Daryl Kramp, Member of
Parliament for Prince Edward-Hastings, Neil Ellis, Mayor of Belleville, Ont., and
Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, General Counsel and Secretary of VIA Rail Canada,
unveiled the design plans for VIA’s new Belleville passenger rail station.
With a $32-million grant in
hand, Joliet, Ill., officials are hopeful that a new transportation center will
put the city on the map as a regional transportation hub, the Chicago Tribune
reports. Joliet officials recently learned of the state grant, which came just
one week after the city was turned down for a federal grant for the project.
The state grant, announced Oct. 28, will allow for the construction of a
transportation center immediately south of Union Station.
Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.),
who is expected to chair the House Highways Subcommittee of the Transportation
& Infrastructure Committee in the next Congress in 2011, is quoted by the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that high-speed rail funds being returned to
Washington by Ohio and Wisconsin most likely will be recycled to high-speed
rail projects elsewhere.
Classic fall weather has
settled in over the Philadelphia region, adding a touch of beauty to SEPTA
riders’ commutes as trees trade in their drab green summer leaves for colorful
mixes of yellows, oranges and reds.
The Port of Quincy, Wash.,
recently held a Rural Freight Mobility Summit. More than 70 agricultural, food
processing, railroad, trucking, ocean cargo, economic development, warehousing
and distribution leaders attended the summit, which primarily focused on
freight mobility and transportation issues (intermodal, distribution, rail and trucking
issues) impacting perishable shippers in North Central Washington and the
Columbia Basin of Washington State.
Some Cary, N.C., residents
are unhappy with a bit of gardening that CSX Transportation did near its
railroad last month, the Cary News reports. Workers came through with a large
machine and tore apart trees along several stretches of rail in Cary, residents
say.
Responding to a Chicago Tribune story that raised questions
about the level of diesel emissions on downtown platforms and onboard trains,
Metra on Tuesday said it has hired an independent firm to conduct tests and is
forming a task force to investigate the problem and propose new ways to improve
the air quality.
The Honorable Rob
Merrifield, Minister of State (Transport) and David Hoff, a member of VIA Rail’s
Board of Directors announced an investment of C$5.1 million in VIA Rail’s
Heritage train station in Vancouver. They were joined at the city’s Pacific
Central Station by Gregor Robertson, the Mayor of Vancouver.
Union Pacific will increase
its capital spending by 25 percent to $3.25 billion in 2011, the Journal of
Commerce reports. UP capital expenditures in 2010 totaled $2.6 billion.
Urban planners and
promoters of light rail often cite the 52-mile MAX light-rail system in
Portland, Ore., for generating several billion dollars of real estate
development around its stations since it began operating in 1986, The
Virginian-Pilot
reports. In Charlotte, N.C., where the 9.6-mile Lynx
light-rail system opened in 2007, development has been more restrained, though
that may be a reflection of the economy.
New York City’s
most-beloved galaxy, the constellation ceiling above Grand Central Terminal’s
Main Concourse, came alive recently with new luminosity in the form of
light-emitting diodes. Fifty-nine of the brightest stars in the winter sky,
such as Castor and Pollux in Gemini and Rigel in Orion, were turned on Nov. 8
now that MTA Metro-North Railroad, steward of the Terminal, has completed
installation of new fixtures.
The well-known telephone
number 1.800.COMMUTE, funded by Caltrans for transportation information in Los
Angeles County, is being discontinued. Metro will now provide bus and rail
information through a new easy-to-remember number 323.GO.METRO.
All Metrorail stations
opened on time Nov. 8 after successful track projects that took place during
the weekend.
This past weekend, Metro made preliminary repairs to the
stabilize the ground, the abutment and aerial structure outside the Cheverly
Metrorail station because a developer performed work on land adjacent to Metro
property that shifted the ground and caused movement of Metro’s aerial
structure.
MTA Long Island Rail Road customers should expect normal weekday service Monday following the successful weekend testing of a new computerized switch and signal control system at Jamaica Station.
The new state-of-the-art, microprocessor-based control system replaces three antiquated signal towers just east and west of Jamaica Station, offering greater flexibility for train movement through the Jamaica complex, better backup systems and more reliability for LIRR customers. As of late Sunday afternoon, more than 95 percent of the testing scheduled for the final cutover to the new system had been completed, paving the way for normal Monday AM rush hour service.
Trains from 10 of the LIRR’s 11 branches travel through Jamaica each day with weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 customers.
The $56 million Jamaica modernization project upgraded the control of LIRR’s switches and signals at Jamaica Station from electro-mechanical to state-of-the-art computerized microprocessor technology. The new, more reliable system will increase operational flexibility for the large volume of trains that pass through this area, helping to reduce customer delays. The new system also will provide redundant signal control systems and will allow for quicker recovery time in the event of a power surge, lightning storm or fire-related service disruption. The new system consolidates three tower operations into one, centralized control facility at Jamaica.
With the reduced train movement through Jamaica Station during this second cutover weekend, the LIRR used this time to perform right-of-way (ROW) clean-up in the area surrounding Jay Tower (to the west of Jamaica).
Throughout the day Saturday, LIRR track crews, used specialized track equipment, heavy machinery, dumpsters, rakes and other tools to perform a clean-up of the Jamaica Station tracks and surrounding areas in Jamaica. A total of 101.75cubic yards of debris and 79 scrap railroad ties were removed in the clean-up effort.
During the first cutover weekend, October 23-24, in a similar effort on the east side of Jamaica and at the Jamaica Station tracks, LIRR employees hauled away 85 cubic yards of debris and removed 350 old railroad ties as well as old running rail, track gauge plates, pipe, spikes, 3rd rail brackets and running rail fasteners.
