Pennsylvania has applied
for a $1.6-million federal grant from the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail
Program to study possible expansion of rail service between Ohio and New York
State through Erie, Governor Edward G. Rendell said. If selected for the
federal grant, PennDOT will invest $400,000 in state funds to complete the
study.
Los Angeles-area Metrolink
maintenance crews will be performing work along Metrolink’s Ventura Line
railroad tracks Memorial Day weekend. The track maintenance activities will
include the removal and replacement of crossties, rail and concrete panels at the
railroad crossing at Lindley Avenue between Parthenia and Napa Streets.
National Coal Corp. said its
wholly-owned subsidiary NC Railroad Inc has sold a shortline railroad that runs
between Oneida and Devonia, Tenn., to R.J. Corman Railroad Property LLC for $3
million, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports.
The Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors adopted a $3.8-billion
budget for Fiscal Year 2010-11. The spending plan is $47 million less than the
current Metro budget but still advances a variety of transportation
improvements for the region including a spate of new highway and transit
building projects. These are funded largely with federal stimulus funds and the
new Measure R transit sales tax.
A Colton, Calif.,
railroad overpass meant to unclog a crowded Southern California freight
corridor has been approved by a key state panel, ending a two-month logjam that
jeopardized the $202-million project, The Press-Enterprise reports. The
California Transportation Commission on May 19 unanimously agreed to spend $91
million in state transportation bond money to build the Colton Crossing. The
decision also frees $33.8 million in federal stimulus money for the project.
"The climate change and energy draft
legislation ‘The American Power Act’ proposed by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.)
and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) undermines investment in one of the most-effective
tools consumers use to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and combat climate
change – public transportation," says a statement by American Public
Transportation Association President William Millar. The current climate change
and energy proposal diverts the vast majority of new transportation revenue to
areas other than public transit and transportation investment.
(The following statement
s issued by Los Angeles Metro CEO Art Leahy, with quotes from Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa and MTA Board Chair Ara Najarian.) Today’s action by the
California Transportation Commission (CTC) approving funding for Positive Train
Control is a major victory for our region. PTC is a major safety enhancement
for passenger rail service throughout the region.
While Worcester, mass., City
Manager Michael V. O’Brien has committed to coming back to the City Council in
three weeks with a deal to address issues associated with CSX Transportation’s.
freight yard expansion plan, some doubts are being raised about whether the
biggest obstacle – finding a new roadway connection from Shrewsbury Street to
Franklin Street – can be achieved, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Washington, D.C., Metro
General Manager Richard Sarles testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies of the U.S.
Senate Committee on Appropriations May 19 and reiterated the transit agency’s
request for $150 million in fiscal year 2011.
In doing so, Sarles provided a
description of his back-to-basics action plan to improve the safety and service
reliability of the Metro system.
Crews were working
through the night to finish two railroad bridges in Benton City, Wash., by 6
a.m. May 20, the Bellingham Herald reports. Construction of the BNSF ballast-deck
bridges with concrete girders started early May 19. Both are 121 feet long and
will allow traffic to pass under the railroad tracks.
The Norfolk Light Rail station
at Norfolk State University is one of 11 Light Rail stations that will run on
the 7.4 miles of track from Eastern Virginia Medical School to Newtown Road,
local media report. It’s the only station that will sit high above city streets
and will have an elevator for passengers.
The city of Boise, Idaho,
will move forward with a new study that could improve the freight rail system
in the Treasure Valley, television station KTVB reports. Mayor Dave Bieter
calls this a "major step forward" in Boise’s economic future. If this
facility is built, it will be the only one of its kind between Ogden, Utah, and
Portland, Oregon. The facility would allow freight cargo to go from
rail-to-truck and vice versa.
Customers can expect
lengthy delays of up to 30 minutes May 21-23 as old track components are
replaced on Washington, D.C., Metrorail’s Red, Orange and Green lines, causing
inbound and outbound trains to take turns sharing one track on portions of the
rail system.
The Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners authorized the agency to move ahead
with the purchase and redevelopment of Greenville Yards, a century-old rail
yard in Jersey City, N.J., that will serve as the lynchpin to removing up to
360,000 trash trucks annually from trans-Hudson crossings and New Jersey
highways by moving New York City’s sealed containerized solid waste and other
commodities by barge and rail when appropriate facilities are completed by
2013.
Holland L.P., based in
Crete, Ill., is using a medium-term insurance policy from the Export-Import
Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to support its export of railroad-track
equipment to a private-sector buyer in Brazil.
Unitrac Railroad
Materials, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Healey Railroad Corporation and a
specialty trackwork manufacturer and distributor of new and relay rail, has
been awarded a $2.2-million special trackwork contract from Metro North.
Federal Transit
Administrator Peter Rogoff told business and transit stakeholders gathered in
Boston that the Obama Administration is committed to keeping the nation’s
transit systems efficient and maintained and asked for a similar commitment
from them.
During the regular
meeting, the Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority Board adopted 10
resolutions, including: 2010-35, Authorizing a $150,000 contract with Standard Contracting
and Engineering Inc. of
Brook Park to install upgraded ADA ramps and sidewalks at the Flats-East Bank
Rapid Station on the Waterfront Line, the West 98-Cudell Rapid Station on the
Red Line, the Parma Transit Center, the North Coast Rapid Station eastbound
platform on the Waterfront Line, the West Third Street Rapid Station eastbound
platform on the Waterfront Line, and the Euclid Park-N-Ride lot. The bid is 49
percent lower than the engineer’s estimate.
Industry has proposed an
agreement that, with government assistance, might keep rail service in Grand
Forks, B.C., said Mayor Brian Taylor. A group of shippers that use the
railway, including Pacific Abrasives and Interfor, contacted Omnitrax, which
owns the Kettle Falls International Railroad, the Grand Forks Gazette reports.
America’s railroads honored
the industry’s safety achievements and celebrated railroads with the best
employee safety records at the annual E.H. Harriman Awards. According to the
Association of American Railroads (AAR), 2009 was the safest year ever for
railroads, with significant milestones achieved across the board in reduced
train accidents, employee casualties and grade crossing collisions
