CTA marks 16 consecutive months of ridership growth
Chicago Transit Authority ridership has continued its upward trend in the first six months of 2012, with June marking the 16th consecutive month of ridership increases.
Passenger
Sound Transit awarded $400,000 energy efficiency grant
The Washington State Department of Commerce has awarded Sound Transit $400,000 towards energy efficiency projects, including new lighting at the Federal Way, Auburn and Kent transit centers. The improvements covered by the grant will save more than an estimated $80,000 a year in utility and operations costs and allow the agency to leverage an additional $175,000 in utility rebates.
Houston METRO targets worker safety during summer’s extreme heat
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Houston, Texas (METRO) and contractor Houston Rapid Transit are blazing light-rail tracks on the North, East and Southeast lines and chilling 9,000 pounds of ice each day to make sure crews stay cool enough to work during the season’s high temperatures. The transit authority says maintaining safety on the new lines (scheduled to open in 2014) calls for expertise and coordination and Safety Coordinator Daniel Motley has plenty to offer. Motley comes to METRO with 30-plus years of experience, most recently in the mid-east as construction safety leader for one of the largest petro-chemical projects ever attempted. Today, he is in the field daily, checking on rail expansion crews and work conditions.
FTA green lights LACMTA’s Westside Subway Extension Project
The Federal Transit Administration granted the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority a Record of Decision (ROD) for the $5.6 billion Westside Subway Extension,
SFMTA issues statement regarding use of switchbacks
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board Chairman Tom Nolan and Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin issued a statement on the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury Report, “Better Muni Service Needed, Without Switchbacks.”
UTU, BLET members ratify four contract agreements
Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and United Transportation Union recently ratified four new collective bargaining agreements.
CTA adds more work to North Red Station Project
In an effort to reduce future expenses and avoid additional impacts to rail service, the Chicago Transit Board approved an amendment to the existing design/build contract for the North Red Line station improvement project.
Track and signal testing begins for Sounder extension to Lakewood
Sound Transit in Seattle, Wash., has started rail and signal testing on more than eight miles of new track for its Sounder commuter rail extension to Lakewood.
2012 chief enigneers’ survey: WISH LIST
Safety remains at the top of engineering department’s list of equipment guidelines.
You want to impress a railroad engineer with a piece of maintenance equipment? Make sure it’s versatile, reliable, as well as easy to maintain, to transport and to use. Above all else, it must be safe.
Maintaining ballast below the ties
Optimal track conditions rely heavily on ballast maintenance.
Ballast doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. For those outside of the industry, the flashy signals, rail and crossties are what railroad lines are made of.
CREATE program update: keeping Chicago fluid
The CREATE program continues to improve movement through the nation’s rail nucleus.
The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program marked nine years of existence in June 2012.
Metra breaks ground on Cicero Station rehab project
Illinois State Senator Martin Sandoval and Cicero Town President Larry Dominick joined Metra Acting Chairman Larry Huggins and Executive Director/CEO Alex Clifford on August 7 at a groundbreaking ceremony for the rehabilitation of Metra’s Cicero Station on the BNSF Line.
SFMTA to begin utility relocation for Central Subway Project
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said that pre-construction associated with the Central Subway tunnel will begin on August 13 in North Beach. The work involves relocating utility lines on a half-block section of Columbus Avenue between Union and Powell streets.
Amtrak celebrates Seattle maintenance facility upgrades
Phase 1 and Phase 2 of a major upgrade of the Seattle Maintenance Facility in Washington State has been completed by Amtrak and its partners. The facilities support Amtrak operations and maintenance agreements in the Pacific Northwest for the Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, Amtrak Cascades and Sounder commuter trains.
X Train chooses R&O Construction Company as general contractor
Las Vegas Railway Express, Inc. (X Train), the company building a luxury passenger train with planned rail service between Southern California and Las Vegas, Nev., selected R&O Construction as the general contractor for the X Train’s Las Vegas Station. R&O Construction is a national general contractor firm.
Caltrain receives $3.2 million for modernization
Caltrain will receive $3.2 million in U.S. Department of Transportation grant funds to install an advanced signal system needed to support modernized Caltrain service and the eventual addition of high-speed rail.
L.B. Foster supplies concrete ties to Bay Area SMART transit project
L.B. Foster Company has been awarded a contract to provide 89,175 of its CXT Concrete Ties for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) project.
Parsons Brinckerhoff awarded on-call contract for Midwest HSR construction
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has awarded an on-call contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff for construction services in support of the agency’s efforts to implement accelerated rail services along a high-speed rail corridor between Pontiac/Detroit, Mich., and Chicago, Ill.
MTA completes seven station rehabilitation projects along D Line
The completion of the work to rehabilitate seven stations along the West End D Line in Brooklyn, N.Y., is now complete.
Caltrain ridership hits historic high
For the first time in the nearly 150-year history of the railroad, San Francisco Bay-area’s Caltrain average weekday ridership is more than 50,000, according to the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board.