The Regional Transportation Commission for Santa Cruz County in Southern California authorized the selection of Iowa Pacific Holdings to operate on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line. The RTC will enter into an administration, coordination and license agreement with Iowa Pacific to conduct freight and passenger rail service, as well as maintain the line and provide general commercial insurance.
Hawaii’s Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation received the green light from the Federal Transit Administration to move forward with $21.8 million in work that includes a precasting yard that will create the concrete guideway for Oahu’s rail system.
Trimet in Portland, Ore., has been awarded $85 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help complete the Portland to Milwaukie light-rail line.
The North Carolina Railroad Company, the Charlotte Area Transit System and Norfolk Southern signed lease, construction and operating agreements for the LYNX Blue Line Extension light-rail project along the North Carolina Railroad corridor. The 2.7-mile section begins near East 12th Street and ends a half mile east of Eastway Drive in Charlotte, N.C.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved construction authorization from the Ohio Rail Development Commission, authorizing Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway to install flashing lights and gates at the County Road 35A (001-913V) grade crossing in Wyandot County.
Fred Green, president and chief executive officer of Canadian Pacific has stepped down, effective immediately. Green leaves the company following 34 years of dedicated service. In addition, Green has resigned as a director and will not stand for re-election at the company’s shareholder meeting.
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s PATH rail system reported record ridership in 2011, with 76.6 million commuter trips made during the year, the highest
The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association hired Ashley Bosch as its operations manager.
Transportation Technology Center, Inc.’s Board of Directors approved three organizational changes. Firdausi Irani was elected to the position of vice president of business development and officer of TTCI, Robert Florom was elected to the position of vice president of engineering and quality services and officer of TTCI and Michael Sherer was elected to the position of vice president of operations and officer of TTCI.
Parsons Brinckerhoff was awarded two contracts covering design of railway systems, one of which is for the United Kingdom’s second high-speed rail line, which will run between London Euston and Birmingham in the West Midlands.
Sound Transit contractors have connected the University Link light-rail tunnels with the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) in Washington state. The tunnel-boring machine (TBM) nicknamed “Brenda” recently completed its one-mile trip on the second tunnel between Capitol Hill and downtown.
The completion of the nearly $8 million San Mateo Creek Bridge, gateway to California’s Trestles Beach and its famous surf break, was formally marked on Monday as a northbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner made its way across the new bridge.
BNSF Railway Company plans to invest an estimated $242 million on maintenance and rail capacity enhancement and expansion projects in Kansas and an additional $130 million in Missouri this year.
CalAmp Corp., provider of wireless products, services and solutions, received initial purchase orders totaling approximately $5 million to supply interoperable Positive Train Control radios to two North American Class 1 railroads for delivery in the second half of calendar 2012.
Invensys Rail and DPS Electronics entered into a manufacturer’s licensing arrangement under which DPS may manufacture and sell its end of train devices (EOTs) with certain telemetry features patented by Invensys. For those EOTs, Invensys Rail will provide the communications, central office services and end-user experience through its software as a service business hosted at www.eotph.com and commonly referred to as EOT Phone Home.
A new fare structure is set to go into effect for the New Mexico Rail Runner Express this month.
This will be the first express train between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Passengers using this new service will be able to save 20-25 minutes in each direction on their commute between the two cities.
In April, there were more than 8.8 million trips taken on Portland, Ore.-area TriMet buses, MAX and WES commuter rail. For 13 consecutive months, weekday and weekly trips and total monthly ridership increased. System-wide, all modes were up in all categories of ridership for April.
The Surface Transportation Board approved the request of Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC, for common carrier status, which will allow them to reopen the Tahawus Line between North Creek and Newcomb, N.Y., and resume hauling freight to and from businesses along that line.
Invensys Rail Corp. acquired PHW, Inc., from the current owner/managers for up to $24,000,000.00. The company will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Invensys Rail Corp.
L.B. Foster Company plans to sell its railway securement business in a transaction expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter. L.B. Foster acquired the shipping systems division as part of its acquisition of Portec Rail Products, Inc. in December 2010.
