Rapid Transit/Light Rail

MassDOT Board of Directors appoints Scott MBTA GM

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board of Directors appointed Beverly Scott as general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and MassDOT Rail and Transit Division Administrator. A 30-year transportation veteran, Scott will be the first female general manager of the MBTA.

Metrolink and SCRST enforce safety at five crossings

As part of California’s Rail Safety Month, Metrolink and the Southern California Rail Safety Team (SCRST) targeted law violators at five crossings in the cities of Los Angeles and San Fernando on September 21.

NYCT names chief transportation officer

New York City Transit appointed Herbert Lambert, who has more than 30 years of service in Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit’s Department of Subways, to the position of chief transportation officer, rapid transit operations.

CTA to acquire properties for 95th Street Terminal, awards Red Line South project contract

The Chicago Transit Authority granted approval to begin the process of acquiring property near its 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal on Chicago’s South Side as part of the 95th Street Terminal Improvement Project. The project is an estimated $240-million initiative that will expand and improve the 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal.

The nine properties identified for acquisition are located directly off the expressway and are primarily commercial properties with a few vacant lots.

This allows the CTA to begin the acquisition process, subject to the requirements of federal and state law. Any purchase of a property by CTA, whether by negotiation or court order, cannot take place without subsequent board action.

The 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal is one of CTA’s busiest, with 24-hour Red Line service and more than 1,000 CTA and Pace bus trips on a typical weekday. The current configuration does not have adequate capacity to efficiently serve customers, which number around 20,000 on an average weekday.

Efforts to rebuild WMATA system picking up steam

Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority’s investment in projects to rebuild and modernize its railroad, trains, stations and buses grew by 26 percent to $770 million in FY2012, an increase of nearly $160 million and is on track to continue ramping up to nearly a billion dollars this year.

Phoenix Valley Metro accelerates LRT project

Construction of light rail is back on the move in Phoenix, Ariz., with the re-launch of the Northwest extension along 19th Avenue from the current end-of-line north 3.2 miles to Dunlap Avenue. The project has received approval to accelerate the completion year from 2023 to 2016. Final design is underway; construction will begin in early 2013.

Twin Cities’ Central Corridor project installs first of 14 substations

Crews have completed placement of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Central Corridor light-rail line’s first traction-power substation just south of the Raymond Avenue Station. Fourteen substations, located about one mile apart, will convert alternating electrical current to direct current, which will power the light-rail vehicles using a system of overhead catenary wires. Throughout the next year, the 13 other substations will be installed at a rate of one a month.