The Federal Transit
Administration released $64.5 million in federal stimulus funds to Miami-Dade
Transit for Metrorail and Metromover facility upgrades, the purchase of hybrid
buses and other significant infrastructure projects for the transit system.
The Environmental
Protection Agency has ordered BNSF to begin removing contaminated sediments in
the upper reach of the Whitefish River by Sept. 25, the Whitefish Pilot
reports. The order follows a finding that the company is responsible for the
river contamination under the Oil Pollution Act, said David Romero, an on-scene
coordinator from the EPA’s Region 8 office in Denver. Romero said he informed
BNSF of the finding in March.
ConnectUs, Inc., said
that it and its coalition of business, labor and environmental groups had sent
letters of support and endorsement to U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood in
support of Florida’s application seeking $30 million for the Preliminary
Engineering and NEPA Environmental studies for the Orlando-Miami corridor.
Transportation Secretary
Ray LaHood announced that 13 grants totaling $189.8 million in Recovery Act
funds will go to improve state and local transit systems in the United States
while supporting the creation of jobs and providing much needed transportation
options for millions.
Members of Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 1555 voted to approve the four-year tentative agreement
that their leaders and BART negotiators reached on August 16.
New Jersey has applied for
federal funding to replace the 100-year-old, two-track bridge that carries
Northeast Corridor trains over the Hackensack River in the Meadowlands, the Philadelphia
Inquirer reports. Nearly 500 Amtrak and NJ Transit trains now use the swing
span, known as the Portal Bridge.
U.S. Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Senator Arlen Specter broke ground on a $9.3-million
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act project to renovate the Elizabethtown,
Pa., Amtrak station.
A group of local grain
producers is playing a live game of monopoly, local newspapers report. However,
it is taking the "Chance card" from the game by taking matters into its own
hands. The members of the group will be the first Alberta independent co-op
owners after coming up with the winning bid to purchase a rail line from
Camrose to Alliance.
Virginia has submitted
its first high speed rail application for the Arkendale to Powell’s Creek
project along the I-95 High Speed Rail Corridor, local media report. The project,
with a construction cost of $74.8 million, would build 11.4 miles of third
track in Stafford and Prince William Counties.
On August 24, BART reached
another milestone on a major phase of the Warm Springs Extension project that
will ultimately bring BART closer to Silicon Valley. BART issued a "Notice to
Proceed" to Shimmick Construction Company, Inc./Skanska USA Civil West
California District Inc. Joint Venture, which will allow them to begin the
extensive construction project that will create and support tens of thousands
of jobs and help stimulate Bay Area economy.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn
says Illinois must do what it can to attract jobs to the state, so he signed a
measure encouraging business development along freight rail systems, the
Chicago Tribune reports. A new rail transportation hub is intended for the
Chicago suburb of Joliet and the measure will set aside some state taxes
connected to new jobs created at the facility. The company operating the hub,
CenterPoint Properties, can then get some of that money for infrastructure
improvement, according to the governor’s office.
TriMet’s Washington County
Commuter Rail in the Portland, Ore., area is in production service and is
dispatched through a web-enabled Software-as-a-Service delivery platform
provided by RailComm. RailComm’s Domain Operations Controller (DOC®)
Centralized Traffic Control system is hosted in Rochester, N.Y. RailComm’s SaaS
platform provides a "pay-as-you-go" model, thus eliminating capital equipment
procurement constraints.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger submitted 42
applications for $1.1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding
available through the federal High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program,
under which states compete for $8 billion in funding designated for intercity
and high speed rail. Federal applications for Track 1, 3 and 4 require focus on
improvements to existing passenger rail services for job creation purposes. In
adherence to these federal requirements, California’s Track 1, 3 and 4
applications focus on improvements to existing passenger rail lines, including
the integration of high-speed rail with intercity passenger service. The
federal government’s Track 2 application focuses on high-speed rail and is due
on October 2, 2009.
MTA NYC Transit said that
beginning August 24 and continuing until November 13, 2009, there is no express
subway service on the 5 line between the 3rd Avenue/East 149th Street station
and the East 180th Street station. In addition, during the afternoon rush hour,
four of the northbound 5 trains that normally operate to the Nereid Avenue
station will terminate at East 180th Street. Customers traveling on these 5
trains will have to transfer to northbound 2 trains at East 180th Street or
other Nereid Avenue-bound 5 trains for stations on the White Plains Road line.
Canadian National plans
to repair the Hafenrichter Road crossing just southeast of Aurora, in
unincorporated Wheatland Township, local newspapers report. The crossing, which
lies along the suburban Elgin, Joliet and Eastern tracks, will be shut down for
four days next month, from Sept. 21 to 25.
CSX Transportation Inc.
will raise and remove bridges and lower railroad tracks throughout Northeast
Ohio starting next year as part of its $840 million National Gateway plan,
according to the Akron Beacon Journal. The local work includes
removing the Park Street bridge in Akron, replacing the Knapp Road bridge in
Ravenna and raising the Portage County Hike & Bike Trail in Kent.
As workers finished
exploratory drilling for the planned Westside subway extension, Los Angeles
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other elected officials said they want to speed
up construction of the $4.1-billion transit project, which has been scheduled
for completion in 2036, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The first state
applications for "shovel-ready" passenger rail projects are due into the
Federal Railroad Administration on Aug. 24, and FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo
thinks some of the federal grants to follow will need to help freight lines get
ready for more and faster passenger trains, reports The Journal of Commerce.
(The following opinion,
published Aug. 24, 2009, by the Boston Globe, was written by former
Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis [also a former vice chairman of Amtrak] and
Robert O’Brien, who is executive director of the Downtown North Association and
chairman of the North-South Rail Link Citizens Advisory Committee.)
Work on Caltrain’s Grade
Crossing Improvement Program, which will enhance safety at railroad crossings
in San Mateo County, continues. The current projects at Encinal, Glenwood and
Ravenswood avenues in Menlo Park, Calif., will take place August 23-27 between
the hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. Throughout the project at least one lane of the
street will remain open. Flagmen will direct traffic and pedestrians around the
construction. The work is part of a larger program to improve grade crossings
in San Mateo County.
