Federal
regulators are underestimating the health threat posed by a railroad freight
center proposed for southwest Johnson County, environmentalists charge,
according to The Kansas City Star. They say that the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers didn’t fully assess the cancer risk tied to the BNSF project and that
the corps’ predictions of diesel emissions are much less than what’s generated
at rail projects elsewhere.
Provide more reliable
rail service. Eventually produce faster travel times. That’s exactly what the
Missouri Department of Transportation seeks to do in making applications for a
portion of $8 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding set
aside for high-speed rail development.
Papers and presentations are being solicited on all aspects of railroad civil, mechanical, electrical and systems engineering, as well as rail safety, planning, design, financing, operations and management for the Joint Rail Conference – 2010 High Speed and Intercity Rail to be held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign April 27-29, 2010. Both freight and passenger rail subjects will be included, but the conference theme will be high-speed rail and other forms of developing intercity passenger rail.
Miner Enterprises, Inc., has been chosen by Vale, the Brazilian multinational mining corporation to supply 70 AggreGate® ballast systems. The state-of-the-art air-powered dual cylinder AggreGate® system was specified for the order, demonstrating Miner’s international reach and reputation for high-quality freight car components around the world.
Restoring passenger rail service from New Orleans along the Gulf Coast to Orlando, Fla., will cost tens of millions of dollars and take a minimum of almost two years to accomplish, according to a new Amtrak study that also predicts the revived route would be a money-loser, according to the Mobile, Ala., Press-Register.
To relieve the notorious Tower 55 train gridlock in Fort Worth, Texas, one of the nation’s biggest railroads wants to dig a 1.5-mile-long trench and submerge its tracks as they run through a commercial and residential area south of downtown, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. The east-west trench proposed by Union Pacific would roughly parallel Vickery Boulevard from Eighth Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway and require buying of 15 properties, partial purchase of 15 more and moving 16 residences and businesses.
The distinct whistle blaring and the distant, thunder-like clanking commonly heard through Aberdeen, S.D. are the sounds of the Hub City’s history, the Aberdeen News reports. And, one railroad official said, they are the sounds of its future.
Prince Rupert’s ship has finally come in, but it was expected 100 years ago, the Daily Commercial News reports. In 1909 this port in northern British Columbia was being groomed to become a major transportation hub and a large, vibrant city. Although it has the deepest, ice-free harbor in the world, it was a large iceberg that crushed that Prince Rupert dream.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Congressman Steve Rothman said that they are teaming up to deliver passenger rail to Bergen County with an extension of light rail service. Joined by N.J. Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, as well as other state and local officials, the announcement came after the conclusion that another long-studied rail technology being advanced by NJ TRANSIT did not offer a practical alternative for Bergen residents in the near term.
“The time has come to put the Bergen in Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. The twin facts that NJ TRANSIT has settled on a mode of service and Governor Corzine is here pledging his personal support for the Northern Branch gives me renewed hope that the dream of passenger rail will be realized for Bergen County,” said Rothman.
“We can no longer wait for emerging technologies that make the perfect the enemy of the good. Light rail will enable thousands of Bergen residents to get to work on the Waterfront, or make easy connections to PATH and ferries into Manhattan,” said Corzine.
Bergen light rail will provide significant environmental benefits, including reduced carbon emissions, taking 8,500 cars off the road each day. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system has been a catalyst for economic development and a national light rail transit model with nearly 45,000 passenger trips daily, with a 24th station under construction at 8th Street in Bayonne.
NJ TRANSIT submitted a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to the Federal Transit Administration last year that studied both light rail and re-emerging Diesel Multiple Unit types of equipment. However, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the only manufacturer of DMUs that met American safety standards for operating in mixed freight/passenger territory filed for bankruptcy. A global search for another manufacturer that could meet strict Federal Railroad Administration safety requirements led NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Richard Sarles to conclude recently that the possibility of new DMUs rolling off the production line is several years away at best.
Sarles also acknowledged the Federal Transit Administration’s efforts to advance multiple New Jersey rail projects, noting that NJ TRANSIT has received the Record of Decision for the Mass Transit Tunnel; the MOS FONSI for the Lackawanna Cutoff; completed environmental review for the Edison Station Parking Expansion Project, the Lower Hack Bridge Phase II project, and HBLR’s Danforth Interlocking project over the last several months.
“We appreciate the leadership of FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff and hard work of the Regional Administrator and staff to continue to effectively move many projects forward at once,” said Sarles.
