The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has appointed three new Federal representatives, each with considerable expertise in safety, to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) board of directors.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) Board of Directors adopted the 2016 Business Plan, which lays out an approach to sequencing the Phase 1 system that will ultimately connect the San Francisco Bay Area to the Los Angeles Basin via the Central Valley with high-speed passenger rail service. The plan will now be delivered to the legislature by May 2.
Former Dallas Area Rapid Transit Vice President of Marketing and Communications and current Richland College faculty member Sue Bauman has been appointed to the DART Board of Directors by the Dallas City Council.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is now accepting applications from local governments, states and railroads for $25 million in competitive grants to increase rail safety. Applications are due by June 14, 2016.
Lodestar Energy Group (LEG) is developing a new multimodal site at the Gulf Inland Logistics Park near Dayton, Texas. The site will contain two facilities: a rail-served Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility and a complementary rail car storage yard.
Chicago’s Metra completed its 13th straight month of meeting or exceeding its on-time performance goal in March 2016, posting an on-time performance rate of 96.8 percent for the month. The rate exceeded the five-year average for the month of March of 96.3 percent.
On April 25, U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford (D-NE-2) joined National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association (NRC) and GoRail member Paxton & Vierling Steel Co. (PVS) for a tour of its metal service center and structural fabrication facilities in Carter Lake, Iowa.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed S.B. 369, a bill that empowers the city of Atlanta to hold a fall ballot referendum asking voters to support a half-penny sales tax to expand the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) system.
CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, unveiled plans for its Réseau électrique métropolitain (REM), an integrated, public transportation project.
The Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) adopted a resolution on April 21, 2016 endorsing the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) plan, which envisages the construction of six new urban rail lines in Miami-Dade County.
Anacostia Rail Holdings (ARH) has promoted Pacific Harbor Line’s (PHL) Director of Operations Marlon Taylor to a new role with New York & Atlantic Railway (NY&A) as assistant vice president.
On April 22, federal, state and local officials celebrated the start of construction of Sound Transit’s East Link light-rail extension connecting Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond’s Overlake area and Microsoft campus.
The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (RDA) Board of the Directors took another step toward expanding commuter access to Chicago with a $1.6-million matching grant to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) to help fund $4 million in preliminary engineering and environmental work for the South Shore double tracking project.
As the next step in its ongoing efforts to increase safety at railroad crossings, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has released a list of railroad crossings in the United States where multiple incidents have occurred in recent years. The list includes 15 crossings where 10 or more incidents have occurred during the last decade.
The Regional Transportation District (RTD) of Denver on April 22 began University of Colorado A Line commuter rail service from downtown Denver to Denver International Airport. The line is among the nation’s first transit projects built by a public-private partnership and is a part of an ambitious transit expansion plan for the eight-county metropolitan area.
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development passed $56.5 billion legislation to fund its programs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, including several allocations for rail.
The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association, Inc. (NRC) Annual Railroad Construction and Maintenance Equipment Auction was held April 14 at the Blackmon Auctions facility in Little Rock, Ark.
Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc., has appointed Katie Hadenfeldt to the position of vice president sales and marketing. In her new role, Hadenfeldt will have responsibility for all aspects of Loram’s contract services sales and marketing efforts, along with all new and existing product development initiatives.
J-Track LLC will open a new railroad construction and maintenance company in the Chicagoland area on May 1. The new company, J-Track LLC Central Division, will be led by Vice President and General Manager, Bill Dorris.
Norfolk Southern will reduce train operations at its Knoxville, Tenn., rail yard, effective May 1, which is in response to lower traffic volumes and is consistent with the company’s ongoing implementation of its strategic plan to enhance operating efficiencies, reduce costs, drive profitability and support long-term growth.
