Feds making $10.5 -million investment for northern Maine rail line






February 14, 2001

U.S. Senators Olympia J.
Snowe and Susan Collins and Representative Mike Michaud announced that the U.S.
Department of Transportation has awarded $10,546,436 to the Maine Department of
Transportation to repair and improve the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway
(MMA) line in Aroostook and northern Penobscot counties. The funding is being
made available through the second round of grants from the Transportation
Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. U.S. Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood called Senators Snowe and Collins and Rep. Michaud this
morning to inform them of the DOT’s decision.

$16.5 million coming for Niagara Falls, N.Y., station revitalization






February 14, 2001

U.S. Senators Charles E.
Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter announced that
$16,500,000 in federal grant funding would be coming to Niagara Falls, N.Y., to
revitalize the Niagara Falls Customhouse, which will soon be known as the
Niagara Falls International Railway Station. The funding comes from the
Department of Transportation’s competitive TIGER grant program, which was
enacted as part of the stimulus bill.

New Amtrak stations in Sanford, Fla., and Mattoon, Ill






February 14, 2001

A new Amtrak station is
open near Orlando for the more than 244,000 annual Amtrak Auto Train passengers.
At about 10,000 square feet, the station in Sanford seats 600 passengers and is
about four times larger than its predecessor. Thomas Carper, chairman of the
Amtrak Board of Directors, joined local, state and federal officials for the
celebration. The original depot, constructed in 1971 and renovated in 1995, was
not large enough to accommodate growing demand for the Auto Train, which just
reported a year-to-year ridership increase of nearly five percent – despite the
economic recession.

Work on NS rail yard to begin soon in Antrim Township, Pa.






Norfolk Southern is to
break ground Oct. 19 for its new intermodal facility near Greencastle, Pa., the
Chambersburg Public Opinion reports. NS CEO Wick Moorman, Gov. Ed Rendell,
Federal Railroad Administration Deputy Administrator Karen Rae and U.S. Rep.
Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, are expected to take part in a ceremony at the
site of the new rail-truck yard.

Manassas, Va., building overpass at Wellington Road and Route 28






A transportation project
that has been planned for more than a decade and that will ease congestion and
delays at a busy Manassas, Va., intersection is under way, the Washington Post reports.
With almost $20 million in federal stimulus funding, the Wellington Road and
Route 28 overpass project has started, city officials said at the Oct. 18
Manassas City Council meeting. The project has been in the city’s capital
improvement program since 1998 but has been stalled because of a lack of
funding, City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said.

TransLink to proceed with public consultation on proposed supplement






After careful
consideration, the TransLink Board in the Vancouver, B.C., area has authorized
the organization to move forward with planned public consultation on funding
the proposed supplement required to build the Evergreen Line and complete the
first phase of the North Fraser Perimeter Road project and, possibly, to
proceed with a number of other priority projects, which include key SkyTrain
station upgrades, restoring funding to bike and major road network capital
programs, additional service throughout the existing bus network and new rapid
bus services on King George Boulevard and Highway 1.

PB preparing EIS for Detroit light rail system

The Detroit Department of
Transportation has awarded a contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff for preparation
of an Environmental Impact Statement for a new light rail transit (LRT) system.
The approximately $400-million project is a proposed 9.3-mile LRT system along
Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to 8-Mile Road and is expected to be
operating by 2016.

 

TKDA selected for Amtrak Seattle project






Amtrak selected TKDA to
complete the design of Phases 3 and 4 of its Maintenance and Welfare Facilities
at the King Street Coach Yard in Seattle, Wash. The design includes two coach
maintenance buildings, a locomotive repair facility, stair tower and pedestrian
bridge. TKDA is currently providing support for Phases 1 and 2 of this project,
and is on multiple design-build teams completing ADA upgrades at Amtrak
passenger stations throughout the United States.


