In February, in addition to
the Presidents Day holiday weekend closure of the Rosslyn and Arlington
Cemetery Metrorail stations on the Orange and Blue Line, Washington, D.C., Metro
will replace fasteners and weld rail that will help ensure reliable Metrorail
service. Customers should expect travel delays during the weekends of Feb. 5-7,
Feb. 12-15, Feb. 19-21 and Feb. 26-28.
New Lenox, Ill., Mayor
Tim Baldermann is "confident" that he soon will be talking to
Canadian National Railway officials before the village’s battle against the
company reaches the courts, the Southtown Star reports.
The steel railroad bridge
crossing high above Alhambra Avenue in Martinez, Calif., is known to local
train buffs as both the Muir Trestle and Alhambra Trestle. Owned and operated
by BNSF, the trestle has long been a recognizable Martinez landmark, and lately
a conversation has resurfaced among local denizens about the trestle’s
appearance, the Martinez News-Gazette reports. Splotched with large
patches of rust in between its fading gray paint, the structure is in need of a
face-lift.
The
Alaska Railroad invites the public to an open house February 19 in Seward to provide
an opportunity to review and comment on a proposed Program of Projects for 2010.
Open House displays are open to the public and will be set up in the inn’s
Mount Marathon meeting room. Displays will showcase continuing and proposed
capital improvement projects that are in various stages – from conceptual
planning to engineering and construction.
The CREATE Partners said
that the CREATE Program will receive $133 million as part of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a critical rail/rail flyover near 63rd
and State Streets in the Englewood community on the south side of Chicago.
The flyover will carry the north-south Metra Rock Island commuter rail line
over the east-west Norfolk Southern/Amtrak line, eliminating conflict between
78 Metra Rock Island trains and approximately 60 freight and Amtrak trains that
presently cross at grade each day.
HNTB
Corporation and HNTB Holdings Ltd. named Peter Gertler a senior vice president.
Gertler, who leads the firm’s high-speed rail services group, is located in the
firm’s Oakland, Calif., office. Gertler has 23 years of experience in public
transportation and program management, including conventional and high-speed
rail across the United States and around the world.
Stressing the importance of
its intercity passenger rail service in Michigan, Amtrak said it will perform a
high-speed rail improvement study that will focus on determining what
infrastructure upgrades are needed to provide 110 mph train service on the
Norfolk Southern-owned rail corridor between Kalamazoo and Detroit.
A McMaster University researcher
says the chance to save lives is a powerful motivation to develop a new safety
system for rail transit workers, the Hamilton, Ont., Spectator reports. The
university and Bombardier Transportation are working together on a C$1.4-million
project to develop an automated system that could warn track workers and
on-board personnel of possible danger while there is still time to avoid
accidents.
Supporters of consolidating
Springfield, Ill., rail traffic on the 10th Street corridor plan to take a wish
list of overpass construction, track relocation and other design improvements
on an annual trip to Washington D.C. next month, The State Journal-Register reports.
The list will exceed the $26.5 million sought for the same project last year,
Gary Plummer, president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce,
said Friday.
In broad strokes and
fine detail, officials have revealed how they will pay $340 million for
"the biggest project in the history" of Lincoln, Neb. — turning a
windswept rail yard into a home for a new downtown arena, the Lincoln Journal
Star reports.
The MTA Long Island Rail
Road’s Stony Brook Station, on the Port Jefferson Branch, will undergo a $2.7-million
renovation project starting February 1. A temporary trailer will serve as a
waiting room during part of the work. Nine parking spaces will be temporarily
out of service in order to stage materials and the trailer.
A new express train on
the Fredericksburg, Va., line is one way Virginia Railway Express Board Chair
Paul Milde says the commuter railroad is working to fix the region’s
transportation problems, according to Inside NoVA.com. An 11-mile stretch of
tracks to be built thanks to federal stimulus money from Powell’s Creek near
Dumfries into Stafford County will aid future VRE express trains, the agency
says, and will spur the growth of passenger rail service in the state.
The state of Kentucky has
given preliminary approval to $400,000 in tax incentives for the Paducah &
Louisville Railway to build a new "green" headquarters. The Paducah
Sun reported that the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave
initial go-ahead for the tax credits, which will go toward a $4.2-million
headquarters and end the company’s search for a new home.
With the formal
acquisition this week of one of the key chromite deposits among the remote Ring
of Fire properties northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada, U.S. iron-ore giant
Cliffs Resources positioned itself as the most likely company to build the mine
everyone‘s been talking about, The Chronicle Journal reports. But while the
euphoria associated with the development of what could the largest chromite
mine in the world is understandable, the company says many details still have
to be hammered out.
Metro Blue Line
passengers will experience travel delays of up to 30 minutes on three
consecutive weekends beginning Friday night, Feb 5, due to construction of the
Expo light rail line, which will connect with the Metro Blue Line in downtown
Los Angeles. Work will begin at 9 p.m. on Friday nights and continue until the
close of rail service on Sunday night for the weekends of Feb. 5-7, Feb. 12-14,
and Feb. 19-21.
Work on Caltrain’s Grade
Crossing Improvement Program, which will enhance safety at 25 grade crossings
in San Mateo County, will continue t week Fair Oaks Avenue, Atherton.
At its
January 28, Board meeting, the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction
Authority Board of Directors issued the following two bid packages, seeking
design-build-finance teams to construct Phase 2A (Pasadena to Azusa): (1) the Request for Proposals (RFP) for
the Iconic Freeway Structure project and (2) the Request for Qualifications
(RFQ) for the Phase 2A Alignment project. These actions keep the Foothill
Extension on schedule to break ground in June 2010 and be completed to Azusa in
2013.
NJ Transit board members
approved the appointment and contract of former Transportation Commissioner
James Weinstein as the state commuter agency’s new executive director Jan. 28,
the Asbury Park Press reports. Weinstein was nominated by Gov. Chris Christie
earlier this month. The contract is effective Jan. 30. Former executive
director Richard Sarles is retiring.
The
governing board of Hampton Roads Transit has selected Philip A. Shucet as HRT’s
president and CEO. One of Virginia’s leading transportation administrators,
Shucet is the former commissioner of the Virginia Department of Transportation,
where he imposed a series of reforms that greatly improved the agency’s on-time
and on-budget performance.
(The following is a
statement from Association of American Railroads President and CEO Edward R.
Hamberger in response to President Barack Obama’s award of $8 billion in
federal grants to 31 states around the U.S. for high-speed and intercity
passenger rail projects.)
"Moving more people and
goods by rail is good for America. The Obama Administration’s announcement recognizes
the vital importance of rail to our nation’s economic recovery.
