MTA NYC Transit said the
next phase of a major $89-million construction project to reconstruct and
rehabilitate five stations on the Pelham 6 line has begun. They are Whitlock
Avenue, Elder Avenue, Morrison Avenue-Soundview, St. Lawrence Avenue and
Parkchester.
A portion of 14th Street in
Greenville, N.C., will close next week and remain closed for approximately one
month, city officials said Feb. 8, the Greenville Daily Reflector reports. The
railroad crossing next to Beatty Street, between Dickinson Avenue and Evans
Street, is undergoing construction to accommodate a new connector track.
Vehicles will be detoured through the use of Dickinson Avenue, and 10th and
14th streets, a news release stated.
In what is the strongest
sign to date that it will abandon the Yucca Mountain Project, the Department of
Energy on Feb. 9 withdrew 116 water applications it had filed with the Nevada State
Engineer for building a rail line to haul nuclear waste to the mountain from
Caliente, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
Light rail trains will be
running in the spring or summer of 2011, Hampton Roads Transit’s new CEO and
president Phil Shucet told Norfolk, Va., City Council members Feb. 9, local
media report. It’s the first estimate from HRT for completion of The Tide since
a series of cost overruns and construction delays were revealed in December.
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates face a
roadblock on the route toward payoff on their investment in U.S. freight
transportation, Bloomberg reports. Chicago, whose railroads made it hog butcher
for the world a century ago, is a tangle of bottlenecks where a quarter of the
nation’s rail freight stalls while trying to navigate the city.
Amtrak is awarding two
contracts with a combined value of $49.5 million for major upgrades of its
maintenance facilities located in Los Angeles and in Hialeah, Fla., near Miami.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act economic stimulus program is funding
both projects.
TriMet in Portland, Ore., is
hosting two open houses to provide an update on the status of project planning,
funding and design of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project.
You still can’t get there
from here. While work has gotten under way on an initial seven-mile stretch of
route in New Jersey, much more money and political effort are needed to restore
passenger rail service from Northeast Pennsylvania to New York City’s doorstep
– and the onus may fall largely on the Keystone State, the Scranton, Pa.,
Times-Tribune reports.
Virginia could eliminate
about one in three trucks from Interstate 81 with extensive –and expensive —
rail improvements, a consultant told the Roanoke Times. Given the high cost and
logistical barriers to such a plan, however, the consultant endorses a more
modest approach that will shift fewer trucks — perhaps one in seven — much to
the disappointment of some railroad supporters.
Bentley Systems,
Incorporated, said that it has acquired Enterprise Informatics, Incorporated and
Exor Corporation. The Enterprise Informatics eB Insight software provides
configuration and change management capabilities for mission-critical
infrastructure asset operations for the energy, nuclear, rail and government
sectors. Exor information modeling software provides for the management and
operations of linear networks for infrastructure, including roads and railways.
A tentative deal that
allows 38 Chicago Transit Authority maintenance workers to keep their jobs in
return for concessions is a sign that other unions may be ready to cut a deal
and get canceled buses back on the road, CTA chief Richard Rodriguez said,
according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The railroad maintenance workers were among
1,057 workers laid off Sunday as part of cutbacks that saw 18 percent of bus
services and nine percent of train services canceled.
The new Hampton Roads
Transit chief will ask the Virginia Beach, Va., City Council for money to help
finish the ongoing study of light rail in the city, The Virginian-Pilot reports.
The City Council had been under the impression that the multi-million-dollar
study would be paid for with state and federal grants obtained by HRT.
LPB Energy Management said
that BNSF signed a seven-year contract for comprehensive energy and utility
management services. LPB will help BNSF measure, report and reduce energy costs
and usage to further support their commitment to energy efficiency and
environmental sustainability.
Showing how freight rail
works to protect jobs, ease gridlock and make breathing easier are themes
played out in the Association of American Railroads’ latest Freight Rail Works
advertising campaign. The "Messages" campaign consists of TV, radio,
print and online components and mixes bold graphics with tongue-in-cheek
wordplay to demonstrate the freight rail industry’s positive economic and environmental
contributions.
Feb. 6-11, between the
hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. crews will be finishing up work on Caltrain’s Grade
Crossing Improvement Program. Work will take place at the following locations: in
Burlingame at Oak Grove Avenue and Peninsula Avenue; in Redwood City at Main
Street and Chestnut Street; in San Mateo at Villa Terrace Avenue and First
Avenue; and in Menlo Park at Encinal Avenue, Glenwood Avenue, Oak Grove Avenue and
Ravenswood Avenue
Shuttle buses will
replace trains on the Blue Line on Saturday, Feb. 13, reports the Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Authority. The rail will be shut down in both directions, from
Warrensville/Van Aken to Shaker Square, while construction crews remove an
outside wall at the Lee Road Blue Line station.
FTA Administrator Peter
Rogoff announced federal funding for Denver Union Station, the centerpiece of the
Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks transit expansion plan. The
Department of Transportation approved a $151.6-million Transportation
Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan and a $152.1-million
loan application under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing
Program for Denver Union Station.
Hatch Mott MacDonald is
providing construction management services for Metro-North Railroad for an
$18.9 million design/build project at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The
project will convert an interior space from its previous use as a tennis club
to facilities for Metro-North train crews, fire brigade crews and building
services staff. The current facilities for the train and fire brigade crews and
building services staff have outlived their useful life and are in need of
substantial upgrade. This project will relocate the crews and staff members to
a better location with updated accommodations.
The Santa Clara Valley,
Calif., Transportation Authority Board of Directors unanimously adopted the
2010 Short Range Transit Plan Feb. 4. In compliance with the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission’s requirement, VTA produced the 2010 SRTP to plan for
transit service over the next 10 years. The Board’s approval of the 2010 SRTP
makes VTA eligible for federal and state transportation grants.
Since mid-January, when
MTA Metro-North railroad launched its new service, Train Time, more than 71,000
"hits" show it’s a real hit with customers. And live demonstrations
are now going to hit the following stations: Hastings on Tuesday, February 9;
Brewster
on Tuesday, February 16; Port Chester on Tuesday, February 23. From 7 a.m. to
9:30 a.m., Metro-North Customer Service representatives will demonstrate how
this convenient, real-time train status and schedule information is easily
accessible via smart phones and computers.
They will show how, by
using a web-enabled smart phone or computer, a customer can select a station
from the user-friendly drop-down menu and simply click. So far, 67 stations
across all three lines are on-line, including Grand Central and Harlem-125th
Street, and more will be added this spring.
"This new service
allows customers to check the status of train service in real time at their
home stations or wherever they are traveling," said Metro-North President
Howard Permut. "It gives people the freedom to plan a trip and get
up-to-the-minute information to make necessary adjustments while they are out
and about. We think it’s a technology whose time has come."
Smart phones and computers
will show whether a train is On Time, Late, Canceled or Delayed, including the number of minutes it is late, also what track it will arrive on and what stops it makes.