RailWorks deploys Amberg Technologies’ GRP System in New York






Swiss manufacturer Amberg
Technologies said that RailWorks has taken delivery of a GRP Track Measurement
System. The system has been deployed in New York and is currently being used on
various transit projects for MTA. The system was purchased from Amberg’s North
American distribution partner, the Kara Company of Countryside, Ill.


Caltrain construction, maintenance update, Oct. 17-20






Work will continue on the
new pedestrian underpass at the Santa Clara, Calif., 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.

WMATA: Overhaul of the Blue and Orange lines moves forward

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is planning to rehabilitate escalators and elevators, repair crumbling platforms, upgrade station air conditioning and install new directional signs among other enhancements to its Blue and Orange lines.

The Metro Board Finance and Administration committee endorsed awarding a six-year, $272.7 million comprehensive infrastructure and rehabilitation contract designed to improve customer service, service reliability and maintain a state of good repair. The full Board of Directors will vote on the proposal on Oct. 28.

The rehabilitation program would encompass 27 miles of track and 23 Metrorail stations along the Blue and Orange lines between the New Carrollton and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations. The design work would start next month with the physical work beginning in late 2011.

This long-term project is the second major maintenance contract focused on upgrading the Metrorail system. The first was awarded last year for work on the Red Line. Currently, under the four-year, $177 million Red Line program, personnel are repairing the crumbling platforms at the Rockville Metrorail station and making station improvements between the Judiciary Square and Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood Metrorail stations, which includes rehabilitating elevators and escalators at Union Station and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations.

Under the Blue and Orange contract, Metro will make the following improvements:

Safety Enhancements

• Replace tunnel safety lights to enhance customer and employee safety.
• Rehabilitate tunnel ventilation and exhaust fans used in the event of a smoke incident in a rail station or tunnel.
• Upgrade and replace emergency telephone system to enhance safety.

Customer Experience

• Rehabilitate or replace 22 elevators and 103 escalators between the Stadium-Armory and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations
• Reconstruct crumbing platforms at the Minnesota Ave and Deanwood Metrorail stations to improve customer service.
• Upgrade station air conditioning (chiller units) at the Rosslyn and Stadium-Armory Metrorail stations
• Install ADA bumpy tiles at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington Cemetery, Eastern Market, Potomac Avenue, Deanwood and Minnesota Avenue Metrorail stations for blind or vision impaired.
• Upgrade and enlarge station manager kiosks to be equipped with a new public address system and new monitors at 18 stations that will enable station managers to provide improved service to riders.
• Rehabilitate station restrooms used by customers and employees.

Infrastructure Upgrades

• Repair the rail bridge at the Deanwood Metrorail station.
• Repair 83,700 feet of tunnels including water leaks and cracks.
• Install new cross ties on the rail tracks.
• Upgrade traction power and train control systems.
• Repair station domes and acoustical walls.
• Replace and upgrade drainage pumping stations.

BART Board approves contract on Eastern Contra Costa County extension

The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors, in a 7-to-1 vote, approved the first construction contract to build a 10-mile extension from the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station to the City of Antioch, called eBART or Eastern Contra Costa County BART. The Board awarded West Bay Builders, Inc., of Novato, Calif., a $26 million contract to build the transfer platform and make some of the necessary rail improvements to begin extending the line to a terminus station at Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.

To learn more about the project, watch the BARTtv News story or visit www.bart.gov/eBART.

Twin Cities gets $5 million HUD grant for transit corridor planning

The Twin Cities has been awarded a $5 million planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. With the help of local matching funds, the grant will support planning along the region’s growing network of transit corridors.

The grant is part of HUD’s $100 million Sustainable Communities Initiative to build on existing regional planning efforts to advance multi-modal transportation choices and promote affordable housing with access to jobs and housing, transit- and pedestrian-friendly development, environmental preservation and energy efficiency. In a nutshell, planning that promotes sustainable, vibrant and healthy communities.

While details of implementation will be fleshed out more fully now that the grant award is official, the application calls for vigorous public involvement in creating corridor-wide plans and strategies for optimal development along five major corridors, including Southwest LRT, Bottineau, Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit, Northstar Commuter Rail and the Gateway Corridor (I-94 East), using "beyond the rail" planning of Central Corridor LRT as a model.

