August 6-8, Metro in Washington,
D.C., will upgrade its track on the Red and Green lines to improve reliability
and service. As a result of this crucial work aimed at keeping the railroad in
a state of good repair, riders can expect delays between 20 and 40 minutes.
Construction of an
enormous railroad overpass in Colton, Calif., remains on a scheduled late 2011
start, as officials finalize details of a design agreement, The
Press-Enterprise reports. Members of San Bernardino Associated Governments are
poised to agree to the contract for design of the Colton Crossing at the
agency’s monthly meeting.
Secretary Ray LaHood’s made
his first visit to his research and testing facility on July 28, 2010. FRA
Associate Administrator for Safety Jo Strang, AAR President & CEO Ed
Hamberger and TTCI President Roy Allen quickly welcomed the Secretary to the
site with a brief history lesson and an update on various safety related research
and testing programs performed under interagency agreement.
With intelligence
indicating that Al Qaeda and associated movements continue to express interest
in attacking U.S. mass transit systems, especially passenger rail and subway
systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a redacted version
of a classified report on "explosives detection technologies [that] are
available or in development that could help secure passenger rail systems,"
according to the Homeland Security Today Website.
Network Rail has awarded
the Thameslink core area resignaling contract to Invensys Rail. On completion,
the project will provide a significant increase in route capacity, allowing 24
trains per hour to run from Loughborough Junction in the south, through central
London and on to Kentish Town in the north
In the 100 days since the
voters of St. Louis County invested their trust and new financial resources in
Metro through passage of Proposition A, the agency has taken real and
meaningful steps toward keeping its pledges to all of the residents of the St.
Louis region, President and CEO Robert J. Baer said.
(The following column by
Brain Palmer was published in the Washington Post.) Americans love to complain
about the pitiable state of our once-great rail system and wonder why our
locomotives are stuck in the past. I mean, you can zip between Wuhan and
Guangzhou, China, at 220 mph. Japan’s Shinkansen system tops 186 mph. The
French TGV can blaze across the countryside at more than 200 mph. Yet the Acela
train, the pride of Amtrak, hits a ho-hum 150 mph at top speed and maintains
that for only a few minutes between New York and Boston.
Metro’s Safety Department
received approval from the Tri-state Oversight Committee to close 22
corrective action plans last month that address safety issues identified during
internal and TOC safety audits. Some of the plans closed in June included
identifying and marking tripping hazards near the tracks, evaluating and
updating communication procedures for track workers and developing standards
for allowable wheel roughness and wheel repair for rail cars.
Metro’s staff
presented these and other steps made to improve safety to the Metro Board of
Director’s Customer Service, Operations and Safety Committee.
Anyone who has ever
rifled through pockets or purse looking for a lost item will connect
immediately with a public-art sculpture dedicated by Metro Arts in Transit
(AIT) at the MetroLink Station and MetroBus Transfer Center on St. Charles Rock
Road in Pagedale. The sculpture – titled Honey, Where’s My Metro Pass –
portrays that experience in a whimsical presentation of oversized coins, keys,
a crumpled receipt and a lip balm that could have been spilled along the
MetroLink platform by a frazzled passenger.
In January, President
Obama announced that North Carolina was awarded $545 million in American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to continue its development of high-speed
intercity rail. On July12, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that
the U.S. Department of Transportation and the State of North Carolina have
finalized a grant agreement for $20.3 million, the first installment of the
$545 million awarded to the state.
Two years after officials
gathered in Mechanicsville, N.Y., to announce a $40-million "rail
logistics center," work on the project has yet to begin, the Albany
Times-Union reports. But that could soon change.
SERTC is now
enrolling emergency responders for hazardous material training through a
federally funded program that provides broad access to intensive training at
our world-class training facility located at the Transportation Technology
Center, Pueblo, Colo. Registration
for training is available on at www.sertc.org.
The Obama Administration took
the next step toward realizing its vision for high-speed rail in the United
States. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration
will begin accepting applications for $2.1 billion in grants to continue the
development of high-speed intercity passenger rail corridors.
