Safety

TriMet’s WES celebrates fifth anniversary

In Portland, Ore., TriMet’s WES Commuter Rail celebrated its fifth anniversary with more people climbing on board than ever before. Since the line opened on February 2, 2009, riders have taken more than 1.9 million trips on WES. Ridership has climbed each year reaching more than 476,000 in 2013.

Chicago RTA plans $100-million in state of good repair projects

The Chicago Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Board of Directors recently authorized issuance of up to $100 million of 30-year general obligation RTA bonds to finance multiple state of good repair projects to bolster the condition of the region’s transit infrastructure.

“State and federal dollars are not sufficient to support our capital needs, so the RTA is using its bonding authority to keep our region in a state of good repair,” said RTA Board Chairman John Gates, Jr. “Our region needs approximately $33 billion to bring the existing system to a state of good repair. The RTA is meeting a portion of the need with this bond issuance. The recent favorable reports from the three ratings services only reinforce the importance of the RTA and its ability to benefit the region in this way.”

The bonding will fund projects that benefit the region’s public transit riders through enhancements to Chicago Transportation Authority, Metra and Pace bus capital assets, specifically tied to state of good repair, in the categories of rolling Stock, track and structure, electric signal and communications and stations and passenger facilities

Qualifying projects would include projects that upon completion would have a useful life of at least 20 years; projects that will reduce the region’s state of good repair backlog and projects that replace assets, which fall into the category of “worn” or “marginal” as identified in the Capital Asset Condition Assessment.

 

UP improves public safety performance in 2013

Union Pacific improved its public safety incident rate in 2013, demonstrating progress in enhancing safety for employees, customers and communities. The company’s 2013 public safety incident rate was 2.22, a seven percent improvement over the 2012 rate of 2.38.

MTA receives first reimbursement for Sandy-related repairs

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has received more than $886 million in federal aid to help cover costs associated with repairs from Superstorm Sandy, primarily in the Montague, Greenpoint and Steinway subway tunnels, and to make New York’s transportation system more resilient to any future storms.

NTSB closes another WMATA safety recommendation

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has closed another safety recommendation, which advised the transit agency to develop a program to periodically determine that the electronic components in Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) train control system are performing within design tolerances. NTSB has now closed 21 of its 29 recommendations for WMATA.