With a catchy new name and
wads of cash, the LSTAR has left the station, the San Antonio Express-News
reports. The Lone Star Rail District said that it’s moving closer to a goal of
connecting San Antonio to Austin and beyond with a commuter rail line.
Plymouth, Wis., officials
say that the city is now recruiting at least three startup manufacturers
capable of creating hundreds of jobs thanks to a planned project to restore
freight rail service from Plymouth to Sheboygan Falls, the Sheboygan Press
reports. The companies, which city officials declined to name citing
confidentiality agreements, include one manufacturer that could employ up to
500 people and two others that could create 150 jobs combined – and officials
said more are expected to follow.
A nearly $850,000 million
public and private effort to connect mid-Atlantic ports to Midwest U.S.
population and manufacturing markets using double-stack trains has railroad
improvement projects scheduled for Trumbull and Mahoning counties, according to
the Warren, Ohio, Tribune Chronicle. What’s going to be done locally includes
bridge replacement and other projects necessary to provide the vertical
clearance to allow train cars hauling two shipping containers stacked on top of
one another.
The Port of Seattle will
be joined by several local agencies in preserving the Eastside Rail Corridor
and placing it in public ownership. King County, Sound Transit, the City of
Redmond, Puget Sound Energy, and the Cascade Water Alliance will partner with
the port in maximizing the corridor’s benefit for the region.
There was an almost
euphoric tone to the news last week when the nation’s beloved sugar daddy,
Warren Buffett, sprung for the rest of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., a
big part of Lincoln’s economy, Nebraska’s and the nation’s, the Lincoln, Neb.,
Journal Star reports. The guys on CNBC acknowledged they just couldn’t get
enough of their videos of BNSF trains chugging mightily across America’s TV
screens. A hard-headed business decision can pull at least a couple of carloads
of railroad nostalgia, if the whistle is far enough away.
Like other railroads
across the country, Metro-North Railroad is considering how to outfit its
trains to comply with a federal safety technology mandate that would alert
engineers when trains become dangerously close, the Connecticut Post reports.
Pennsylvania and four other
states are seeking stimulus money to make upgrades to their rail systems,
including the proposed intermodal terminal in Greencastle, the Chambersburg
Public Opinion Website reports. Pennsylvania was a co-signer of an application
for $300 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, according to
PennDOT spokesperson Rich Kirkpatrick.
Residents were updated on
an ongoing transit study during a recent public workshop in Hallandale Beach, Fla.,
the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.
The workshop, at the Cultural
Community Center, is part of a series of meetings offered to residents to
gather input on the South Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis Study.
The
study, managed by the Florida Department of Transportation, is exploring
options to mitigate roadway congestion in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach
counties.
A proposed $500-million
project to improve commuter train service in Chicago and its suburbs includes
adding four stops in McHenry County, the Chicago Tribune reports. Prairie Grove
and Johnsburg would get train depots. Those communities are along a branch line
off the Metra UP Northwest Line that veers north near Crystal lake, Ill., to
the city of McHenry. The other proposed stops would be about 1.5 miles apart
along tracks that run parallel to U.S. Highway 14. Those stops would be between
existing downtown depots in Crystal Lake and Woodstock.
It’s been decades since
select ground just east of Floyd Boulevard in Sioux City, Iowa, was exposed to
sun and other elements, the Sioux City Journal reports. Now, the area is being
laid bare by workers moving southward, pulling out old railroad spikes and
prying up the steel track.
CSX Transportation is the
first transportation provider selected to join the Maryland Green Registry, a
voluntary self-certification program that promotes and recognizes sustainable
practices by organizations throughout the state.
CN, North America’s largest
mover of forest products, is on track to haul more than 800,000 tons of wood
pellets this year and sees more opportunities in the future for this
"green" source of heating energy.
Barrington and Aurora,
Ill., officials met separately Nov. 4 with new Surface Transportation Board
Chairman Dan Elliott, a day after he toured the EJ&E rail line with
representatives of its new owner, Canadian National, the Daily Herald reports.
Construction work is
finished on the railroad tracks that will carry freight trains through Novato,
Calif. Now the tracks need to be inspected, and then freight trains are
expected to start rolling by March 2010, the Novato Advance reports. Meanwhile,
planning and design work is under way for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit
(SMART) commuter train, and construction work should start in 2011.
The city
of Neosho, Mo., has no recourse other than to close two railroad crossings,
City Attorney Steve Hays told the council Nov. 3, The Neosho Daily News reports.
Mayor Pro Tem Richard Davidson asked the council to authorize Hays to speak
to the Missouri Department of Transportation and Kansas City Southern Railway
Company to see what alternatives there were, if any, to closing crossings at
Daugherty Road and Park Street. Essentially, Hays told the council that they
had no alternatives.
The Philadelphia transit system’s largest union went on strike early Tuesday, stalling the city’s bus, subway and trolley operations a day after the World Series shifted to New York and forcing commuters to scramble to find other ways to get to their destinations, the Associated Press reports.
The strike by Transport Workers Union Local 234 will all but cripple a transit system that averages more than 928,000 trips each weekday. The union represents more than 5,000 drivers, operators and mechanics of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.
The Election Day strike also affects buses that serve the suburbs in Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties. Regional rail service was still operating, but trains were delayed as they experienced higher-than-normal crowds.
The union membership voted Oct. 25 to authorize a strike. They have been without a contract since March.
Union workers, who earn an average $52,000 a year, are seeking an annual four percent wage hike and want to keep the current one percent contribution they make toward the cost of their health care coverage. SEPTA was offering an 11.5 percent wage increase over five years, with no raise in the first year and increases in workers’ pensions.
Norfolk Southern and the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are investing $11 million in the railroad’s
Philadelphia Navy Yard intermodal facility to expand track and parking
capacity. The expansion is part of Norfolk Southern’s multi-state Crescent
Corridor initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal freight rail route
between the Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The proposed investment — $6 million
from Norfolk Southern and $5 million from Pennsylvania — will create the
capacity to handle more than 72,000 containers and trailers annually.
Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-2010.
It usually takes 20 to 30
minutes to drive to Carnegie Mellon University from the former LTV site in
Hazelwood. That commute could take six minutes by train. Pittsburgh Councilman
William Peduto has envisioned the train, and planners have deemed it feasible,
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
When federal officials
evaluate the idea of upgrading the New Haven-to-Springfield, Conn., rail line
to accommodate high-speed trains, they’ll have two core questions: Is the
project worthwhile, and can it deliver results quickly?
At a weekend
conference about the future of America’s rail systems, several experts said the
New Haven-to-Springfield plan-along with dozens of others throughout the
country-will have to meet two essential standards to stand a chance of getting
federal funding, The Hartford Courant reports.
If Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa has his way, Los Angeles County will soon embark on a
commuter-rail building boom the likes of which the region has never seen, The
Los Angeles Times reports. On Oct. 30, the mayor today will unveil an ambitious
but politically risky transportation plan that fast-tracks several high-profile
rail projects to be completed within the next decade. That’s a big speed-up,
because officials have generally been talking about completing them within 30
years.
