A Federal Transit
Administration study estimates the cost of bringing the nation’s rail and bus
transit systems into a state of good repair at $77.7 billion. In addition, a
yearly average of $14.4 billion would be required to maintain the systems.
The University of Illinois said
from Canadian National Railway Company made a new $325,000 donation to the
university’s Railroad Engineering Program, a gift that renews the company’s
generous commitment to railroad engineering education.
Dulles Corridor Metrorail
construction is visible all along the 11.7-mile alignment of Phase 1 of the
23-mile extension of Metro’s existing Orange Line. By early fall, construction
of all five stations between East Falls Church and Reston will be under way.
Crews are building aerial bridges to carry tracks across the westbound lanes of
I-66 near the Dulles Connector Road (Route 267) where the rail extension will
tie into the Orange Line. There is ongoing bridge construction at Pimmit Run and
Magarity Road. Pile driving activities will continue through September all
along the Connector Road as tracks are built at grade level in most areas.
With the Port Authority of
Allegheny County warning of deep service cuts ahead, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed
Rendell on July 21 threatened to use federal highway money to bail out mass
transit systems if lawmakers won’t approve higher taxes and fees, the
Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports.
A railroad consultant
predicts that high-speed trains between Hampton Roads, Va., and Washington, D.C.,
would not only be popular, but also highly profitable – operating at surpluses
of up to $1 billion a year, The Virginian-Pilot reports.
CSX Transportation’s plan
to expand its freight yard between Shrewsbury and Franklin streets in Worcester,
Mass., gained more momentum after the Planning Board last night endorsed a zone
change and to street layouts essential to the expansion project modifications, the
Telegram & Gazette reports. By a 4-0 vote, the board recommended changing
the zoning of roughly three acres along the CSXT railroad tracks to
manufacturing-general.
Beginning at 8:00 p.m. on
Friday, July 23, through Sunday, July 25, the Los Angeles Metro Blue Line
Florence Station will be closed due to systems maintenance and track replacement
at the Florence Avenue crossing. Metro customers will experience up to 20
minutes delays between the Florence and Firestone stations.
For the next several weeks
BART will run northbound Pittsburg/Bay Point line trains on a single track due
to ongoing weekend track work for the Central Contra Costa Crossover Project. Single-tracking
will take place on weekends only and the agency expects to complete this work in late
September. Single-tracking may result in delays of up to 15 minutes on weekend
trains going toward the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station.
Kansas City Southern said
that its Mexican subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. estimates
that, if there are no new complications, its Nuevo Laredo gateway will be
reopened for service sometime the weekend of July24-25 with the Anahuac Bridge
repairs under way and expected to be in service by then. With the anticipated
restoration of service, all current service embargoes imposed on July 3 are
expected to be lifted early the week of July 25.
Pandrol USA has been awarded the contract
to supply captive fastenings for the concrete tie to wood tie change out on the
MBTA’s Old Colony Line in the Boston area.
Norfolk Southern is about
to clear the final hurdle needed to begin work on its Rossville intermodal
terminal, where cargo containers will be transferred between trucks and trains,
The Memphis Daily News reports. The Norfolk, Va.-based railroad, which is
preparing to formally break ground on the massive $112-million project, will
unveil the federally mandated environmental assessment that was recently
approved in preparation for the facility.
Moline, Ill., is one step
closer to being a hub in the return of passenger rail service to the
Quad-Cities, the Quad-City Times reports. In a unanimous vote July 20, the city
council approved spending $993,000 to purchase property near existing railroad
tracks for conversion to an Amtrak terminal. The property is at 1201 4th Ave.,
the site of the O’Rourke Building, and an adjacent vacant parcel at 323 13th
St. The property is owned by High Rent LLC.
The state has offered $18
million to purchase the 233 miles of rail line that Montreal Maine &
Atlantic Railway is seeking to abandon in Aroostook and Penobscot counties, the
Maine Public broadcasting Network reports.
Officials estimate
construction of the long-awaited Colton Crossing project in Southern California
will be complete sometime in 2014, the Contra Costa Times reports.
After months of
construction in downtown Norfolk, Va., light rail is coming into focus – as are
the latest questions about Hampton Roads Transit’s long-anticipated project,
local media report. Major construction wrapped up earlier this month, and
testing will begin in the fall. Now the city is counting down to see if the
Tide makes its scheduled start date of next May.
Track improvements will
start this September to allow trains to travel at much faster speeds between
Chicago and St. Louis, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. An agreement between the
Illinois Department of Transportation and Union Pacific will allow track
upgrades to be made on a 90-mile segment of UP track to prepare it for
high-speed rail.
In the 100 days since the
voters of St. Louis County invested their trust and new financial resources in
Metro through passage of Proposition A, the agency has taken real and
meaningful steps toward keeping its pledges to all of the residents of the St.
Louis region, President and CEO Robert J. Baer said.
(The following column was
written by Tom Brooks, the Alaska Railroad’s chief engineer, and appeared in
the Anchorage, Alaska, Daily News.) Inspectors from the Federal Railroad
Administration–the regulatory agency with safety-related authority over all
U.S. railroads–were back in Alaska earlier this summer. Among other things,
FRA inspectors require the Alaska Railroad Corporation to improve weed control.
Amtrak is offering its
expert guidance on station development to communities in Illinois, Iowa and
Wisconsin where new state-supported Amtrak service is planned to begin in the
next three years. As a part of its Great American Stations Project, Amtrak is hosting
local and state leaders in a Civic Conversation with a special focus on the
development of stations on planned Chicago routes to Dubuque, Iowa, via
Rockford, Ill.; to Iowa City via the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities; and to Madison,
Wis., via Milwaukee.
In
1995 when railroad veteran Michael Haverty joined Kansas City Southern Railway
as chief executive, the carrier seemed to be chugging into a long, dark tunnel
with no exit, The Kansas City Star reports. The future for the Kansas City
railroad appeared anything but bright. Mergers in the rail industry were
creating mega-carriers in the nation’s western half. The giants, Burlington
Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific, were threatening to overwhelm Kansas City
Southern, the smallest of the major carriers, with its network running from the
heartland to the Gulf Coast.
