Florida pledges to seek funds for high-speed rail






February 14, 2001

Several members of the
U.S. House of Representatives held a field hearing Monday in Miami to review
national high-speed rail plans, including Florida’s project to build a
high-speed line between Miami and Tampa via Orlando partly funded by Obama
administration stimulus money, the Miami Herald reports. While Florida sought
$2.5 billion for the Tampa-Orlando stretch and $30 million to advance the
Orlando-Miami leg, the Federal Railroad Administration granted Florida $1.25
billion for Tampa-Orlando and nothing for Orlando-Miami.

IBM introduces software to aid air, rail transportation






IBM unveiled a new software
framework designed to transform the way airlines and rail companies track and
manage critical aspects of their businesses. Transportation systems are
tremendously asset-intensive and use large amounts of energy. Using IBM’s
advanced information management, analytics, automation and process integration
software, airlines and rail companies can model and manage optimal routes,
schedules, and capacity in near real-time and ultimately improve the consumer’s
travel experience while minimizing energy costs.

CN says its precision railroading model, innovations improve rail service






CN said today that
customer-focused innovation and balanced accountability among transportation
partners are the keys to improving the effectiveness of Canada’s logistics
supply chain. CN, in a submission to the Rail Freight Service Review panel
appointed by the Canadian government, said hard facts compiled for the panel
establish the quality of CN’s rail transportation product, most notably in
terms of hub-to-hub transit time performance.

CN signs mitigation agreement with Village of Barrington Hills, Ill.






CN has reached a voluntary
mitigation agreement (VMA) with the Village of Barrington Hills, Ill., located
approximately 40 miles northwest of Chicago, addressing the municipality’s
environmental and safety concerns with CN’s acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet
and Eastern Railway Company. With this agreement, CN has VMAs with 22 of the 33
communities situated on the EJ&E in Illinois and Indiana.

Caltrain begins San Bruno grade-separation project






Construction begins Monday,
May 3, on a rainwater control project in San Bruno, Calif., the first step in a
grade-separation project that will result in dramatic safety improvements at a
key series of intersections in that community. Caltrain will build a new
underground box culvert to divert water away from the area during the
construction and help reduce flooding in the neighborhood east of the railroad
tracks.

Carlsbad, Calif., double-tracking project to begin in June






Starting in mid-June,
contractors will add a second set of tracks to a 2-mile stretch of the coastal
railway through Carlsbad, Calif., the North County Times reports. Having a
double set of tracks will provide new passing points for trains and reduce
delays for both local Coaster commuter trains and Amtrak long-distance trains,
John Eschenbach, senior project manager for Amtrak, said.

RailComm DOC® Yard Automation System in production at CSXT Avon Yard






RailComm has provided a
wireless remote control yard system at CSX Transportation’s Avon Yard in
Indianapolis. The RailComm Domain Operations Controller (DOC®)
System provides remote control to several GETS HydraSwitch machines. RailComm’s
DOC® system is configured to control all switches individually as
well as provide eNtrance eXit (NX) routing functionality. 


TransLink’s Statutory Annual Report tracks accomplishments






British Columbia’s
TransLink delivered significant, promised expansion in road and transit
infrastructure and services in 2009 to Metro Vancouver, while also dealing with
softer revenues to successfully reduce the size of its forecast deficit. Metro
Vancouver’s transportation authority prioritized, ensuring that services and
efficiency worked together to produce value-for-money for customers and
taxpayers.

Editorial: Divert trains carrying hazmat






(The following editorial appeared
in the Fort Worth, Texas, Star Telegram.) America’s railroads have a good track
record when it comes to hauling toxic inhalants. Accidents are extremely rare
even though volume is extremely high — trains hauled 72,000 tank cars of such
dangerous cargo in 2008.

Pumping up rail Pennsylvania freight capacity a heavy load






PennDOT says moving
freight by rail eases congestion on highways, saves fuel costs and, with some
enhancements to the current lines, the state could improve upon its position as
an important crossroads for the rest of the country, the Beaver County Times
reports. A PennDOT study released earlier this month outlines what officials
hope will be the future of the rail industry-freight and passenger-and spells
out what needs to happen to achieve the goals the report sets for 2035. And
while the report makes it clear that many of the goals must be achieved by both
sides of the industry, it sets a few priorities for specific improvements that
will help improve freight rail in the state.

Business may help put rail service back on track






Freight traffic could
resume on the Upper Hudson River Railroad as soon as next year, as a northern
Warren County business seeks to get its product to market more cheaply, the Post
Star reports. Barton Mines would use trains to transport product from its North
River mines to markets right now, if it could, said Chuck Barton, chief
operating officer of the company.

TxDOT taking rail funds for roads






(The following column by
Sens. Jeff Wentworth and Wendy Davis and Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon appeared May
3, 2010, in the Houston Chronicle. State legislator Wentworth is a Republican
from San Antonio, Davis is a Democrat from Fort Worth, and McClendon is a
Democrat from San Antonio.) Transportation advocates
won a hard-fought victory during the 2009 legislative session by securing $182
million in financing for the Texas Railroad Relocation and Improvement Fund,
created by the voters through a constitutional amendment passed in 2005 but
never funded. Sadly, the state’s transportation bureaucracy at the Texas
Department of Transportation is using a budgetary shell game to thwart the will
of the Legislature and steal this victory from the public.

CSXT limits N.Y. train speeds






CSX Transportation, citing
safety concerns, has told the New York Department of Transportation that
passenger trains traveling faster than 90 mph would have to do so in a separate
corridor located at least 30 feet away from the nearest freight track, the
Albany Times Union reports.

WMATA sets May weekend track maintenance schedule






In May, there will be no
train service between the WMATA East Falls Church and West Falls Church-VT/UVA
Metrorail stations in Virginia during the Memorial Day holiday weekend as the
Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project will undertake the first in a series of major
construction activities that will eventually connect the new rail line to the
existing Metrorail system. Additionally, Metro will replace fasteners and
conduct bridge repair work on the Red Line and replace ties and weld rail on
the Orange and Green lines. Customers should expect significant travel delays
during the weekends of May 7-9, May 14-16, May 21-23 and May 28-31 as intervals
between trains will be lengthy. 



Railroad construction project prompts train engineers to whistle






February 14, 2001

Alexandria, Va., has
become a whistle stop town – in more ways than one. Trains have been a regular
feature of city life here since before the Civil War. But lately they’ve been
making a ruckus. All over Alexandria, the sound of train whistles has been
heard at all hours of the night and day, the Alexandria Gazette Packet reports.

PATH SmartCard use grows as part of overall rail modernization program






February 14, 2001

Sales of SmartCards for
travel on PATH trains has hit a record, jumping to more than 50 percent of
market share on the rail line. SmartCard use, which has tripled in two years,
has eclipsed use of MetroCards, which total about 40 percent of payment methods
on PATH lines. PATH QuickCards make up most of the remainder of fare choices. PATH’s
Automated Fare Collection System was installed in 2003 to phase-out obsolete
payment methods of cash and magnetic-strip cards.