A successful Railway Engineering Education Symposium (REES) was held June 11-13 in Overland Park, Kan. REES 2012 brought together 28 “student professors” and 21 instructors, who represented more than 30 universities from both the United States and Canada.
Canadian National plans to construct five extended sidings on its B.C. North Line in 2012 as part of a multi-year capital program to expand freight train capacity to handle growing freight volumes along its important Edmonton, Alberta, to Prince Rupert, B.C., corridor.
Tony Ingram has resigned from the Canadian Pacific Board of Directors. This is the third member of the board to resign in the past month following a tough proxy battle that came to a head at the railroad’s annual meeting in May in which then-president and CEO, Fred Green, stepped down.
The OneRail Coalition, a diverse group of rail stakeholders, issued a statement congratulating both parties and the House and the Senate for working together to advance transportation reauthorization legislation, which saves and creates millions of jobs by maintaining federal transportation spending at current levels.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted to fund Phase 2 of the planned rail extension to Dulles Airport. The county’s estimated portion of the project, which will extend Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Silver Line from Reston to Loudoun, is $270 million.
Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) staff recommended to the RTD Board of Directors to move forward with a proposal from Kiewit Infrastructure Co., to complete the I-225 Light Rail Line to Peoria, Colo.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has accepted delivery of its first track geometry vehicle (TGV), a specialized railcar equipped with advanced technology to analyze the condition of rail and track infrastructure and to alert WMATA to potential defects.
The Federal Transit Administration granted the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority a Record of Decision for the $1.37 billion Regional Connector Transit Corridor, officially certifying that the project has now satisfied all federal environmental guidelines.
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Houston, Texas, has completed six miles on the light-rail transit extension. Six miles equals about 64,000 linear feet of track in the ground, leaving nine miles to go.
HDR Engineering, Inc., has acquired InfraConsult LLC, an infrastructure management and advisory firm with five offices in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Hawaii. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Going forward, InfraConsult will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of HDR Engineering, Inc.
Ontario, Canada, is moving forward to deliver the largest transit expansion in the city of Toronto’s history, which will help ease congestion and create thousands of jobs.
The Federal Railroad Administration issued a Notice of Intent that it will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate potential passenger rail improvements on the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, Mass. The FRA is leading the planning and environmental evaluation of the NEC, an effort known as NEC Future, in close coordination with the involved states, the Northeast Corridor Infrastructure and Operations Advisory Commission, Amtrak and other stakeholders.
Founded July 1, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, Union Pacific today celebrates 150 years of building America. Starting by helping construct the first transcontinental railroad, surviving the country’s multiple economic crises, supporting America’s military men and women through conflicts and forging forward to overcome hurricanes, floods and droughts, Union Pacific remains on America’s landscape.
July 2 marks the beginning of year two of construction on Oregon’s Triment Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge. During the first year of construction, 64 firms worked on the bridge, which is now 41 percent complete. Overall project construction jobs total 1,525.
Both the House and Senate passed “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century,” or MAP-21, on Friday, June 29. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law shortly.
The Denver Regional Transportation District is breaking ground on two expansion projects. The final structure on the West Rail Line that will serve Denver, Lakewood, Golden and Jefferson County and the first segment of the Northwest Rail Line between Denver Union Station and south Westminster.
Canadian Pacific appointed Hunter Harrison as president and chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors.
The state of Illinois has made a $8.6 million commitment toward the Phase II engineering studies on high-speed rail service on a consolidated 10th Street corridor through Springfield, should that be the chosen corridor in the Record of Decision. The planned commitment coincides with the Federal Railroad Administration’s approval to release Draft Environmental Impact Statements on future enhancements to the Chicago-to-St. Louis high-speed route currently under construction.
The Seattle Sound Transit Board of Directors adopted a lifetime budget and schedule to extend light rail from the University of Washington to the Northgate area north of Seattle. Sound Transit expects to break ground on the North Link project this summer and open for service in 2021.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation submitted a request for $1.55 billion in federal New Starts funding for the Honolulu rail transit project.
