BART Board approves $582.1 million budget, includes $4.5 million surplus

BART customers are going to see many improvements to their commute thanks to the budget the agency’s Board of Directors passed for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The Board also allocated money to temporarily lower fares by three percent for four months – although the fare reduction is contingent upon the outcome of a series of meetings designed in part to gather public input on the impacts on a temporary fare drop on low-income, minority and limited English speaking communities.

Amtrak to run VRE for another two weeks

Amtrak will continue to operate Virginia Railway Express trains until July 12 at a cost of $335,000. Keolis, the French firm that won the operation contract last fall, has had problems getting its conductor and engineering crews approved to operate the trains. Initially, Keolis had hoped to hire the line’s exiting Amtrak employees. That plan failed and delayed additional hiring.

Barclays Capital: Strong 2Q earnings forecast for rails

A Barclays Capital analyst said the nation’s railroads are likely to report strong earnings in the second quarter as the economy recovers and they keep costs under control, the Associated Press reports.

Analyst Gary Chase said growing volumes, improving prices and strict cost controls should lead major railroads to report better-than-expected earnings for the April to June period.

U.S. railroads are a good investment, Chase said, as the economy continues to accelerate. They also aren’t exposed to troubles in Europe, leaving fewer risks.

Chase said his favorite rail investment is Eastern railroad Norfolk Southern Corp. So far this quarter, shipping volume is better than Chase had expected, especially in the Eastern U.S. as exports pick up.

He thinks prices will continue to rise this quarter and for the rest of the year as demand improves. And costs appear to be under control, Chase noted, as hiring in the sector remains slow.

UP marks crossing safety milestone in Nebraska

Union Pacific Railroad’s North Platte Service Unit, which encompasses most of the 1,067 miles of track Union Pacific operates in Nebraska, has gone more than 200 days without a public grade-crossing collision. The last private-crossing collision occurred in November 2009.

"All of the Union Pacific North Platte Service Unit employees want to thank the thousands of drivers who have obeyed warning devices at grade crossings in our area and hope everyone continues to drive their vehicles safely when they approach railroad crossings," said Chad Wilbourn, Union Pacific’s general superintendent transportation services – North Platte Service Unit.

Law enforcement representatives from Union Pacific Railroad Police and the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office recently teamed up to remind motorists of highway-railroad grade crossing laws as part of a program called Union Pacific’s Crossing Accident Reduction Education and Safety (UP CARES).

The railroad and local law enforcement officers did not issue any citations to motorists for highway-railroad grade crossings violations.

The Kearney area was chosen by the UP CARES task force for this enforcement effort because of reports from UP employees and local officials of continued violations by motorists who do not obey the warning devices at area crossings. The UP CARES task force is made up of Union Pacific police officers who work with city, county and state police officers to enforce highway-railroad grade crossing laws.

UP CARES is part of the Operation Lifesaver program, where police officers ride on trains to observe motorist behavior at highway-railroad grade crossings. If a motorist violates the grade crossing traffic laws, the officer on the train radios to an officer positioned near the crossing, who can issue the motorist a citation.

In 2009, there were 41 highway-railroad grade crossing collisions in Nebraska resulting in nine fatalities and 18 injuries, compared to 48 collisions resulting in two deaths and 20 injuries in 2008. These figures include all Nebraska railroads and public along with private crossing collisions.

BNSF to replace Burlington Bridge approach spans

BNSF will begin work this month on replacing seven approach spans on the Mississippi River bridge at Burlington, Iowa. Construction of the new approaches will complement a separate construction project that began last year to replace the bridge’s swing span with a new lift span over the navigation channel.

Construction of the replacement approach spans will use new reinforced concrete foundations with 250-foot steel bridge spans. When combined with the replacement of the movable span over the navigation channel, the entire bridge will have been rebuilt to 21st century engineering standards.

