On October 22, railway
control and communications systems provider Invensys Rail, Brazilian
engineering company Montagens e Projetos Especiais (MPE) and Spanish telecoms
specialists Infoglobal have signed a milestone $418-million contract to upgrade
the Signaling and ATC on lines 8, 10 and 11 of São Paulo’s rapidly developing
Metro system.
Work on Caltrain’s Grade
Crossing Improvement Program, which will enhance safety at 25 grade crossings
in San Mateo County, continues in Burlingame, Menlo Park and Atherton. Throughout
the project area, at least one lane of the impacted street will remain open.
Flagmen will direct traffic and pedestrians around the construction.
Unitrac Railroad Materials,
Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Healey Railroad Corporation and a specialty
trackwork manufacturer and distributor of new and relay rail, has received the
contract to supply 72 panelized turnouts for the Evansville Western Railway project
located in North Baltimore, Ohio.
The
Board of Directors of Caterpillar Inc. elected Douglas R. Oberhelman to the
offices of Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer – Elect, effective January
1, 2010. Oberhelman, 56, currently serves as Group President of Caterpillar
with responsibility for the company’s engine and gas turbine businesses, human
services, rail services and remanufacturing divisions. As Vice Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer – Elect, Oberhelman will take on the additional
responsibilities of managing the leadership transition and updating the company’s
strategy.
North Coast Railroad
Authority Chairman, Allan Hemphill said that $40 million in repairs to 62 miles
of the Northwestern Pacific railway between Napa County and Windsor have been
completed. He said Federal Railroad Administration inspection of the repairs to
trackway, crossing signals, and bridges between Windsor in Sonoma County and
the national rail interchange (Lombard), located North of American Canyon in
Napa County, will take up to 90 days.
Global Rail Systems, Inc.,
a Marlin, Texas-based railroad automation company, said that Vossloh has
acquired a majority interest in the company, effective October 16, 2009. Vossloh
is a global player in the rail technology markets. The acquisition of Global
Rail Systems complements Vossloh’s three other U.S.-owned companies: Vossloh
Track Material (formerly Pohl Corp.), Cleveland Track Material, Inc., which
manufacture track switches, and Vossloh Fastening Systems America Corp., based
in Chicago. Under terms of the agreement, Global’s management will remain in
place.
A recent study by the
SouthEast Commuter Rail Development Board confirms what Crete, Ill., Mayor
Michael Einhorn said he’s known for years: that commuter rail service to the
southeast suburbs is necessary, according to the Southtown Star.
Whether trains or buses
will roll along the abandoned North Shore Rail right-of-way on Staten Island will
be decided in the coming months, after the MTA said it has hired a consultant
to evaluate the options, the Website SILive.com reports. SYSTRA Engineering,
Inc., was chosen to conduct the study at a cost of just under $1.5 million. The
company has done previous work on the North Shore Rail and West Shore Light
Rail projects.
SkyTrain, operated by the
BC Rapid Transit Company Ltd., is being recognized as ‘Best Organization’ at
the Fifth Annual Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Public Safety – BC’s highest
safety honor.
A 500-yard-long logjam on
the San Antonio River at the Victoria-Refugio county line in Texas has been
removed, and water is now flowing downstream, Raquel Espinoza-Williams, a
spokeswoman for Union Pacific, said, according to the Victoria Advocate. Union
Pacific, which owns the bridge where the logjam occurred, had started cleanup
earlier this month, when the problem arose because of heavy rainfall.
Thales has selected
BelAir Networks for
both onboard and trackside Wi-Fi infrastructure for mass transit deployments,
including the Bergen Light Rail project
in Norway. BelAir Networks is the global market share leader in mesh Wi-Fi for the last eight
quarters and is the Wi-Fi equipment provider to North America’s largest Wi-Fi
networks. The new Bergen Light Rail project, which will serve 380,000 citizens
in Norway’s second largest city, is slated to launch in 2010.
Robert W. Turner, senior
vice president for corporate relations for the Union Pacific in Omaha, said
significant improvements are planned for the local rail line, according to The Mason
City, Iowa, Globe Gazette. Turner accompanied Gov. Chet Culver Oct 20 on the
Iowa Unlimited visit to Mason City and Manly.
Tennessee is seeking $81.2
million as part of a coalition of states applying for $300 million in federal
stimulus funds to make railroad upgrades linked to development of intermodal
rail terminals, where trailers and containers are transferred between trucks
and trains, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Although the coalition’s
application for stimulus money is based on reducing truck traffic along
Interstate 81, whose southern terminus is in Jefferson County, Tennessee would
spend its entire share on an intermodal facility being built near Memphis, some
400 miles from I-81.
Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa’s efforts to fast-track the long-stalled Westside subway faced a
challenge (Oct. 20) when a bipartisan group of congressional representatives
said the current plan is unlikely to bring immediate federal funding to L.A.
County, The Los Angeles Times reports.
U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Ray LaHood talked Oct. 20 at Knox College n Galesburg, Ill.,
about the role of transportation in helping the local, state and national
economy recover, according to The Galesburg Register-Mail. LaHood said all
indicators show the country is coming out of the recession, but it won’t be
over until unemployment numbers drop.
MTA Long Island Rail Road
Ronkonkoma customers now have 110 new parking spaces available to them thanks
to the completion of the first half of a new lot located on the northeast side
of the station. Work on this western half of the lot began last May.
He is one of the
exemplary ambassadors of the rebranding Nigeria campaign in diaspora, the Daily
Champion in Nigeria reports. A man who has made immense contribution to the development of
modern railways in the world, he is one of the exemplary ambassadors of the
rebranding Nigeria campaign in diaspora.
NJ TRANSIT Executive
Director Richard Sarles joined U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Congressman Rob
Andrews and other officials to break ground on a project that will offer
convenience and new travel options to South Jersey rail customers by directly
linking the River Line with the Atlantic City Rail Line (ACRL).
The Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be conducting five community
meetings to update the public on the Regional Connector project the week of November
5 through 12. Members of the community are encouraged to attend one of the meetings,
all of which are available by public transit.
Every person who is
considering buying a house needs to clip the following list and tuck it under a
magnet on their refrigerators, Guy Tridgell wrote in his column in the Southtown
Star, which serve suburbs south of Chicago. While we’re at it, real estate
agents need to print the same thing on the backs of those glossy business cards
with their Glamour Shots on the front to hammer the point home.