The clean-up effort for the combined weekends netted 186.75 cubic yards of debris and 429 scrap railroad ties.
The city of Joliet, Ill., is embarking on a $42 million public project at the same time its latest budget proposal shows the bank account running dry by 2012, the Herald News reports.
The state of Illinois is putting $32 million into the future transportation center, a place that Joliet city officials believe will stimulate business growth downtown and beyond. Joliet would be on the line for $7.5 million required for the project.
The transportation center is conceived as a one-stop location for trains, buses and other modes of transportation. It also would be the first stop outside of Chicago for the future high-speed rail line to St. Louis, which city officials believe will attract visitors to Joliet and even potential new businesses because of the proximity to the big city.
The city council still has to vote to spend the $7.5 million and the votes appear to be lining up in the "yes" column. The money is available from impact fees being paid by CenterPoint Properties as it develops its massive intermodal industrial park on the south end of the city. BNSF is contributing $2.2 million because the project includes a reconfiguration of railroad tracks that will make it easier for freight trains to move through Joliet.
But a decision on spending $7.5 million of the CenterPoint money on one project will come at the same time that the council is reviewing a 2011 budget proposal that eats up $16 million in city reserve funds to plug a deficit.
The problem gets worse in 2012, according to city budget projections, because remaining reserve funds would be spent and deficits would get bigger in future years.
The projections do not include any answers on how future budgets will be balanced. But City Manager Thomas Thanas said the deficits already have been cut back because of spending reductions and a smaller workforce.
The 2012 deficit at one time was forecast to reach $67 million.
"We have that down to $21 million," Thanas said. "We spent the last two years cutting $46 million out of the deficit."
Those cuts, however, have included a smaller police force and fewer public works employees as the city has reduced its total workforce by 135 positions. Unions have made certain concessions, too, by delaying raises and agreeing to pay towards their health care premiums to ease a city budget crisis.
Union leaders already have objected to the use of another grant worth $1.16 million to relocate an existing fire station because it would require a match from the city of $600,000.
Councilwoman Jan Quillman also opposes that project, but she said there’s a big difference between the fire station and the transportation center.
Quillman called the $32 million state grant "the best thing that ever happened. It’s a huge shot in the arm for downtown Joliet."
The relocation of the fire station would have limited value, she said, but the transportation center will be used by people in Joliet and throughout Will County.
The transportation center also is being planned at a time when the city has come under criticism for spending money in the past on big projects, including Silver Cross Field and the Splash Station Waterpark.
But Councilman Joseph Shetina said the city needs to forge ahead on the transportation center.
"You shouldn’t be in public office if you can’t take the heat and do something like this," Shetina said. "It’s a huge thing for Joliet. It’s a huge thing for the surrounding area."
Miners excavating the tunnels that will carry Dulles Corridor Metrorail tracks from the Tysons Central 123 Station under the highest natural point in Fairfax County, Va., soon will complete the mining portion of the construction endeavors.
Dulles Transit Partners, the design-build contractor for the Rail Project, is mining the tunnels. In late October, crews ‘holed through’ the west end of the outbound tunnel near the busy intersection of Routes 7 and 123 just more than a year after beginning excavations.
Mining of the inbound tunnel is scheduled for completion in mid-December. Then crews will remove the temporary road inside the tunnels, rearrange temporary utilities, back fill and install a smoothing layer of special sprayable concrete used to reinforce the tunnel. Then comes waterproofing, more reinforcement and concrete installation, and construction of the safety walkway. Tunnel construction is expected to be finished at the end of 2011.
Connecting Dulles Rail tracks to Metro’s Orange Line
Construction is more than 22 percent complete along Phase 1 of the 11.5-mile Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project from Falls Church to Reston.
One of the most complicated areas of construction is where the Dulles Connector Road (Route 267) breaks away from I-66 near West Falls Church. This is where the rail extension will merge with Metro’s existing Orange Line.
Last Memorial Day weekend, Metro shut down rail service between the East and West Falls Church stations so that pier construction and testing could take place close to existing tracks in this area. Now piers have been completed and bridges to carry the aerial tracks across I-66 are visible.
A third truss coming to cross beltway
A third huge truss that will be used to build more bridges for the rail line in Tysons Corner is being assembled in a cloverleaf of Route 123 and I-495.
This truss will function a bit differently from the other two that have been building bridges above the Dulles Connector Road across Route 123 and along Route 123 near Scotts Crossing Road. The latest addition to the big yellow fleet of horizontal cranes will be used to build the bridges that will carry tracks across the Capital Beltway in the coming year.
Meanwhile, the skyline at Tysons continues to be filled with these trusses, working day and night to build bridges for rail.
The idea of a new rail
line connecting the Berkshires to New York City, as proposed by the Housatonic
Railroad Co., has local business and economic development officials pondering
the possibilities, the Berkshire Eagle reports. The concept, they say, holds
substantial promise for the local economy.
Los Angeles area Metro
Blue Line passengers will experience travel delays of up to 40 minutes for three
weekends beginning November 5 due to construction of the Expo light rail line,
which will connect with the Metro Blue Line in downtown Los Angeles. Metro will
provide bus shuttle service between the Washington Station and the 7th
St./Metro Center Station. Special bus service begins Friday, Nov. 5 at 9 p.m.
On behalf of the Honorable
John Baird, Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for Parks
Canada, Dean Del Mastro, Member of Parliament for Peterborough and
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and Fred Green,
Canadian Pacific President and CEO, recognized the 125th anniversary of one the
most significant moments in Canadian history, the driving of the Last Spike,
which completed the country’s first transcontinental railway.
Work will continue this
week on the new pedestrian underpass at the Santa Clara station. The underpass
will connect the north- and southbound platforms, allowing two trains to pass
through the station at the same time and improving safety for pedestrians in
the station.