"The Burlington Bridge is a vital link in our nation’s transportation infrastructure. The new approaches will improve the Bridge’s overall rail capacity for freight and passenger movement," said David Freeman, vice president, Engineering, BNSF. "Together with the new lift span, these approaches will mean an entirely new bridge that will benefit Iowa and Illinois, as well as customers and passengers all along the BNSF Chicago to Denver corridor."

BNSF decided to proceed with replacement of the approach spans to take advantage of an economically favorable construction environment. Walsh Construction of Chicago will be the prime contractor on the approach span project. The new approaches are scheduled to be complete by December 2011.

 

Lift Span Project Update

 

Work is also continuing on replacement of the Bridge’s old swing span with a modern lift span, which will increase the river navigation channel width from 150 feet to 307 feet 6 inches. By mid summer, Burlington residents will be able to see construction of the new truss for the lift span as it is assembled on barges downstream of the existing bridge. Ames Construction is the contractor on the lift span project, which is scheduled to be completed by March 2011. In addition to the lift span, one fixed span on the east side will be replaced with three smaller, temporary spans.

BNSF expects the fixed span will be floated out and replaced with the three temporary spans in early September. The temporary span replacement needs to be done to make way for the new lift span which will be floated into place in December of 2010. The lift span project is financed primarily through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and previous appropriations under the Truman-Hobbs Act, which provides federal funding for altering bridges found to be unreasonably obstructive to navigation. The Burlington Bridge is one of the top three U.S. bridges most frequently struck by barges or towing vessels.

The Burlington Bridge is used by about 30 trains a day, including two Amtrak trains linking Chicago to Denver and points in between. The bridge opens about 300 times a month to let river traffic pass. About 24 million tons of waterborne commerce passed through the bridge in 2008.

Editorial: Freight train future lies in technology

(The following story appeared on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Website. By Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric and Wick Moorman, chairman and CEO of Norfolk Southern.)

Recent reports indicate that manufacturing in the United States is ready to rebound. Factory orders in certain sectors are showing their sharpest uptick in almost five years. No doubt, this is a good sign for the economy’s recovery. It is also a sign that now is the time to address America’s growing transportation infrastructure challenge to meet these expected demands and spur new growth.

America needs more and better infrastructure to move the steel, coal, industrial equipment and products that we need for daily life. Experts say that over the next 25 years, the demand for freight-moving capacity will increase by more than 90 percent.

Anyone who has spent time idling on a clogged interstate will agree – adding more trucks to move freight over the highways is an unsustainable solution. But what is sustainable, and what is practical – both environmentally and economically – is using railroads to carry more of the load. A freight train can move a ton of freight an average of 480 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel.

Economists project that if just 10 percent of long-distance freight now carried on highways were switched to rail, the national fuel savings would exceed 1 billion gallons a year.

Fortunately, the nation’s railroads are looking ahead. The improvement through a public-private partnership of Norfolk Southern’s Crescent Corridor route, a 2,500-mile rail network from Memphis and New Orleans to the Northeast, is one example. But laying more tracks isn’t the only solution. There are also answers in technology.

A breakthrough technology known as RailEdge Movement Planner can enable railroads to accommodate more freight faster without laying a single new track. We think this GE-developed technology – something like a next-generation air traffic control system for trains – is the future of railroading.

Simply put, it’s about optimizing the railroad resources that are already in place. The RailEdge Movement Planner software processes train schedules, traffic control systems and train movements relative to each other – across an entire network – to create an optimized traffic plan, even down to the optimal speed a particular train should travel. Never before has it been possible to integrate so many variables into the "perfect travel plan."

An optimized travel plan increases on-time deliveries, since trains are specifically routed to avoid delays. It also translates into tangible performance benefits as it increases the average network train velocity speed by 10 percent to 20 percent, or 2 to 4 mph. One mph in velocity improvement can save approximately $200 million in capital and expense annually.

