As the season for cold and snowy weather approaches, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit (NYCT) is ready for winter operations. NYCT said it is leaning on lessons from the 2013-2014 winter that brought 14 significant storms and more than 50 inches of snow.
Metropolitan Council Chair Susan Haigh decided to conclude her service as chair in order to focus her energies on her full-time position as president and chief executive officer of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. Haigh notified Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton of her decision and agreed to remain in her current position until a successor is named.
In a complaint filed on Nov. 17, Amtrak is asking the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to investigate Norfolk Southern and CSX for causing delays for passengers traveling between Chicago and Washington, D.C., on the Capitol Limited service.
Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) received approval from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board to award contracts totaling $34.6 million for the purchase of inward- and outward-facing cameras in the cabs of their rail fleets.
As the temperature drops, Chicago-area Metra has taken a variety of steps this year to be better equipped to deal with cold and snowy weather and better prepared to deliver critical information to its passengers.
November 12 marked the start of construction for All Aboard Florida’s downtown West Palm Beach station. The existing building was demolished so construction on the approximately 60,000-sq.-ft. station and platform can begin.
The commonwealth of Virginia, Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and the city of Roanoke are beginning the first phase of construction for the platform that will serve intercity passenger rail service to the Star City. It has been 34 years since intercity passenger rail service has served Roanoke.
The East, Gold and the Northwest Rail Westminster Segment of the Regional Transportation District of Denver’s (RTD) Eagle P3 project are in full construction and preparing for the testing and commissioning phase that will start in late spring of 2015.
In recognition of the Veterans Day holiday Nov 11, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) said that it continues to make military veteran hiring a strong priority across the agency, increasing the number of U.S. military veterans now working for the CTA to 358, as part of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool-led initiatives to create hiring preferences to provide employment opportunities to veterans.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has rededicated the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) South Station as “Governor Michael S. Dukakis South Station Transportation Center” in recognition of the former Governor’s devotion to public transportation and advocacy.
RailComm has been chosen to install and provide control to multiple switches throughout the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) terminal.
After more than two years of construction, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Expo Phase 2 reached a significant milestone as crews tied together the electrical components of Phase 2 of the line with Phase 1 at the Culver City station on Nov. 8 and 9.
Metrolinx in Toronto, Canada, will upgrade and modernize the entire signaling system within the Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC) starting next year, an improvement that will provide long-term benefits to both transit operations and customers.
Leaders of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) joined federal, state and local elected officials in the Mid-Wilshire District of Los Angeles Nov. 7 to break ground on the Purple Line Extension Project.
Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) new train to plane service, “BART to OAK,” which provides an easy connection to Oakland International Airport, will open in time for Thanksgiving travel on November 22, 2014.
Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) new train to plane service, “BART to OAK,” which provides an easy connection to Oakland International Airport, will open in time for Thanksgiving travel on November 22, 2014.
The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is unveiling its three-year capital expenditures program (PTI), in which its investment spending forecasts for 2015-2017, evaluated at nearly CA$2.5 billion (US$2.2 billion), are outlined. These investments are needed to replace or upgrade equipment and infrastructure that have or will reach the end of their service life in the next few years.
The PTI details 46 projects, 12 of which represent 94 percent of investments, for a total of more than CA$2.3 billion (US$2 billion). A number of these projects will have a direct impact on improving transportation for customers.
This means the acquisition of 468 new AZUR cars, the major refurbish and refit of the Youville minor repairs shop, the development and commissioning of métro driving cab simulators, the raising of train platforms inside stations slated for elevators, the ongoing Réno-Métro umbrella program that includes both Réno-Systèmes and Réno-Infrastructures programs and the major refurbishment of Berri-UQAM station initiated in 2010.
In order to reach its objectives for growth, STM will focus nearly 50 percent of its investments on the replacement and expansion of its bus and métro rolling stocks, in the amount of CA$.1.3 billion (US$1.2 billion).
Over the next three years, the company will invest CA$660 million (US$581 million) for machinery, métro stationary equipment and other tools and equipment. Nearly 80 percent of that sum is earmarked for Phases III and IV of the Réno-Systèmes program that reconditions or replaces stationary equipment, mostly within the initial network that went into operation already 48 years ago.
STM will put CA$537 million (US$473 million) toward maintaining its real estate assets and modifying its infrastructure in order to integrate the new rolling stock. Of that amount, some CA$196 million (US$172 million) will serve to refurbish métro stations, as part of Phases I and II of the Réno-Infrastructures program and CA$54 million (US$47 million) for Berri-UQAM’s major renovation.
The governments of Québec and Canada along with the Montréal Urban Agglomeration will finance 75 percent of the STM’s investment spending. The MTQ’s share is at 63 percent, while the federal government will cover 10 percent. The STM will almost entirely finance the difference, at 25 percent.
The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board received updated information about the projected cost and timeframe for the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project (PCEP), which includes Caltrain electrification and the purchase of new electric vehicles.
Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo will be stepping down from the post he has held since April 2009 and, effective Jan. 1, 2015, will be on staff at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)—effectively returning to his Chicagoland roots.
On November 10, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit’s (NYCT) FASTRACK program returns to the F line between Greenwich Village in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.