U.S. Rep. and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Jeff Denham (R-CA) joined representatives from HDR, Inc., and the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) for a tour of the Colton Crossing Rail-to-Rail Grade Separation Project.
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.
The U.S. railroad industry has been scrambling since 2008 to meet the requirements of an unfunded federal government mandate—namely, having Positive Train Control installed and fully operational by Dec. 31, 2015 on 60,000 miles of track where hazmat and passenger trains operate. Parallel to the PTC initiative has been a battle waged on Capitol Hill to extend the end-of-the-year deadline. That effort may be paying off, and the railroads may one day be grateful that they have a Thune on their side.
The Indiana Rail Road Company (INRD) released plans for a $17.5-million capital program in 2015 that will focus heavily on bridge projects, a trend it anticipates will continue in the future.
Tri-City Railroad Company hired John Miller as vice president and chief operating officer.
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) seeks public input on a plan for prioritized improvements to the Palouse and Coulee City (PCC) Rail system in eastern Washington. Once finalized, the plan will be used to help develop future funding, policy and planning goals.
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.
Metrolink reached a critical milestone March 2, 2015, by launching Positive Train Control (PTC) in revenue service demonstration (RSD) along the its San Bernardino Line between Los Angeles and San Bernardino, Calif.
Implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) technology on Kansas City Southern is a major, ongoing initiative, especially for the Signal, Mechanical, IT and Telecommunications groups, the railroad says. The railroad provided an update on its progress of PTC implementation in an employee newsletter.
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.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has programmed approximately $3.7 million to fund 15 projects across the state through the Freight Rail and Rail Crossing Safety Improvement program for Fiscal Year 2015.
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.
BNSF continues to detail plans for its $6-billion capital program with $141 million estimated to be spent in California and $103 million in Kansas.
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.
