KCS president and CEO Dave Starling, executive vice president and chief operating officer Dave Ebbrecht and several others from the transportation, engineering, mechanical, sales and marketing and purchasing teams participated in an inspection trip of the lines between Heavener, Okla. and Shreveport, La., between Shreveport and Wylie, Texas, and south from Shreveport to the intermodal shipper facility in Kendleton, Texas.
United Transportation Union-represented maintenance-of-way employees on Georgia & Florida Railway are voting through September 22 on a tentative new agreement, their first since joining the union.
Southern California’s Caltrain Board adopted a proclamation for Railroad Safety Month. The agency addresses safety through a comprehensive, ongoing program that focuses on the “three E’s of railroad safety” – education, enforcement and engineering.
Crews joined the Minneapolis – St. Paul Central Corridor light-rail track to existing Hiawatha light-rail track as they welded the two lines together between the Metrodome and Cedar Riverside stations.
Union Pacific is enhancing Iowa’s transportation infrastructure by investing nearly $14 million in the rail line that runs between Grand Mound and Boone. The project is in progress and is scheduled to be completed by mid November.
The Chicago-area Metra Acting Chairman Larry Huggins and CEO Alex Clifford joined Alderman Ameya Pawar and Representative Greg Harris on September 5 to break ground on the construction of the new Ravenswood Station on the Union Pacific North Line.
On August 22, Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) joined representatives from L.B. Foster and the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association for a tour of the L.B. Foster facility in Pueblo, Colo.
Track maintenance work on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metro-North Railroad’s New Canaan branch, connecting New York to Conneticut, will happen over the course of the next four weeks.
Phillip Allen has accepted the position of chief engineer of structures for Watco Transportation Services. In this new role, Allen will be responsible for the bridge management program.
BNSF has increased capacity in 2012 to enable the railroad to haul one million barrels per day out of the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana. This increased capacity will allow the energy industry to continue the record expansion of oil production in the Williston Basin and to ship the new production to markets throughout the U.S.
RailAmerica, Inc., now has a new industrial development website that will help current and prospective customers who are interested in building or expanding a rail-served facility or developing transloading solutions. Additionally, this tool provides a listing of all locations accessible to RailAmerica railroads.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved $40,000 from the Grade Crossing Protective Fund (GCPF) to pay for upgrades at grade crossings in Mason and Kitsap Counties. The crossings are located at the intersection of Old State Route 101 (SR-101) and Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad (PSAP) tracks near the city of Shelton and at the intersection of Provost Road and PSAP tracks near the city of Silverdale.
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.
L.B. Foster Company has completed of the sale of Precise Structural Products to Cianbro Fabrication and Coating Corporation. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Precise Structural Products is engaged in manufacturing fabricated steel products for the highway, bridge, transit and construction markets and providing custom fabrication and related services including welding, sawing, cambering, blasting and painting.
After more than one year of intense activity, Southern California’s Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority says that all structural work has been completed on the I-210 Gold Line Bridge.
A portion of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) coastal rail line between Oceanside and Downtown San Diego, Calif., will be shut down as construction crews work to install a new rail bridge for the pedestrian safety undercrossing at Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded nearly $900,000 to the city of Indianapolis, Ind., to relocate freight rail traffic from the CSX Transportation mainline that goes through the heart of downtown Indianapolis to the nearby Indianapolis Belt Railroad. This project will separate passenger and freight rail operations, remove 10-12 existing grade crossings and improve safety while decreasing congestion and emissions.
United Transportation Union-represented employees of Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway and Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway have ratified new five-year agreements.
The Federal Railroad Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) have issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for two routes connecting the Hampton Roads area to Richmond and the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor in Virginia. The newly identified route south of the James River recommends a new, 90-110 mph alignment from downtown Norfolk through Petersburg to Richmond, while maintaining Amtrak’s current service from Newport News through Williamsburg to Richmond.
In a letter dated August 28, 2012, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called on the governors of 26 states, Puerto Rico and the mayor of the District of Columbia, to prepare to meet new federal regulations that the U.S. Department of Transportation plans on proposing in the near future. The proposed federal regulations would require them to strengthen and increase their oversight of public transit safety and are part of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), a new two-year transportation authorization bill signed by President Obama in July, 2012.
