The Port Authority Board of
Commissioners today awarded the largest contract to date for the World Trade
Center Transportation Hub, which will allow a critical portion of the major
transportation facility to be built that will eventually serve more than 200,000
commuters. The contract came in on budget.
GE
Transportation said it has won a contract to supply TriMet, Portland, Oregon’s
Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District transit network, with an
advanced voice radio and data communications system to help increase safety and
efficiency for TriMet’s 115 million annual passengers.
Sound Transit contractors
begin work Feb. 27-28 to make light rail tracks in Seattle and Tukwila quieter.
The work will take place overnight, mostly on weekends and may cause service
delays between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Information on service interruptions will be
available at all stations.
Cost overruns on Norfolk’s
light-rail project have created a potential cash-flow crunch for the $338-million
starter line, Hampton Roads Transit’s board learned Feb. 25, The
Virginian-Pilot reports. The increasing costs rolled out over the past couple
of months prompted the Federal Transit Administration to hold up $26.8 million
of federal money already approved for the project, HRT President and CEO Philip
Shucet said.
RailComm
has been chosen to complete the Yard Automation System at Transnet’s Kimberley
Yard in South Africa. The
automation system will be comprised of RailComm’s DOC® (Domain Operations
Controller) server- based central control system and 11 associated
outdoor-rated control panels.
The Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors approved the addition
of a new fully underground light rail alternative underneath Little Tokyo for
the Regional Connector Transit Corridor Study now in environmental review. The
new alternative was added to meet the concerns of the Little Tokyo/Arts
District Community raised during scoping and ongoing working group meetings.
Community members opposed an at-grade crossing at First and Alameda Streets,
asserting the alternative would disrupt street activity in the historic Little
Tokyo area.
With the prospect of
high-speed rail at least six years off, Virginia officials want to spend $75
million on an intermediate step that they say could become reality in half that
time: a conventional passenger train from Norfolk to Richmond, The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
reports.
Track maintenance on the
Red Line in Washington, D.C., Feb. 26-28 will cause inbound and outbound trains
to take turns sharing one track. Customers should add 20 minutes to their trips.
Los Angeles Metro Blue
Line passengers will experience travel delays of up to 30 minutes February
26-28 due to construction of the Expo light rail line, which will connect with
the Metro Blue Line in downtown Los Angeles. Work will begin at 9 p.m. on
Friday night and continue until the close of rail service on Sunday night
February 28. Every attempt will be made to have service restored by Monday
morning. Should any unforeseen delay occur, train service will be supplemented
by buses between Washington and 7th St./Metro Center Stations. All
work is subject to weather delays.
When the Department of
Transportation doled out $1.5 billion in infrastructure grants last week, one
of the largest checks went to a rail overhaul in the Chicago area, the New York
Times reports. Almost all of the country’s freight railroads converge there.
The region handles so much cargo that only three cities outrank it: Hong Kong,
Singapore and Shanghai.
Medina City, Ohio, will
not be a railroad quiet zone, at least not any time soon, the Medina Sun
reports. At its most recent meeting, Medina City Council chose not to pursue a
quiet zone in city limits as part of the city’s planned railroad improvements.
A quiet zone would eliminate the use of train horns while traveling through the
city.
The Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority has agreed to a one-year contract extension that will
allow sheep and goats to continue providing weed abatement services at Cerone
Operating Division in North San Jose, Calif.
Utility relocations
associated with Texas Department of Transportation construction on portions of
State Highway 114 will likely delay the opening of the first two segments of
the DART Rail Orange Line, DART officials said.
The California Legislature recently
passed a bill that could generate more than 6,000 transportation jobs in Orange
County. The measure will now go to Governor Schwarzenegger for approval, the
Orange County Register reports.
Nebkota Railway Inc., the
only company currently operating trains in Chadron, Neb., has withdrawn the
objection it filed just two weeks ago to the purchase of the rail line from
Chadron to Dakota Junction by a newly formed railroad company, the Chadron
Record reports. The move apparently clears the way for Nebraska Northwestern
Railroad to purchase the seven miles of track from Chadron to Dakota Junction
from the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and to lease an additional 20
miles of line from Dakota Junction to Crawford, where the tracks connect with BNSF
network.
Although not receiving
TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) federal stimulus
funding, a project to improve The San Luis and Rio Grande Railway is not dead
in its tracks reports the Valley Courier in Alamosa, Colo. Ed Ellis, president
of the railway’s parent company, Iowa Pacific, said this week he plans to look
for alternative funding sources for the project that would expand the rail’s
capabilities through the Valley.
Huron Central Railway in
Canada is once again facing a deadline for an essential capital investment for
track improvements needed to keep the line operating beyond August of this year,
Sault This Week reports. Mario Brault, president of Huron Central, said from
his Montreal headquarters that if the federal and Ontario governments do not
announce funding assistance by the end of March at the very latest, the
regional short line rail company operating between the Sault and Sudbury would
be forced to shut down this August.
RailComm
has been selected to provide the GCOR dispatch system for Genesee and Wyoming’s
New York and Pennsylvania and Ohio Central railroads. RailComm’s
state-of-the-art Domain Operations Controller (DOC®) train control system will
be accessed through a web-enabled Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model.
RailComm’s SaaS offering provides a "pay-as-you-go" model, thus eliminating
capital equipment procurement constraints. Through this SaaS delivery model,
the railroads can be remotely dispatched by G&W anywhere an Internet
connection is available. Therefore, it is possible to relocate the dispatchers
to alternative locations as required. Additionally, railroad management can log
in from an office, home or even from a hotel and directly view dispatching
activity and management reports.
Steel Dynamics, Inc., said
the company has begun commercial production of Standard Strength rails that
meet all current AREMA specifications. The Structural & Rail Division at
Columbia City, Ind., produces this rail in lengths up to 240 feet and is
capable of producing 300,000 tons of rail per year.
Virginia Transportation
Secretary Sean Connaughton has ordered an investigation into Hampton Roads
Transit’s business practices and light-rail project, The Virginian-Pilot
reports.