The Amtrak Hoosier State service between Indianapolis, Ind., and Chicago, Ill., will continue through the end of April. The announcement follows a Federal Railroad Administration phone call with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Commissioner Karl Browning, during which Acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg committed to reconsider the position that would force the Hoosier State service to end.
The Metrolink Board of Directors unanimously appointed Art Leahy to chief executive officer, effective April 20.
RailComm has completed cutover of a completely new switch interlocking at a North American Class 1 yard located in Indiana. Each switch machine or crossover in the interlocking can be controlled individually or in combinations to set entrance/exit routes through the yard.
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Board approved the award of a $25.6-million contract to F.H. Paschen and S.N. Nielsen for the renovation of five O’Hare branch CTA stations, in what is the next major phase of the historic $492 -million Your New Blue modernization project.
The House of Representatives approved a bill March 3 that improves the nation’s passenger rail system and reforms Amtrak by reducing costs, creating greater accountability and transparency, leveraging private sector resources and accelerating rail project delivery, according to a release from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) received the Notice of Determination (NOD) of its Redlands Passenger Rail Project Final Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) in a public hearing and board meeting March 4.
Gannett Fleming appointed Bryan Mulqueen, PE, to director of transit & rail. Based in the Raleigh, N.C., office, Mulqueen serves as a vice president in the company and a project principal for the firm’s most critical transit projects.
AXION International Holdings, Inc., received $1.71 million in orders for plated ECOTRAX® tunnel ties from Eastern Rail Corporation for a northeast-based transit line.
Tri-City Railroad Company hired John Miller as vice president and chief operating officer.
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced the Short Line Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Act of 2015, which would extend the shortline railroad track maintenance tax credit that expired in 2014.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded New Jersey Transit $147,086,000 through the Federal Transit Administration’s Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program for repair, recovery and resiliency projects associated with Superstorm Sandy.
The Quebec government has laid out a plan to buy the Gaspé Railway Company line between Matapédia and Gaspé in the eastern part of the province. Ownership of the line currently belongs to four county municipalities that are served by the line.
Chicago Transit Authority will soon begin construction on three major transit infrastructure projects as part of the new Loop Link initiative that will redevelop and modernize transportation from Union Station to Millennium Park. Included in the projects is a new Washington-Wabash CTA ‘L” station, which will begin construction in mid March.
As part of its ongoing effort to improve safety at railroad grade crossings, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has begun a new, multi-faceted campaign aimed at strengthening enforcement and safety awareness at grade crossings.
Norfolk Southern named James Squires chief executive officer, succeeding Wick Moorman. The action by the company’s board of directors is part of its planned succession process and will be effective June 1, 2015.
In Minneapolis, Minn., the Metropolitan Council and the Park and Recreation Board have reached an understanding on the Southwest Light Rail Transit (Green Line Extension) crossing of the Kenilworth Channel.
Harsco Corporation has acquired Protran Technology, which designs and produces safety systems for transportation and industrial applications. Protran will be operated as a unit of Harsco Rail.
Sound Transit set an all-time annual record in 2014 for boardings on its trains and buses. The latest numbers reported reflect an increase of more than eight percent over 2013, bringing average weekday boardings to more than 109,000 for 2014 and total boardings to an estimated 33 million.
The Massachusetts Department of Transporations(MassDOT) Board of Directors voted unanimously to make Frank DePaola, currently serving as highway administrator and MassDOT’s chief operating officer, interim general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), effective March 4, 2015.