(The following statement
s issued by Los Angeles Metro CEO Art Leahy, with quotes from Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa and MTA Board Chair Ara Najarian.) Today’s action by the
California Transportation Commission (CTC) approving funding for Positive Train
Control is a major victory for our region. PTC is a major safety enhancement
for passenger rail service throughout the region.
While Worcester, mass., City
Manager Michael V. O’Brien has committed to coming back to the City Council in
three weeks with a deal to address issues associated with CSX Transportation’s.
freight yard expansion plan, some doubts are being raised about whether the
biggest obstacle – finding a new roadway connection from Shrewsbury Street to
Franklin Street – can be achieved, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Washington, D.C., Metro
General Manager Richard Sarles testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies of the U.S.
Senate Committee on Appropriations May 19 and reiterated the transit agency’s
request for $150 million in fiscal year 2011.
In doing so, Sarles provided a
description of his back-to-basics action plan to improve the safety and service
reliability of the Metro system.
Crews were working
through the night to finish two railroad bridges in Benton City, Wash., by 6
a.m. May 20, the Bellingham Herald reports. Construction of the BNSF ballast-deck
bridges with concrete girders started early May 19. Both are 121 feet long and
will allow traffic to pass under the railroad tracks.
The Norfolk Light Rail station
at Norfolk State University is one of 11 Light Rail stations that will run on
the 7.4 miles of track from Eastern Virginia Medical School to Newtown Road,
local media report. It’s the only station that will sit high above city streets
and will have an elevator for passengers.
The city of Boise, Idaho,
will move forward with a new study that could improve the freight rail system
in the Treasure Valley, television station KTVB reports. Mayor Dave Bieter
calls this a "major step forward" in Boise’s economic future. If this
facility is built, it will be the only one of its kind between Ogden, Utah, and
Portland, Oregon. The facility would allow freight cargo to go from
rail-to-truck and vice versa.
Customers can expect
lengthy delays of up to 30 minutes May 21-23 as old track components are
replaced on Washington, D.C., Metrorail’s Red, Orange and Green lines, causing
inbound and outbound trains to take turns sharing one track on portions of the
rail system.
The Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners authorized the agency to move ahead
with the purchase and redevelopment of Greenville Yards, a century-old rail
yard in Jersey City, N.J., that will serve as the lynchpin to removing up to
360,000 trash trucks annually from trans-Hudson crossings and New Jersey
highways by moving New York City’s sealed containerized solid waste and other
commodities by barge and rail when appropriate facilities are completed by
2013.
Holland L.P., based in
Crete, Ill., is using a medium-term insurance policy from the Export-Import
Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to support its export of railroad-track
equipment to a private-sector buyer in Brazil.
Unitrac Railroad
Materials, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Healey Railroad Corporation and a
specialty trackwork manufacturer and distributor of new and relay rail, has
been awarded a $2.2-million special trackwork contract from Metro North.
Federal Transit
Administrator Peter Rogoff told business and transit stakeholders gathered in
Boston that the Obama Administration is committed to keeping the nation’s
transit systems efficient and maintained and asked for a similar commitment
from them.
During the regular
meeting, the Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority Board adopted 10
resolutions, including: 2010-35, Authorizing a $150,000 contract with Standard Contracting
and Engineering Inc. of
Brook Park to install upgraded ADA ramps and sidewalks at the Flats-East Bank
Rapid Station on the Waterfront Line, the West 98-Cudell Rapid Station on the
Red Line, the Parma Transit Center, the North Coast Rapid Station eastbound
platform on the Waterfront Line, the West Third Street Rapid Station eastbound
platform on the Waterfront Line, and the Euclid Park-N-Ride lot. The bid is 49
percent lower than the engineer’s estimate.
Industry has proposed an
agreement that, with government assistance, might keep rail service in Grand
Forks, B.C., said Mayor Brian Taylor. A group of shippers that use the
railway, including Pacific Abrasives and Interfor, contacted Omnitrax, which
owns the Kettle Falls International Railroad, the Grand Forks Gazette reports.
America’s railroads honored
the industry’s safety achievements and celebrated railroads with the best
employee safety records at the annual E.H. Harriman Awards. According to the
Association of American Railroads (AAR), 2009 was the safest year ever for
railroads, with significant milestones achieved across the board in reduced
train accidents, employee casualties and grade crossing collisions
Cattron Group
InternationalTM, a leading global manufacturer of remote control products and
professional services for the industrial, mining, commercial mobile and
railroad markets, has contracted with TTechTrain SA de CV to represent the
company in Mexico. They will handle all brands for the Industrial and Rail
markets. Andres Duncan and Susana Duncan, along with their colleagues, have a
combined experience of 86 years providing service to the railroad industry in
the Americas.
Barix AG said that NJ
TRANSIT has standardized on Barix Audio over IP equipment for IP-based
distribution of public address (PA) announcements at rail and bus stations
across the state.
TriMet, elected officials
and project partners in the Portland, Ore., area broke ground on a new MAX
station that has been in the works since 1997. The future Civic Drive Station
will be the 85th along the entire 52-mile MAX system. The Civic Drive Station
is located along the MAX Blue Line tracks at Civic Drive in Gresham.
The Massachusetts
Department of Transportation (MassDOT), Congressman Michael Capuano and
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone said there is now an agreement on a new
preferred site for a maintenance and storage facility needed for the Green Line
extension to Somerville and Medford.
Veiled
by the Kansas debate over cutting state services or raising taxes was a $35-million
gem that lawmakers left for BNSF, The Kansas City Star reports. As the
Legislature passed a sales tax increase to avoid deep spending cuts, it also
cut a deal that will allow BNSF to start work this year on a controversial
Johnson County freight hub that has been delayed by the recession.
The Federal Railroad
Administration has set dates and locations of public outreach meetings to
solicit input toward the development of the nation’s first-ever National Rail.
The National Rail Plan will lay out a coordinated vision for future development
of our nation’s freight and passenger rail networks. A final version of the
plan will be released by September 15, 2010.