A two to four mph increase might not sound like a lot, but in freight rail it is a big leap forward. For example, without RailEdge Movement Planner, a freight train leaving Louisville, Ky., would typically arrive in Macon in about 27 hours. With RailEdge Movement Planner, that same train could arrive in 22.5 hours, saving more than four hours of travel. Having pioneered the implementation of the software on a 200-mile section of railroad in Georgia, Norfolk Southern will be implementing it on all its tracks nationwide over the next two years.

This is one technology solution to the infrastructure challenge. There will be others. We agree with Warren Buffett’s observation that, "Our country’s prosperity depends on its having an efficient and well-maintained rail system."

While the United States is focusing on an efficient passenger rail system through high-speed rail, the need for investment in new technology development to improve speed and efficiency in freight is equally important. Indeed, according to U.S. Department of Commerce, every $1 spent on investments in freight railroading yields $3 in economic output, and each $1 billion in rail investment creates 20,000 jobs. The American economy may be chugging back to life now, but over the long haul an investment in the development of more innovations like these will be needed.

Sound Transit schedules East Link community meetings






On April 22, Seattle’s
Sound Transit Board announced its preference for an East Link light rail route
that runs on 112th Avenue between Downtown and Bellevue Way. While the Bellevue
City Council prefers an alternate route (B7, next to I-405), the 112th Avenue
alignment could be Sound Transit’s final choice.

John E. Barrett honored with SEAOI’s John Parmer Award






John E. Barrett, P.E., S.E., vice chairman of
Bowman, Barrett & Associates (BB&A), was honored with the John Parmer
Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI). The award
is presented each year to a structural engineer in recognition of outstanding
contributions in the field of structural engineering whose distinguished career
is acknowledged by peers to be an example of excellence.

Canada commits C$600 million to build Ottawa’s light rail plan






The Canadian federal
government will contribute C$600 million to transform Ottawa’s transit system,
making a switch from buses to light rail with a downtown tunnel through the
city’s core and 12.5 kilometers (7.75 miles) of light rail between Blair Road
and Tunney’s Pasture, local media report. Transport Minister John Baird made
the long-awaited announcement June 8, matching the funding already promised by
the Ontario government.

City of Worcester, CSXT reach $23-million rail yard agreement






Massachusetts and Worcester, Mass.,
officials have reached a tentative agreement with CSX Corp. on a $23-million
traffic improvement and neighborhood mitigation package that would accompany
expansion of the company’s freight yards between Shrewsbury and Franklin
streets, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports.

Maryland Transit seeks community input to plan Red Line stations






The Maryland Transit
Administration (MTA) is seeking community partners to design future Red Line
stations. Station Area Advisory Committees will begin meeting this fall to
provide input on key aspects of Red Line station design and station area
planning. Interested community stakeholders such as station area residents,
businesses, churches, organizations and institutions may nominate themselves to
serve on a committee.

Planner: ‘Solid study’ attracts federal rail dollars






The key to getting federal
support for a railroad project is a solid study that supports it, a
Massachusetts planner told local business leaders, the Bristol, Conn., Press
reports. Tim Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission in Springfield, told an audience at the Central Connecticut Chambers
of Commerce the story behind the successful Knowledge Corridor rail line in his
region.

Editorial: Keep Amtrak on UP track in Oregon






(The following editorial,
"Keeping the train on track," appeared in the Clackamas, Ore., Review.)
We support the Oregon Department of Transportation’s efforts to increase the
speed and efficiency of passenger rail along the I-5 corridor, a move that
could boost ridership and offset traffic congestion as the population grows in
the future.

UCSD laser to hunt ‘tumors’ in railway lines






University of California
San Diego has built a prototype laser to search for cracks inside rail lines,
the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. UC San Diego engineers are preparing to
test an experimental laser that looks for the kind of cracks inside railway
lines that are responsible for many of the 130 or so derailments that occur
nationwide each year.

LA Gold Line Extension still needs crucial agreements






The Metro Gold Line
Extension is on track for a June 26 groundbreaking. But there’s still some
major business to be worked out to make sure the project, funded with $810
million in voter-approved dollars, is not derailed, the San Gabriel Valley
Tribune reports.