Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. in
2008 was upheld by an appeals court, which rejected challenges by the Sierra
Club and Metra, the Chicago area commuter rail agency, local media report.
Parsons Brinckerhoff has
been awarded a contract to provide architectural and engineering design for the
Tuas Depot, a new train and vehicle service facility to support the ongoing
expansion of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) System.
What do the New York
Times, the City of Philadelphia, LaSalle University and Miracle Whip all have
in common? They are among the first to advertise on the newly installed digital
monitors at PATCO’s 8th & Market Streets Station. The station is equipped
with four, 52-inch digital monitors, located at the platform level. The
monitors display advertisements as well as weather, PATCO news and information.
The Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority (VTA), headquartered in San Jose, Calif., has
installed new, highly visible emergency phone towers to provide VTA customers
with access to emergency communications and VTA information via the Customer
Call Center.
Central Massachusetts
commuters may have more rail options in about two years when CSX Corp.
completes its expansion project in Worcester and the state is able to add more
passenger trains, The Telegram & Gazette reports.
It’s a 2.4-mile Metrorail
extension that will take the stress out of getting to and from Miami
International Airport. And with less than two years to go before its scheduled
spring 2012 opening, the project now has an official new name. Formerly known
as the Miami Intermodal Center-Earlington Heights Connector, Miami-Dade Transit
(MDT) is pleased to reintroduce the project as the AirportLink.
In the neighborhood of
1500 North Bewley Street, a hole in a fence leads to a grimy outdoor corridor
with graffiti-plastered walls that is used as a dumping ground for old
television sets and other unwanted items, the Orange County Register reports. Fifty
years ago, this same corridor was part of the Pacific Electric Railway, or Red
Car system, which provided mass transit service to Southern California from
1901 to 1961.
South Shore passengers in
Northwest Indiana should anticipate construction-related train delays of
approximately 10-15 minutes between Miller and Dune Park.
Local elected officials
were at a bustling Port of Albany June 14 to announce that they had secured $5
million in federal stimulus funding to pay for the next phase of a wharf
replacement project, the Albany Times Union reports.
Metrolink station. As part of the station expansion, on the weekend of
June 19–20, track 2 (track closest to SantaFe Street) will be realigned.
A temporary platform will be located on the south side of the existing tracks
east of the Santa Fe Street (Station Entry) Railroad Crossing effective Monday,
June 21. In order to exit the
train at the Pomona Station, going eastbound only, customers must be on board
one of the last three cars on the train set.
New York state and CSXT have set aside differences so that planning can go forward for a high-speed rail line across upstate New York. The parties have signed a pair of agreements to facilitate planning for the passenger-train track that New York intends to build.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors today released a new report positively assessing the economic impact of high-speed passenger rail along proposed HSR corridors in the United States. The report, prepared by the Economic Development Research Group and sponsored by Siemens, analyzed the potential economic impact of HSR in the four cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando and Albany.
Sound Transit’s light-rail system has broken the 20,000 mark for weekday ridership, The Seattle Times reported Friday.
Construction begins next month on a $59 million railroad underpass in Downers Grove, Ill., at Belmont Road, one of the state’s most frequently blocked crossings, the Chicago Tribune reports.
A lousy economy and lack of interest have forced the West Virginia Public Port Authority to postpone plans for the Prichard Intermodal Terminal, the Associated Press reports.
George Duggan will be joining the Coal Marketing Team as vice president, succeeding Sami Shalah, who is retiring in August. Duggan will report to Steve Bobb, group vice president, Coal.
Katie Farmer will be joining the Consumer Products team as vice president, Domestic Intermodal, succeeding George Duggan. Farmer will report to Steve Branscum, group vice president, Consumer Products.
Tom G. Williams has been named vice president, Industrial Products Sales, succeeding Katie Farmer. Williams will report to Dave Garin, group vice president, Industrial Products.
BART customers are going to see many improvements to their commute thanks to the budget the agency’s Board of Directors passed for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The Board also allocated money to temporarily lower fares by three percent for four months – although the fare reduction is contingent upon the outcome of a series of meetings designed in part to gather public input on the impacts on a temporary fare drop on low-income, minority and limited English speaking communities.
Amtrak will continue to operate Virginia Railway Express trains until July 12 at a cost of $335,000. Keolis, the French firm that won the operation contract last fall, has had problems getting its conductor and engineering crews approved to operate the trains. Initially, Keolis had hoped to hire the line’s exiting Amtrak employees. That plan failed and delayed additional hiring.
A Barclays Capital analyst said the nation’s railroads are likely to report strong earnings in the second quarter as the economy recovers and they keep costs under control, the Associated Press reports.
Analyst Gary Chase said growing volumes, improving prices and strict cost controls should lead major railroads to report better-than-expected earnings for the April to June period.
U.S. railroads are a good investment, Chase said, as the economy continues to accelerate. They also aren’t exposed to troubles in Europe, leaving fewer risks.
Chase said his favorite rail investment is Eastern railroad Norfolk Southern Corp. So far this quarter, shipping volume is better than Chase had expected, especially in the Eastern U.S. as exports pick up.
He thinks prices will continue to rise this quarter and for the rest of the year as demand improves. And costs appear to be under control, Chase noted, as hiring in the sector remains slow.
Union Pacific Railroad’s North Platte Service Unit, which encompasses most of the 1,067 miles of track Union Pacific operates in Nebraska, has gone more than 200 days without a public grade-crossing collision. The last private-crossing collision occurred in November 2009.
"All of the Union Pacific North Platte Service Unit employees want to thank the thousands of drivers who have obeyed warning devices at grade crossings in our area and hope everyone continues to drive their vehicles safely when they approach railroad crossings," said Chad Wilbourn, Union Pacific’s general superintendent transportation services – North Platte Service Unit.
Law enforcement representatives from Union Pacific Railroad Police and the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office recently teamed up to remind motorists of highway-railroad grade crossing laws as part of a program called Union Pacific’s Crossing Accident Reduction Education and Safety (UP CARES).
The railroad and local law enforcement officers did not issue any citations to motorists for highway-railroad grade crossings violations.
The Kearney area was chosen by the UP CARES task force for this enforcement effort because of reports from UP employees and local officials of continued violations by motorists who do not obey the warning devices at area crossings. The UP CARES task force is made up of Union Pacific police officers who work with city, county and state police officers to enforce highway-railroad grade crossing laws.
UP CARES is part of the Operation Lifesaver program, where police officers ride on trains to observe motorist behavior at highway-railroad grade crossings. If a motorist violates the grade crossing traffic laws, the officer on the train radios to an officer positioned near the crossing, who can issue the motorist a citation.
In 2009, there were 41 highway-railroad grade crossing collisions in Nebraska resulting in nine fatalities and 18 injuries, compared to 48 collisions resulting in two deaths and 20 injuries in 2008. These figures include all Nebraska railroads and public along with private crossing collisions.