M&NJ to lease NS tracks in Orange County

Middletown and New Jersey Railroad L.L.C., a subsidiary of Regional Rail L.L.C., will lease and operate 36 miles of track from Norfolk Southern Corp. M&NJ will operate a group of tracks known as the NS Campbell Hall Cluster in Orange County, New York.

The deal includes associated trackage rights. Regional Rail also owns or operates 111 miles of rail line in eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The Campbell Hall Cluster include the Hudson Secondary, which runs from Campbell Hall to a connection with New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in Warwick; the Walden Secondary, which runs from Campbell Hall to Walden; and the Maybrook Industrial Track between Campbell Hall and Montgomery.

In a report in the Times Herald-Record, Al Sauer, M&NJ’s regional vice president, said the new lines will allow M&NJ to expand rail services in southeastern New York, and that the lines are "well positioned to serve expanding warehouse and distribution operations in the area."

AAR reports rail traffic continues to post gains over 2009

The Association of American Railroads reports that weekly rail traffic continues to post gains over 2009 levels with U.S. railroads originating 297,029 carloads for the week ending Oct. 9, 2010, up 8.8 percent compared with the same week last year. AAR will no longer report 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weekly data in 2008 since October 2008 marked the beginning of the recession-related downturn in rail traffic.

Intermodal traffic for the week totaled 236,272 trailers and containers, up 13.1 percent compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 14.1 percent and trailer volume up 7.4 percent.

Fifteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with metallic ores posting the most significant gain, up 199.7 percent. Commodity groups posting declines included non-metallic minerals, down 18.9 percent, primary forest products, down 5.6 percent, grain mill products, down 2.7 percent, and food and kindred products, down 0.7 percent.

Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 4.7 percent compared with last year. In the West, carload volume was up 11.6 percent from the same week in 2009.

For the first 40 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,425,258 carloads, up 7.2 percent from last year, and 8,658,978 trailers or containers, up 14.7 percent from the comparison week in 2009.

Canadian railroads reported volume of 75,084 cars for the week, up 10.9 percent from last year, and 52,120 trailers or containers, up 15.1 percent from 2009. For the first 40 weeks of 2010, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,912,392 carloads, up 19.1 percent from last year, and 1,890,736 trailers or containers, up 15.8 percent from last year.

Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 13,573 cars, up 16.2 percent from the same week last year, and 8,102 trailers or containers, up 14.9 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 40 weeks of 2010 was reported as 549,304 carloads, up 20.4 percent from last year; and 268,864 trailers or containers, up 27.4 percent.

Combined North American rail volume for the first 40 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 14,886,954 carloads, up 9.8 percent from last year, and 10,818,578 trailers and containers, up 15.1 percent from last year.

U.S. DOT grants $18.7 Million in Transportation Research Grants in 11 States

U.S. Department of Transportation will grant more than $18.7 million to 11 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) that are using new technologies and developing innovative approaches to improve transportation systems throughout the country.

The awards were made by the U.S. DOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). UTCs conduct research that directly supports Department’s priorities and are a critical part of the national transportation strategy.

The largest grant when to the Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., which will use its $3,324,400 grant to extend experimental work in monitoring the health of the infrastructure of rapid transit and commuter railroad structures through partnerships with the Chicago Transit Authority and Metro North Railroad in New York. ITI will also continue long-term studies of bridge performance, combining measurements of live loads, predictions of structural responses, and measurements of actual structural response. Funds will also allow for the expansion of an already successful infrastructure summer institute for high school students.

A full list of grant recipients can be viewed at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/index.html.

RITA provides $81 million in annual funding to 136 colleges and universities conducting transportation research and providing the training needed to manage today’s transportation infrastructure through the UTC program. UTC colleges and universities trained 32,000 practicing transportation professionals in 2009. More information about the UTC program can be found at http://utc.dot.gov/.