In a move that places Los
Angeles County in contention to receive its fair share of future federal rail
funding, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of
Directors voted to pursue long-term funding agreements through the US.
Department of Transportation to build the Westside Subway Extension and
Regional Connector projects.
Houston METRO’s Title VI
program has been approved by the Federal Transit Administration – another step
toward federal Full Funding Grant Agreements for the build out of Houston’s
light-rail system. After a thorough study,
the FTA’s Office of Civil Rights ruled METRO’s program is complete and in
compliance with requirements related to Title VI. This compliance is necessary
to apply for the FTA’s New Starts program – the federal government’s primary
financial resource for supporting major transit "guideway" capital
investments such as light rail.
The ripple effects of
what would happen if funding hadn’t been secured for the BNSF railroad bridge
between Burlington, Iowa, and Gulfport, Ill., could have been grim, according
to the Burlington Hawkeye. On top
of the obvious safety concerns — despite daily inspections — delivery of
goods would be delayed as inspections took days and trains crossed the bridge
one at a time.
The State of Wisconsin has
authorized a total of $30.6 million in loans and grants to help construct,
preserve or upgrade rail-related facilities across the state, the Business
Journal of Milwaukee reports. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said 10 state awards as
part of overall efforts to support job growth and Wisconsin’s agricultural
economy.
When BNSF employee Daryle
Haugen decided to retire, his decision on timing wasn’t based on stock price or
some family trip he had been waiting to take, according to a story in the
railroad’s employee newsletter. It had everything to do with finishing one last
project. Haugen, who was a
Structures foreman, on the Twin Cities Subdivision when he retired in August,
was preparing to retire when he was asked to take on the Delano, Minn., bridge.
CN said it has completed
of the $100-million multi-year construction project to reconfigure and
modernize its Memphis rail classification yard.
The Chicago Transit
Authority will hold a third round of public meetings in September to receive
input on the proposed Circle Line project. The meetings are part of the
Alternatives Analysis study – the first step in pursuing federal funding for
major transit projects. The Alternatives Analysis study is designed to examine
all the transit options available and determine a Locally Preferred Alternative.
Continuing its initiatives
to maintain world-class facilities while improving air quality at the Port of
New York and New Jersey, the Port Authority said that two major components of
the Port of New York and New Jersey’s $600 million ExpressRail project have
been completed. The projects will allow 1.3 million cargo containers to be shipped
by rail, taking approximately three million trucks off state and local roads.
The Metropolitan
Transportation Authority board voted to spend $28.1 billion to improve transit
infrastructure in the region, including the tackling of major projects on the
Long Island Rail Road, Newsday reported. At a Manhattan meeting, the board
voted to adopt the MTA’s proposed five-year capital program, which would fund
large transit projects from 2010 to 2014. The proposed budget still requires
approval from the four voting members of the state’s MTA Capital Program Review
board.
Ft. Worth City Council
members wrapped up a complicated deal with Union Pacific that will allow
construction of an overpass for the Southwest Parkway over the Davidson Rail
Yard along West Vickery Boulevard, according to The Star-Telegram.
"On September 22, the
National Transportation Safety Board made safety recommendations to officials at Metro, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and Alstom Signaling, Inc.,
but the federal safety oversight agency still was not able to point to a cause
of Metro’s June 22 accident.
Pan Am Southern railroad,
which wants to build an intermodal yard in the area, showed the town planning
board and residents how it plans to deal with noise and traffic concerns at a
meeting at Halfmoon, N.Y., town hall, local newspapers report.
BNSF officials were
cautiously optimistic about the future at a special forum on the railroad
industry at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Ill., The Register-Mail
reported. Plans to build a diesel repair shop, a third main track in the BNSF’s
classification yard in Galesburg and storage tracks that allow freight trains
that are being made up to be moved aside to allow other traffic through, could
lead to the creation of more jobs once the economy rebounds, the officials
said.
LRT and Northstar
system testing continue. Painting and striping of the streets in the project
area was completed. Punchlist work is ongoing at the Northstar and LRT
stations. Punchlist work
continues at the suburban stations.
Mass. Lieutenant Governor
Timothy Murray said that the Commonwealth’s comprehensive multi-year rail
transportation agreement with CSX Transportation, the national freight carrier
serving Massachusetts, has been finalized. Lieutenant Governor Murray, who has
been working on this agreement since he was Mayor of Worcester, led the
negotiations for this agreement on behalf of the administration with critical
support from the Governor, Senator John Kerry and Congressman Jim McGovern. Many
of the agreement’s major elements were resolved last year; however, the long-standing
debate concerning liability remained unresolved.
Work has begun to replace
BNSF Railway’s 118-year-old swing span over the Mississippi River at Burlington,
Iowa, with a modern lift span that will increase the river channel width from
150 feet to 307 feet 6 inches. The $70-million project is scheduled for
completion in the summer of 2011.
CN reached a voluntary
mitigation agreement with the Village of Park Forest, Ill., located
approximately 30 miles south of downtown Chicago, addressing the municipality’s
environmental issues with CN’s acquisition of the principal lines of the former
Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company. CN completed the acquisition on Jan.
31, 2009, and is running trains over the line. Under the agreement, CN will
provide funding for a range of measures, including traffic improvements and
rail noise mitigation, quiet zones and fencing.
e-VERIFILE.COM Inc. said Canadian
Pacific has joined e-RAILSAFE Canada–the latest in the company’s line of e-RAILSAFE
workplace safety/security management services. As part of its use of e-RAILSAFE
Canada, CP will now require its contractors/vendors and their employees that
require access to CP’s Canadian-based properties, to participate in Compliance
Programs that CP creates and administers via the ERS- Canada system.
BSNF began a major track rehabilitation and grade crossing project in New Iberia, LA, this week. Six crossings between Jefferson and Center streets will receive $900,000 worth of work to fix drainage problems.
Close to 2,500 feet of track will be replaced, new crossings will also be installed and new subsurface water pipes will be installed to stop water from accumulating inside the tracks during heavy rains. The work began Monday and should be completed by Thursday.
Union Pacific has been named one of the nation’s top 50 "Best Places to Launch a Career" by BusinessWeek. The magazine ranks the railroad No. 28 on the list, up from No. 39 last year.
To determine which employers are best for entry-level workers, BusinessWeek used a three-part methodology.
• The magazine surveyed career services directors at U.S. colleges to learn which employers were tops on their lists.
• Those employers were asked to complete a survey on their hiring, pay, benefits, and training programs, which we then compared with others in the same industry.
• Universum USA, a Philadelphia research company, provided the results of its 2009 survey of more than 60,000 U.S. undergraduates, who were asked to identify their five most desirable employers.
The employer survey counted for 50 percent of the final ranking, while the career services and student surveys counted for 25 percent each.
