The Heartland Corridor
double-stack rail project is on schedule to be completed by summer 2010 said a
Norfolk Southern marketing representative speaking at the February lunch
meeting of the Hampton Roads Foreign Commerce Club according to the Port of
Virginia Website
The Maine state
legislature is now involved in the effort to save 240 miles of railroad tracks
in Aroostook and Northern Penobscot Counties from being abandoned, according to
local media. Representative Ken Theriault has introduced a bill that would put
a $20 million bond issue to voters to buy the rail line owned by Montreal Maine
and Atlantic Railway.
Amtrak said that the
replacement of the Niantic River Bridge would begin March 1. Town officials are
making preparations by closing a section of the boardwalk, The Day reports. The
eastern portion, which begins at the wooden boardwalk section and continues to
the bridge area, will be closed until further notice.
Virginia Railway Express is
expected to award a $2.5 million contract Feb. 19 to a firm that will study the
environmental impact of extending the commuter rail line to Gainesville and
Haymarket, Va., local media report.
On Feb. 16, a four-level
parking structure opened at Whitby, Ont., GO Station offering customers 1,400
covered parking spaces and increasing the total to over 3,000 parking spots at
the station.
The downtown Tulsa,
Okla., area is now a quiet zone for train horns, officials said. The
"quiet zone," or Downtown Sealed Corridor Project, which consists of
five extended railroad crossings, requires railroad operators to not blow their
horns in designated downtown areas except in emergency instances, the Tulsa
World reports.
If efforts to
re-establish passenger rail service in Hardin County, Ken., were a children’s
story, it would be titled, "The Little Engine that Couldn’t."
Regardless of
how tall that hill may be, though, two recent developments have given at least
some steam to the possibility, local newsppers report.
Officials are calling it
Laurinburg’s not-so great train robbery, The Laurinburg, N.C., Exchange
reports. Someone stole about 800 feet of railroad beams and caused several
train cars to derail. The accident occurred on some tracks between McFarland
and Shaw Currie roads.
Beginning February 20 BART
will need to run northbound Pittsburg/Bay Point line trains on a single track
due to ongoing weekend track work for the Central Contra Costa Crossover
Project. Single-tracking will take place on weekends only and BART expects to end
this work in mid-May. Single-tracking trains may result in slight delays of up
to 10 to 15 minutes on weekend trains going toward Pittsburg/Bay Point Station.
Track maintenance on the
Orange Line in the Washington, D.C., area Feb. 19-2 will cause inbound and
outbound trains to take turns sharing one track.
Association of American Railroads President and CEO
Edward R. Hamberger said that freight railroads are at a critical point in
their history as the industry is facing new challenges from over-burdensome
federal regulatory mandates that could seriously undercut the industry’s
ability to aid in U.S. economic recovery
A New Jersey construction
company could begin restoring the long-dormant railroad extension in Calverton,
N.Y., as early as mid-March, with the possibility of work being completed by
summer’s end, officials said. Freight trains could start heading into the
Enterprise Park at Calverton, or EPCAL, soon after the job wraps up, said town
community development director Chris Kempner, the Riverhead, N.Y., News-Review
reports.
CSX Corp. is set to begin
discussions with officials in Worcester, Westboro, East Brookfield and West
Springfield, Mass., about plans to shift more freight operations out of Boston
to freight yards in those communities, the Worcester Times reports. The changes
come as part of a plan to expand commuter rail service on the Boston to
Worcester line and to raise bridges between Route 128 and New York to make room
for double-stacked freight trains.
An often-contentious plan
to separate railroad tracks in Colton, Calif., is among 51 projects nationwide
set to receive millions in federal stimulus funds, although local officials
never identified it as a top regional priority, The Press-Enterprise reports.
New America THINKS survey
results from HNTB Corporation illustrate transit and passenger rail remain top
of mind after the Obama administration’s $8-billion high-speed rail grant
announcement last month.
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie’s proposal to cut NJ Transit’s subsidies comes just as the Atlantic
City Rail Line is planning to expand, the Press of Atlantic City reports. Transit
officials have proposed building a new station in Egg Harbor Township, near
Galloway Township’s Pomona section – a station that could turn into a major
work transit hub for the Federal Aviation Administration’s William J. Hughes
Technical Center and future businesses such as the Next Generation Aviation
Research and Technical Park. This comes as lines across the state already have
seen numerous service cuts – including a popular early morning Atlantic
City-to-Philadelphia run that was canceled less than a month ago.
The $100-million federal
grant awarded to the Chicago region Feb. 17 to unclog rail congestion will
benefit Jimmy Buffett Parrotheads and Chicago Fire soccer aficionados along
with freight haulers, motorists and rail passengers, the Chicago Tribune
reports. That’s because $20 million of that money will go toward building a
rail/highway underpass on 71st Street, west of Harlem Avenue and across from
Bridgeview’s Toyota Park, a 28,000-seat sports and music venue.
Two train systems meant to
usher in a new era of transportation in Metro Orlando, Fla., are slated to run
along separate tracks that will intersect west of Orlando International
Airport, the Orlando Sentinel reports. But, as it stands, there is no planned
connection where passengers from the $1.2-billion SunRail commuter train could
transfer to the $2.6-billion high-speed train or vice versa. How is that
possible?
Competition for the $1.5
billion in TIGER grants awarded Wednesday was grrrrrreat. But the results weren’t so great
for Kansas, which got skunked, according to a column by Rob Roberts in the Kansas
City Business Journal.
Medina, Ohio, will upgrade
several railroad crossing signals and surfaces within city limits in order to
meet recently changed state and federal safety regulations. In addition,
officials have discussed the possibility of transforming the area, which is in
the city’s southern portion, into a railroad quiet zone, the Medina Sun
reports.