the station includes painting the shelters and
pedestrian enhancements that help orient riders to be more alert to approaching
trains.
It was a hammer instead of
a shovel that ushered in the groundbreaking of the Lincolnway Railport on August
20, the Clinton Herald reports. With Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and Union Pacific
Railroad CEO Jim Young taking the first swing at a ceremonial
rail spike, the multi-million dollar project celebrated the end of its long
planning stage and entered in the first phase of construction.
A new study of the Port
of Vancouver’s signature project – a planned 27-mile expansion of rail tracks
to speed cargo and handle more of it – says the port will have to borrow as
much as $75 million to cover a shortfall and should adopt plans to avoid cost
overruns, The Columbian reports.
Société de transport de
Montréal informed its clients that Côte-Sainte-Catherine métro station would
again be accessible as of Monday, August 23, as planned, after 14 weeks of
major renovations work. These had become necessary to ensure the station’s
integrity and will considerably extend the building’s service life.
The upcoming week is a
big one for Vermilion Parish, La., and the rail system that cuts right through
it. Local media report. Sen. Nick Gautreaux recently passed Senate Bill 395,
which creates the Vermilion and Iberia Railroad Development District.
Washington, D.C., Metro
will modernize both the platform to mezzanine and the mezzanine to the Union
Station level elevators inside the Union Station Metrorail station beginning
Tuesday, Aug. 31, to return the units to a state of good repair and to ensure
service reliability and safety.
The community of Normal,
Ill., expects to have a four-story, $43.2-million transportation hub open
downtown in time for the first high-speed trains between St. Louis and Chicago
next summer, the State Journal-Register reports.
Metro in the Los Angeles
area will hold two public meetings September 1 and 2 to update the public on
the environmental study that is evaluating two possible alternatives, which
would connect the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension to cities further east of
Los Angeles by light transit rail.
A top-ranking U.S. transportation
official visited Rantoul, Ill., recently to see what the University of Illinois
has been cooking up in pavement and high-speed rail research, the Champaign-Urbana
News-Gazette reports. Peter Appel, the U.S.
administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, toured
the 60,000-square-foot facility known as UI’s Advanced Transportation Research
and Engineering Laboratory located on the former Chanute Air Force Base.
The Wheeling and Lake
Erie Railway Company will replace five railroad-crossing surfaces within the
city of Medina this month, the Sun News reports. Crossings at S. Elmwood Ave.,
S. Huntington St., W. Smith Rd., S. Prospect St., and Medina St. will each be
upgraded. During construction stretches, roads will be closed near the railroad
tracks.
State regulators approved
funds to improve the safety of 165 railroad crossings throughout Washington State.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved $35,250
from the Grade Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) for BNSF to replace or install
yield or stop signs, wood posts with retro-reflective tape, retro-reflective
cross buck signs and emergency notification signs statewide. The UTC also
approved $6,000 from the GCPF for Pend Oreille Valley Railroad to make the same
improvements to 24 crossings in Pend Oreille County.
The completion of ADM’s
new $540-million dry mill ethanol plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has created a
need for more railroad track, KCRG-TV reports. The CRANDIC Railway began
construction this month of a new 9,000-foot track that will go from Old Bridge
Road to just east of Fairfax, CRANDIC Marketing Manager Jeff Woods said.
John Gates Jr., a
successful businessman named August 19 as the new chairman of the Regional
Transportation Authority in the Chicago area, acknowledges he has a steep
learning curve ahead of him about buses and trains, but he intends to use his
financial expertise to bring more private-sector involvement into mass transit,
the Chicago Tribune reports.
When the idea of an
Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville high-speed train route was talked about publicly
two years ago, proponents contended it should be given serious consideration, according
to an editorial in the Nashville Tennessean. A $1-million feasibility study
that had recently been conducted on the Nashville-to-Chattanooga leg showed the
project to be doable, but that it would cost an estimated $5.4 billion in
public and private dollars.
The northbound platform at
the Santa Clara, Calif., Station will be demolished this week. All passengers
will board 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.
EWI launched a
first-of-its-kind Passenger Rail Manufacturing Center from its headquarters in
Columbus, Ohio. The mission of the Center is to develop and strengthen manufacturing
supply chains for the rail and rolling stock industries, improve railroad
product affordability and develop technical innovations that will allow
railroad manufacturers to collaborate effectively with original equipment
manufacturers and deliver a new wave of manufacturing job opportunities at the
state and national level.
HJ Skelton has been awarded
the special trackwork contract for both the Calgary West LRT Project and the
Calgary NE and NW extensions. The contracts include the supply of concrete
ties. The special trackwork, on both ballast and slab tracks, consists of a
variety of Diamond Crossings and switches.
The Alaska Railroad
Corporation (ARRC) and Kiewit Pacific Co. signed a contract that awards Kiewit
construction management and general contracting (CMGC) work for Phase One of
the Northern Rail Extension. The first phase includes the Tanana River bridge
and levee near Salcha, Alaska.
August 20-22, Washington,
D.C., Metro will upgrade its track, platforms and bridges on the Red, Blue and
Yellow lines to improve reliability and service. As a result of this crucial
work, which is critical to maintain the railroad in a state of good repair,
riders can expect delays of up to 30 minutes.