Light rail transit, not more buses, is the most cost effective option for supporting the existing jobs and the tens of thousands of jobs the Southwest corridor will add before 2030, Minnesota’s Twin Cities Metropolitan Council Chair Susan Haigh told a State Senate panel.
Thales and Siemens have been awarded a contract to provide a permanent communications-based train control test track facility for Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit.
The Maryland Transit Administration’s MARC Train service recorded some of the best on-time performance numbers ever during the month of February.
John McPherson has been elected as a director to the Board of Las Vegas Railway Express, Inc.
“X” Train CEO/President Michael Barron said, “We are pleased that Mr. McPherson has joined our company on the board. He brings a very successful career to the company and an oversight role to our operations.”
On March 12, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will receive a $900 million grant commitment from the Federal Transit Administration for the Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension Project.
In the Seattle, Wash.-area, a Kittitas County Superior Court Judge issued a summary judgment in the lawsuit by Kemper Freeman seeking to stop the East Link light rail project.
Sustained public education efforts, engineering improvements and law enforcement programs have contributed to a nationwide reduction in vehicle-train collisions and pedestrian-train deaths and injuries in 2011, according to Operation Lifesaver, Inc.
RailComm has provided a wireless remote control derail system at Amtrak’s Maintenance Facility near Miami, Fla. Two customized Local Control Panels, located within the maintenance building, provide wireless remote control to the derails.
Amtrak recently achieved Climate Registered status by successfully measuring its carbon footprint according to The Climate Registry’s best-in-class program, then having it third-party verified and reporting the data on The Registry’s website. With this status, Amtrak takes a major step toward reducing its energy usage, costs and carbon emissions.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit is bringing FASTRACK to the Eighth Avenue Line beginning March 12, following success on the Lexington Avenue, Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue Lines.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority provided an update on its progress to rebuild the system following years of underinvestment. In the six-month period from July 1 to December 31, 2011, Metro spent $307 million on capital projects ranging from replacing railcars, switches, rail and track components to rehabilitating station platforms, escalators and elevators.
Las Vegas Railway Express, Inc. (“X” Train) received support from the state of Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) for the X Train as the viable short term conventional passenger rail project in the state of Nevada for the zero-five year time frame.
Preliminary engineering cost estimates decreased for Phase 2 of the Dulles Rail Project in northern Virginia, which includes 11.4 miles of rail through the Dulles Corridor to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County.
The Regional Transportation District in Denver, Colo., staff made its recommendation to the RTD Board of Directors to keep the Northwest Rail Line to Longmont in the FasTracks plan, but to add bus rapid transit service to address transit needs until the full build out of the rail line. The board will make its decision on whether to accept the staff recommendation or move forward in a different direction at a meeting on March 20.
Toronto City Council dissolved the existing board of the Toronto Transit Commission and appointed a new board made up of seven city councilors and four private citizens.
The nation’s mayors renewed their call for enactment of job-creating bipartisan transportation legislation now pending in Congress.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Board of Directors unanimously approved a $46.6 million design-build contract for the Atlanta Streetcar Project. MARTA selected URS Corporation after a competitive procurement process.
The National Transportation Safety Board made safety recommendations regarding storm water issues that push for greater collaboration between entities affected by these issues. The following recommendation was sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation:
Nicholas Fry was named curator of the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, the sixth archivist/curator since the creation of the Barriger collections at the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association in the early 1980s.
KONE has been chosen by Jones Lang LaSalle and the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) to supply 18 new escalators in Washington, D.C.’s historic Union Station. The escalator modernization project was designed by Newmont Elevator Analysts, Inc. of Stone Ridge, N.Y.
