Leaving a little earlier
in the morning or a little later in the afternoon will help ensure a punctual,
uninterrupted ride for Amtrak Missouri River Runner passengers through the
middle of June. Maintenance work on the Union Pacific tracks near Sedalia is
causing Amtrak to temporarily adjust its schedules from April 25 to June 16,
2010.
The public is needed to
provide input into the first phase of the Vancouver, B.C., UBC Line Rapid Transit Study. Community
consultation meetings for this phase of the study start the week of April 19 and
continue through mid-May.
MTA New York City Transit
is beginning an Alternatives Analysis Study that will look at improving transit
service on the North Shore of Staten Island. The first open house will be held
on April 22 to discuss the re-use of the former Staten Island Railway North
Shore Branch. The public is invited to come and comment on potential
alternatives to be considered, the goals and objectives of the study and other
concerns.
A familiar Philip Shucet
project from his days as commissioner of the Virginia Department of
Transportation is now coming to Hampton Roads Transit, local media report.
On April 22, Shucet, now president of HRT, will unveil the "HRT Performance
Dashboard." The online tracking tool allows the public to see how efficiently
HRT is completing tasks.
As the Senate
contemplates sweeping climate change legislation, the OneRail Coalition
submitted a letter to Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
and Joseph Leiberman (I-Conn.) urging them to carefully weigh the implications
of such a policy on different transportation modes. The group urged the
Senators to "ensure that such funds could not be misallocated to the detriment
of sustainable, environmentally favorable and energy efficient transportation
solutions."
(The following editorial appeared
in the Christian Science Monitor.) Unlike in the United States, air passengers
stranded in Europe because of the effects of a volcano have more transportation
options with highly interconnected and efficient trains, buses, and ferries.
A railroad lifeline to
hundreds of jobs in Jackson, Vinton and Ross counties in Ohio will be made
stronger as a project to improve service, reliability and safety on the City of
Jackson-owned line that got the official notice to proceed from the Ohio Rail
Development Commission. The notice to proceed has been sent to city officials.
Preliminary engineering
for surface improvements to Tower 55 will begin soon following an April 8 vote
to fund the project by the Regional Transportation Council, the Ft. Worth Business
Press reports. The at-grade surface improvements for the congested Tower 55 rail
yard, widely considered to be the most congested rail yard in the United
States, are expected to cost about $95 million. The yard sits at the southwest
corner of the intersection of interstates 35-W and 30.
Portec Rail Group‐Sheffield,
part of Portec Rail Products, Inc., appointed Mark Allen as the Head of
Engineering (Rail) U.K. Allen
brings a wealth of specialist experience from within the U.K. rail industry. He
joined the Rail industry via the
Railtrack U.K. Graduate Training Scheme in 1997 having achieved a degree in
civil engineering and engineering management and being previously employed
within the civil engineering sector.
Improvements to Metra’s
Union Pacific West Line this spring and summer run the gamut from expediting
freight trains to stopping pedestrians from zipping around lowered crossing
gates, the Daily Herald reports. The joint Metra/Union
Pacific project started in 2009 and will finish in 2011, but commuters in
DuPage and Kane counties should see some significant changes this year,
officials said at a Metra board meeting.
U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said
that Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) of
Portland, Ore., will receive $2.4 million in federal research funds to support
the development of streetcar components that will be made in the U.S.A.
TriMet
will use the funds to support the development of a domestically-produced
streetcar propulsion system, as well as initial work to develop a streetcar
that can operate for short distances without power from overhead wires,
allowing the potential for streetcar service to be introduced where historic,
environmental, or other concerns limit the installation of overhead wires.
Port officials in Coos Bay,
Ore., expect to sign a deal with Union Pacific as soon as next week to take
control of the rail line between the North Spit and Coquille, The World
reports. Port commissioners approved an agreement that Executive Director
Jeffery Bishop has been working on for nearly a year, said spokesman Martin
Callery. The deal means rail service can reopen as soon as next year, all the
way from Eugene to Coquille — an important step for southern Coos County shippers.
The
Metropolitan Council and University of Minnesota have reached an interim
agreement that will allow construction to proceed this summer on the Central
Corridor light rail transit project while fully protecting the university’s
sensitive research facilities.
CSX Corporation is
celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with a week-long celebration
around its network that includes rail yard clean sweeps, employee engagement
and education activities and local beautification projects.
MTA Long Island Rail Road
train service between Babylon and Speonk, N.Y., will be suspended for the
weekend of April 24-25 so LIRR workers can restore a stretch of track replaced
last year to allow National Grid to conduct an environmental cleanup of the
area under the track just west of Bay Shore Station.
Work to reconstruct the
pavement and track at the Caltrain Villa Terrace crossing in San Mateo, Calif.,
began April 16. The crossing will be closed from 8 a.m. Friday, April 16, until
6 a.m. Tuesday, April 20. The work is part of a 10-week project to rebuild
three railroad crossings in the cities of Burlingame and San Mateo. The work at
Peninsula Avenue in Burlingame has been completed. After the Villa Terrace
crossing has been competed, work will begin on the Bellevue Avenue crossing.
Los Angels’ Metro will
hold four public scoping meetings beginning April 26 for the South Bay Metro
Green Line Extension project. These scoping meetings are the first step in the
environmental process and Metro is seeking public comments and input for
extending rail service farther into the South Bay to improve mobility in
southwest Los Angeles County.
RailComm has been selected
to provide the Track Warrant Control system for the Wisconsin & Southern
Railroad. RailComm’s state-of-the-art Domain Operations Controller train
control system will be accessed through a web-enabled Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) delivery model. RailComm’s SaaS offering provides a "pay-as-you-go"
model, thus eliminating capital equipment procurement constraints.
CSX Transportation now
expects to spend $1.2 billion or more developing and installing the crash
avoidance technology known as positive train control, which has been mandated
by a 2008 federal law, the Journal of Commerce reports. That is up from roughly
$750 million that CSXT previously estimated to put in PTC across its network as
required by the end of 2015. Company officials gave the new estimate in an
April 14 conference call with Wall Street analysts.
Norfolk Southern
Corporation has expanded its communications with online audiences, distributing
information, video and photos on popular social media Web sites. News media,
customers, shareholders, bloggers, and other opinion leaders now can keep up to
date on Norfolk Southern news and information through Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, and Flickr.
