Based on a successful
three-month trial run, strong customer satisfaction and solid system
performance, Amtrak is making free Wi-Fi a standard service offering for every
passenger traveling on its high-speed Acela Express trains operating between
Washington, D.C., and Boston and is moving forward with plans to expand it to
other routes.
The State of Pennsylvania
has signed off on the final environmental cleanup of the former Lancaster
Brickyard dump that’s destined to be the new location for Norfolk Southern’s
rail yard, the Intelligencer Journal reports.
"
Tri-City Railroad Co.
filed a lawsuit against the Port of Benton in Washington State for refusing to
recognize its exclusive rights to use a 16-mile rail line, which caused a
significant financial loss to the company, The News Tribune reports. The
railroad and the port signed a 30-year agreement in 2002 for the leasing rights
of the rail line and parts of the 1171 building located in north Richland, Wash.
That agreement to operate and maintain the track gives Tri-City Railroad the
exclusive rights of use, said Nicholas D. Kovarik, an attorney for the company.
Telecommunications
companies need to bury thousands of miles of fiber optic cable to meet their
customers’ needs, the Casper, Wyo., Star-Tribune reports. They could approach
tens of thousands of landowners and hundreds of local governments for contracts
and permits, or even seek court-ordered condemnation of property, all of which
would take years and money with no guarantee of success. Instead, they used a
150-year-old industry in Wyoming: the railroads.
Construction projects are
affecting Rapid service June 4-6 on the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit
Authority. On the East Side, from 8 p.m. Friday, June 4, through Sunday, June
6, shuttle buses will replace trains between Shaker Square and Green Road
eastbound and westbound on the Green Line. Reconstruction of the Attleboro Road
grade
The Central Corridor
Project Office in the Twin Cities will recommend a contractor in June for the heavy
construction work for the line’s eastern seven miles. The Metropolitan Council is
expected to make the award June 23.
At its May 24 meeting, the
Safford, Ariz., City Council unanimously voted to instruct city staff to
negotiate selling city land to the Arizona Eastern Railway so it can build a
rail spur to the Safford copper mine, the Eastern Arizona Courier reports.
Neil Lucey has been named a
senior vice president in the New York office of Parsons. In his new position, Lucey
will serve as area manager for PB’s New York office, responsible for client
management and project performance of all New York operations.
Customers on the Port
Authority’s PATH rail system now can simply "tap and go" with their credit
cards, under a regional six-month pilot program that began today. Eleven of
PATH’s 13 stations (except the Christopher and 9th street stations) have been
equipped with special payment readers, allowing riders to tap a contactless
credit card or other device like a key fob to pay fares.
Last summer, the sagging
economy spurred Phoenix to indefinitely delay construction of the northwestern
extension of Metro light rail, The Arizona Republic reports. But to prepare for
future light-rail construction, work in the corridor continues, in July the
city plans to begin two projects that will beautify 19th Avenue frontage roads
near Bethany Home Road and Dunlap Avenue. Motorists will see road restrictions
for several weeks starting in August.
Denver Regional
Transportation District General Manager Phillip Washington noted the completion
of recruitments for several key RTD positions. These recruitments have been
under way since February as part of GM Washington’s reorganization and
restructuring of the agency, and will not require an increase in headcount.
Each weekend in June, there
will be major track work taking place to address Metro’s priority of
maintaining a state of good repair on the Red, Blue and Green lines. In addition,
construction work on the extension of rail to Dulles will take place on the
Orange Line. All of June’s weekend projects will impact travel times and cause
delays.
Union Pacific will improve
Nebraska’s transportation infrastructure with a $5-million investment to
improve the rail line that runs from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Fremont, Neb. Work
on the more-than-33-mile stretch of railroad track began May 26 and is
scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
CN has awarded a contract
to Roche Ltd. Consulting Group of Quebec City to perform a comprehensive
engineering inspection of the Quebec Bridge, which spans the St. Lawrence River
between Quebec City and Levis.
Caltrain’s plan to
electrify and modernize Peninsula commuter rail service received a critical and
historic approval from the federal government yesterday – clearance to run the
most modern equipment available in the world. The Federal Railroad
Administration issued a waiver of longstanding rules that prohibit what is
known as "mixed traffic" – operating standard American trains and lighter rail
equipment on the same tracks.
Canadian Pacific notified
by the Teamsters Canada Maintenance of Way Employees Division that the
Memorandum of Settlement reached in April 2010 by Canadian Pacific and the TCRC
MWED has now been ratified by the membership.
Société de transport de
Montréal must temporarily close the main entrance building to Place Saint-Henri
métro station, located on Saint-Ferdinand St., to carry out renovation work. As
the renovations will extend from June 7 to August 29, bus stops will be
relocated to the corner of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Ferdinand streets.
The Memorial Day Holiday weekend Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project work on Metrorail’s Orange Line that had resulted in the disruption of rail service between the West Falls Church-VT/UVA and East Falls Church stations in northern Virginia was completed successfully and service between the two stations resumed at 5 a.m., Tuesday morning, June 1.
Three consortia that supply
smart card electronic fare payment systems and fare gates to some of the
biggest transit operations in the world have qualified to submit proposals to
supply a Smart Card and Faregate system for Vancouver’s TransLink, to be in
operation by the target date of first quarter of 2013.
Frustrated by the
clanging and banging of freight trains through their neighborhood near UC
Riverside, Calif., residents have demanded better sound protection and more
specifics on safety improvements before they support a planned expansion of
Metrolink service, The Press-Enterprise reports. But retrofitting more than 100
homes, adding underpasses and developing a community safety plan could cost
millions of dollars and potentially delay the Perris Valley Line.
