A plan to build a major
passenger terminal in downtown Atlanta might soon boast new life, in the form
of an $80 million-plus jump start, state officials said at Transportation Board
meetings, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The idea has reeled in
big supporters, but raised questions too — including whether it’s legal.
State and town officials
from Ashland and Framingham, Mass., met with the state’s new transportation
chief last night for a conversation about the state’s purchase of CSX
Transportation rail lines and what can be done to ensure that increased rail
traffic won’t further cripple their downtowns, MetroWest Daily News reports.
Seventy percent of Metra
bridges and 42 percent of CTA bridges are past their "useful life,"
according to a preliminary report presented to the RTA board Nov. 19, the Chicago
Daily Herald reports. A final report is expected in January, along with a plan
on how to address the problem, RTA spokeswoman Diane Palmer said.
SEPTA took another step
toward restoring rail service to Wawa in Delaware County with approval
yesterday of nine property easements necessary for the construction, the Philadelphia
Inquirer reports.
Union Pacific and San
Antonio River Authority officials adopted new practices for removing drift from
the river, the Victoria, Texas, Advocate reports. The agreement came a month
after a 500-yard logjam built up at the railroad company’s bridge on the San
Antonio River, over which the river authority has jurisdiction. The bridge is
near the Victoria-Refugio county line.
MTA NYC Transit said that
due to Phase II construction on the Fulton Street Transit Center Project, ramp
and passageway access will be closed from 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 21 to 5
a.m. Monday, November 23. Customers will not be able to transfer between the 23
and A trains. In addition, there are no transfers at Fulton Street/Broadway
Nassau Street between 23 and 45 trains.
A
bumpy half-mile missing link on the North Shore Trail will be filled handsomely
this winter by a $5-million elevated structure stretching from near the 31st
Street Bridge to the Three Rivers Rowing Association’s boathouse in Millvale,
Pa., according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Metropolitan
Transportation Authority in New York released its Final Proposed 2010 Budget
and November Financial Plan for 2010-2013. The approximately $11-billion 2010
Final Proposed Budget is balanced with no fare increase or reductions to
scheduled service, with the help of rescue legislation enacted in Albany in
May. The MTA acknowledged significant potential risks to the budget, however,
setting aside an $85-million reserve and pledging an overhaul of operations to
improve efficiency and address the current fiscal reality.
On Nov. 16, SEPTA General
Manager Joseph Casey joined Pennsylvania State Senator Dominic Pileggi, State
Representative Thomas Killion, along with local government and community
leaders to announce the start of a SEPTA Regional Rail parking expansion
project in Delaware County. In an effort to address rider demand, SEPTA in
partnership with the Elwyn Institute, will expand the parking facilities for
commuters who use Elwyn (R3) Regional Rail Station.
Vans will replace trains
between Oyster Bay and Locust Valley on the MTA Long Island Rail Road’s Oyster
Bay Branch November 21-22 as work continues on the replacement of the West
Shore Road railroad bridge in Mill Neck. While the work is performed this
weekend, West Shore Road will remain open for highway traffic, there will be no
detour route required.
All trains on the Blue Line
rapid transit line from Boston to Revere, Mass., have been upgraded from four
to six cars, enabling the "T" to carry more passengers. The
transition began and was completed this fall.
The Chicago Transit
Authority is undertaking a study of the Red Line North and Purple Line – from
the Addison Red Line station to Linden on the Purple Line – that will provide
guidance for doing major rehabilitation work in the future, pending funding
availability. As part of this Vision Study, the public is invited to provide
input and feedback regarding these stations at a series of four open houses at
various locations on the North Side and in Evanston.
CSX Transportation has
put on hold two bridge projects in Medina County, Ohio, while details are
worked out between the railroad company and county officials, according to the
Medina County Gazette. A third project – replacing the 103-year-old bridge at
Mud Lake Road in Westfield Township – is scheduled to begin early next year.
The rebuilt bridge will allow double-stacked containers on rail cars to pass
under it.
A $4.8-million federal
grant will let Riverhead Town, N.Y., live out its longtime dream of having
freight trains running to and from the Enterprise Park at Calverton, the
Riverhead News Review reports. The entire cost of rehabbing the Calverton rail
spur, which leads into the park, will be funded with federal stimulus money,
lawmakers said.
For the first time in 38
years, passenger rail service is returning to the community of Stanwood/Camano
Island with daily Amtrak Cascades train
service making two morning and two evening stops at a new rail station
beginning the morning of Saturday, November 21.
The Illinois Commerce Commission has granted
approval Grade-crossing safety improvements in three communities across the
state. ICC OKed the installation of automatic flashing light signals and gates
at the 130th Street grade crossing of BNSF track located near Cameron, Warren
County. The estimated cost to install automatic flashing light signals and
gates is $234,377. The Grade Crossing Protection Fund will be used to pay 95
percent of the warning device installation costs, not to exceed $222,658. BNSF will
pay all remaining installation costs, as well as all future operating and
maintenance costs.
A $14.7-million
rail improvement project in Cary, N.C., will construct a new grade-separated
crossing under the railroad near Walker Street, local newspapers report. The
crossing will provide an alternative emergency service connection from south to
north Cary, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Dayton, Ohio, city
officials are in discussions with Norfolk Southern to tear down an abandoned
train trestle bridge now used as a tent-housing complex by the area’s homeless,
local newspapers report. Engineers from the city and railway company examined
the bridge that runs over South Patterson Boulevard, just south of Apple
Street, within the last two weeks, city spokesman Tom Biedenharn confirmed. He
said no decision has been made about the bridge’s fate.
The Federal Highway
Administration, Illinois Department of Transportation, Chicago Department of
Transportation and Association of American Railroads have agreed to
modifications to the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency
Program in response to changing needs. In particular, much of the Central
Corridor, as defined in the original CREATE Feasibility Plan & Preliminary
Screening is no longer required. Major portions of the southern half of the
Central Corridor are being retained, however, to provide an alternate route for
freight trains, in order to free up capacity on the existing route (over the Norfolk
Southern Chicago Line) for Amtrak trains from New Orleans and Carbondale into
Chicago Union Station, while minimizing impacts to Amtrak and freight service already
using this line.
GO Transit in
metropolitan Toronto is set to start an environmental assessment that will look
at what infrastructure upgrades would be required to expand rail service to the
Niagara Peninsula, including prospective building sites for new rail stations
and potential improvements to the existing rail line. The EA begins the week of
Nov. 16, with completion scheduled for summer 2010.
