National Transportation
Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman appeared before a U.S. House of
Representatives subcommittee to discuss the final report and safety recommendations
from the NTSB’s investigation into the fatal June 2009 collision of two
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains on the Red Line
in Washington, D.C.
The Metropolitan Council awarded
Aldridge/Collisys, a joint venture, an $87.9-million systems contract to build
the traction-power substations and overhead contact system for the Central
Corridor LRT Project. Aldridge/Collisys
also will construct the communications system, train-to-wayside communications,
radio, public address system and train control system with control centers,
wayside signals and remotely controlled power-operated switches.
The public is invited to a
community meeting about the San Bruno, Calif., Grade Separation Project from
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Sept. 30 at Belle Air School in San Bruno. The meeting
will include a presentation on the project, which will elevate the Caltrain
tracks above San Bruno, San Mateo and Angus avenues. The project also includes
a new elevated train station between San Bruno and San Mateo avenues that will
replace the current station, three pedestrian underpasses and a new parking lot
with 191 spaces. In addition, Posy Park and the streets and sidewalks in the
neighborhood will be improved.
(The following column,
"Don’t let this opportunity slip away: Keep Hudson rail tunnel project on
track," was written by Martin E. Robins and appeared Sept. 23, 2010, in
the Newark, N.J., Star Ledger. Robins is director emeritus of the Alan M.
Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, was the original project
director of Access to the Region’s Core from 1994 through 1998.) No one can blame Gov. Chris
Christie for his 30-day moratorium on the Access to the Region’s Core project,
the enormous undertaking to build a new passenger rail tunnel under the Hudson
River. But he must do everything in his power not to let this extraordinarily
valuable public works project slip away over exaggerated fears of future costs
that may never materialize.
Continuing to emphasize the
priority of safety, Washington, D.C., Metro’s Customer Service, Operations and
Safety Committee has recommended that the full Board of Directors establish a
Safety and Security Committee and that the Board also adopt a new mission
statement that clearly places safety at the forefront of the transit agency.
The
actions serve to demonstrate the transit agency’s commitment to safety as its
top priority and address a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety
Board for increased safety oversight by the Metro Board, which is expected to
vote on the recommendations at its regular monthly meeting on Sept. 30.
Though the local permitting
process for the project seemingly crawls along, officials at CSX Transportation
are hopeful that their $100-million plan to expand the company’s freight yard
behind Union Station will be completed by 2012, the Telegram reports.
Rotted wood was the only
thing holding the rails together, the San Angelo Standard Times reports. Now
government entities have secured funds to put in new railroad ties, new
railroad crossings, new rails and a new bridge, with construction having
already begun near downtown San Angelo, Texas.
An upgrade to the railway
signal system near Rahway, N.J., Station will have a major impact on weekend
rail commuters, NJToday reports.
Adrian Share and Conrad
Blankenzee have joined HNTB Corporation to work in the firm’s growing
high-speed rail practice in Florida. HNTB, in a joint partnership with Wilbur
Smith Associates, was selected by the Florida Department of Transportation in
March 2010 as the program manager for passenger rail in the state of Florida,
primarily the link between Tampa and Orlando.
The historic Union Depot in
St. Paul, Minn., is on the road to restoration, the Star-Tribune reports. The
Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority on Sept. 21 approved a $149-million
construction contract for the renovation and transformation of the building
into a transportation hub. The vote was 6 to 1, with Commissioner Janice
Rettman dissenting.
Harsco Corporation said two
follow-on orders in its Harsco Rail track maintenance business group are valued
at more than $15 million and that both of them continue Harsco’s strong
presence in providing specialized rail grinding equipment and services to
leading U.S. and international railways.
Railroad maintenance
crews have been a thorn in the side of Pittsburg, Kan., drivers for about a
month, blocking some streets for up to a week at a time, The Morning Sun reports.
And those drivers could have to wait a few more days before the repair crews
have finished their job.
Mike Cory, CN Rail’s
senior vice-president in the Western Region, attended the Prince Rupert, B.C.,
and District Chamber of Commerce lunch to speak about the bright future of
Prince Rupert’s Port, and made a donation on behalf of CN to the Prince Rupert
Heritage Advisory Committee for the Pillsbury House, The Northern View reports.
While some feel the trains
need to blow their horns for safety purposes when traveling through a populated
area, others have grown tiresome of hearing the whistle at all times of the day
and night and have called upon the city to apply for Quiet Zone status, The
Troy Record reports.
After New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie stalled the project over cost concerns, a local lawmaker is suggesting
a $2 surcharge on commuter fares to raise funds for a new underground rail tunnel
that would traverse the Hudson River, Website njtoday.net reports.
Recent track
improvements will allow Union Pacific to increase the speed of its trains in
two eastern Nebraska communities, reducing motorist wait time at
crossings. In Columbus, Neb., the
speed will increase from 50 mph to 70 mph and in Grand Island the speed will
increase from 60 mph to 70 mph.
Five years after a
federal earmark was announced for repairs to the Virginia Railway Express train
station in Fredericksburg, Va., work has begun, the Freelance Star reports. Temporary
chain-link fences and orange barrels surrounded the construction zone Sept. 20.
The first phase will run until Oct. 15. The entire rehabilitation project will
take a year.
CSX Transportation needs to
clean up its act when it comes to crumbling railroad bridges, U.S. Sen. Sherrod
Brown told the Lorain, Ohio, Morning Tribune. Citing debris falling from Lorain’s
28th Street underpass, Brown wrote to CSXT Chief Executive Officer Michael
Ward. He encouraged swift action to ensure falling concrete, wood and screws
don’t harm pedestrians or the drivers of cars and trucks going under the
railroad bridges.
Patrick Donovan,
executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority, is resigning and
taking a position as director of the National Maritime Enhancement Center at
Marshall University, one of four centers of its kind in the United States, The
Herald-Dispatch reports. He will be an employee of the Marshall University
Research Corporation and housed at the Rahall Transportation Institute.
Swiss manufacturer,
Amberg Technologies has now delivered 288 GRP track-surveying systems to China,
where they are being used for precise construction of their massive high-speed
rail program. The Amberg Slab Track surveying system includes the GRP 1000
survey trolley powered by the Amberg Rail-Slab Track software application
module.
