Picture Lewis and Clark
splitting up at some point between present-day Umatilla and Boardman and racing
to the Pacific Ocean, the East Oregonian reports. Two contemporary economic
explorers, the general managers of the ports of Umatilla and Morrow, are doing
just that. Their goal, however, is developing a better shipping route from the
mid-Columbia River to Puget Sound.
State transportation
engineers are preparing a series of railroad track improvements they hope will
ease bottlenecks for ever-increasing rail traffic in central Charlotte, N.C.,
the Charlotte Observer reports. The N.C. Department of Transportation wants to
make upgrades to a 10-mile stretch of Norfolk Southern track from near
Charlotte-Douglas International Airport to Orr Road in northeast Charlotte.
The future of downtown rail
– for right or wrong, better or worse, for whatever it turns out to be – is now
firmly in the City of Austin’s hands, writes Ben Wear in the Austin Statesman. Capital
Metro, carrier of the passenger rail flag around here for more than 20 years,
will still open its MetroRail commuter line (sometime soon). And conceivably
the agency could be hired to operate a rail line built by the city. But Capital
Metro, nearly out of money and tarnished by its halting MetroRail performance
so far, won’t be the prime mover.
Quixote Corporation, a
leading manufacturer of transportation safety products and advanced
technologies, celebrated its 40-year anniversary in July 2009.
Construction in downtown
Minneapolis continues as crews work on the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit extension
and the Northstar Commuter Rail station. Punchlist work continues at the
commuter stations in Big Lake, Elk River, Anoka and Coon Rapids. System testing
also continues as crews are testing both the Northstar train system and the LRT
extension.
A
promise to fund an additional station,
approval of a budget of up to $941 million and award of a contract to
start public utility relocation in downtown St. Paul capped a banner month for
the Central Corridor LRT Project.
Beginning August 30, MAX
Yellow Line trains in downtown Portland, Ore., will move to the new tracks on
5th and 6th avenues along the Portland Transit Mall. Also on August 30, MAX
Green Line trains will begin two weeks of test runs on the Mall and along I-205
before opening for service on Saturday, September 12.
The State of Illinois is in
a rush to swallow up Federal Stimulus money earmarked for the development of
high-speed rail services, the Illinois Statehouse Examiner reports. However, in
the rush to meet the arbitrary deadlines imposed by the stimulus package, state
officials are giving little consideration to the economic impact of communities
along the high-speed rail system.
Alabama State Port
Authority officials plan to meet this week with Norfolk Southern senior
executives to discuss linking the railroad’s proposed $112-million intermodal
facility in McCalla, Ala., to the newly opened $300 million container terminal
in Mobile, according to the Birmingham Business Journal.
(This article appeared the
July-August 2009 St. Croix Chronicle, a publication of the St. Croix Economic
Development Corp.)
Even in the current
economic downturn, it’s been several years of full steam ahead for Twin City
Signal in Hudson, Wis. In order to meet immediate demands for its services, the
railroad signal engineering and design company, founded in Hudson in 1996, has
expanded into an additional facility across from its 7,200-square-foot
headquarters on Livingstone Road. The move nearly doubles its space, and
founder and company president Lee Kisling sees rails and more rails in the future.
The Regional Answer to
Canadian National (TRAC) is petitioning the Surface Transportation Board to
take a careful look at a recent request by Canadian National to increase its
trackage rights on its rail lines throughout the City of Chicago and suburbs.
In a move that went virtually undetected, on August 5, 2009, CN filed 17
simultaneous Trackage Rights Exemption requests with the STB asking that it be
allowed to change the flow of train traffic on its Chicago area railroad subsidiaries,
Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway, Illinois Central Railroad Company,
Wisconsin Central, Grand Trunk Western Railroad and Chicago, Central &
Pacific Railroad. This request could allow CN the ability to significantly
increase the number of trains that operate along the EJ&E line and its
subsidiaries in dozens of towns including Chicago, Mundelein, Schiller Park,
Broadview, Joliet, Frankfort, Markham, Buffalo Grove and parts of Indiana.
The long-awaited rail
spur for Custom Polymers in Elm Street Industrial Park in Athens, Ala., has
passed the last hurdle toward construction, the Athens News-Courier reports. On
August 27, the Limestone County Industrial Development Board and Athens City
Council granted a railroad easement to the company and clarified a payment
process utilizing company, city, county and grant funds.
The company, which
leases a city spec building in the park, uses recycled plastic to produce
pellets used in the manufacturing of bottles, clothing, fencing and benches.
Tulsans who love to hear
the eardrum-piercing sound of a train blowing its horn as it slowly snakes
through downtown will be glad to know the city still has a ways to go before it
can designate part of downtown a "quiet zone," according to the Tulsa, Okla., World.
Further repair work will
be performed at 168th and 181st Street Stations along the MTA New York City
Transit 1 Line the weekend of August 29-30. The work requires suspension of
train service between 137th Street and Dyckman Street from 12:01 a.m. Saturday,
August 29th until 5 a.m., Monday, August 31st. During this period, it will be
necessary, once again, for customers to either use A Line service, if possible,
or a temporary bus shuttle between Dyckman Street and 137th Street.
Track maintenance on the
Red, Orange and Green lines in the Washington, D.C., area over the weekend of
August 29-30 will cause inbound and outbound trains to take turns sharing one
track. Customers should add at least 30 minutes of time to their trips.
Red
Line Track Maintenance
Metrorail customers traveling between the
Grosvenor-Strathmore and Friendship Heights Metrorail stations should add at
least 30 minutes of travel time to their trips because Metro will make tunnel
repairs and replace rail and rail fasteners that stabilize the tracks.
The launch of the new
Canada Line transit system in Vancouver will mean a key change in customer trip
planning. Because one of the new Canada Line stations is located on Broadway,
concerns have been raised by police, ambulance and fire dispatchers of
potential confusion between Broadway/City Hall and Broadway/Commercial SkyTrain
station.
With the money already in
place to build what likely will be two overpasses and one underpass at three
major rail crossings in Galesburg, Ill., there is more good news, The Register-Mail
reports. The state has applied for about $550 million of federal stimulus
money, $52 million for what Illinois is calling its "Galesburg congestion
relief project."
The Dakota Minnesota
& Eastern dropped its condemnation lawsuit against several Wyoming
landowners in northeast Wyoming, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.
In
addition, the DM&E said current regulatory and economic conditions for its
proposed rail expansion into the Powder River Basin coal-mining district are
not good.
Sound Transit opened bids
for work that will get under way next year to bore light rail tunnels
connecting Capitol Hill and the existing Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. The
apparent low bid was submitted by JCM U-Link Joint Venture, formed by Jay Dee
Contractors of Livonia, Mich.; Frank Collucio Construction Company of Seattle;
and Michaels Corporation of Brownsville, Wis. Its bid of $153,556,000 came in
12 percent, or $20.7 million, below the Sound Transit engineer’s estimate of
$174,304,700.
BNSF is pushing Congress to
scale back a requirement for carriers to install automatic-braking systems on
most of their tracks, reports Bloomberg News. "Heavy-handed" legislation
enacted last year would cost Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF almost $2 billion,
Chief Executive Officer Matt Rose said.