FTA’s release of the revised Northern Branch DEIS will trigger local public hearings as soon as this fall. The hearings will give communities along the planned service route an opportunity to raise any additional issues that need to be incorporated into ?NJ TRANSIT’s service plan. NJ TRANSIT expects preliminary engineering to begin in 2010.
At full operating capacity, the light rail service is planned to operate from early morning through late evening hours, seven days a week, with trains departing every 6-12 minutes in the peak travel periods. A trip from the northernmost portion of the line will take 21 minutes to Tonnelle Avenue, 25 minutes to Port Imperial for ferries to New York, and 37 minutes to Hoboken for PATH and NJ TRANSIT commuter rail connections.
Light rail ridership is estimated to be about 24,000 passenger trips daily. While the cost estimate for extending light rail has not yet been finalized, preliminary estimates set the price at about $800 million to $900 million. The Northern Branch project is included in the joint long-range capital program of the NJ Department of Transportation and ?NJ Transit, benefitting from a mix of federal and state Transportation Trust Funds.
Wick Moorman, CEO of Norfolk Southern Corporation, called on the nation’s governors to consider railroads as “a vital part of the solution to our nation’s transportation crisis.”
Addressing the National Governors Association at Biloxi, Miss., Moorman said “railroads offer significant economic and environmental benefits while helping relieve highway congestion – which is fast becoming public enemy number one.”
“Our nation’s transportation network is a complex, interdependent system that demands our combined creative efforts to operate it most efficiently,” Moorman said. “Our experience at Norfolk Southern has shown that by working together in public-private partnerships, we can achieve far more in far less time and with far greater public benefits than any of us can by working alone.”
Moorman cited two rail routes – the Heartland Corridor between the Port of Virginia and Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago, and the Crescent Corridor linking New Jersey to New Orleans and Memphis, Tenn. – as examples of how public-private partnerships “can create additional capacity in our rail transportation network, with public benefits of jobs creation, less highway congestion, lower environmental emissions, and fuel savings.” He said the Crescent Corridor project alone will result in 41,000 “green” jobs over the next decade and move more than a million trucks annually off the highways onto rail, saving more than 150 million gallons of fuel every year and reducing carbon emissions by nearly two million tons per year.
“It’s clear we must do something,” Moorman said. “Freight volumes in this country are projected to grow 88 percent by 2035 alone. To handle that freight, we must improve our national transportation infrastructure.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz is "incredibly pleased to support" a Rochester, Minn., railroad bypass proposal, he told a group of business leaders, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports.
Metropolitan Planning Organization members approved spending $25,000 in hopes of eventually gaining millions to relocate about seven miles of Norfolk Southern tracks in Colbert County, Ala., local newspapers report. The board hired engineering firm Barge Wagner Sumner & Cannon to prepare a grant application that, if approved, would fund the estimated $80-million relocation project. Funds would come from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. The federal program is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
City and county officials have discussed the need to relocate the tracks away from high-traffic areas in the county. Some city officials say delays and safety concerns created by the railroads tracks have stifled economic development opportunities and are causing stores to lose business. MPO member and Tuscumbia Mayor Bill Shoemaker, who is a former Alabama Department of Transportation engineer, said the railroad relocation discussion has been going on for about two decades.
The most recent cost estimate for relocating railroad tracks that wind through Tuscumbia, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals is about $80 million. Before the recovery act was approved, local governments had no means of paying for the project.
Jesse Turner, director of Transportation Planning for the Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments, said the $25,000 includes a $5,000 match from Colbert County, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals. He said the relocation project must be approved by the Alabama Department of Transportation.
The federal program, which is known as TIGER, makes $1.5 billion available for large road and bridge projects, passenger and rail freight, public transportation and port infrastructure. Allen Teague, a preconstruction engineer with the Alabama Department of Transportation, said the state plans to submit five projects to be considered for a TIGER grant.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo said proposed rules are designed to prevent train collisions through the use of Positive Train Control. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking prescribes how railroads must use Positive Train Control systems to prevent train-to-train collisions.
PTC technology is capable of automatically controlling train speeds and movements should a locomotive engineer fail to take appropriate action. For example, such technology can force a train to stop before it passes a red signal, thereby averting a potential collision. Other benefits of PTC systems include prevention of over-speed derailments and misaligned switches, as well as unauthorized incursions by a train into work zones.
“These proposed rules give railroads the framework to use this life-saving technology,” said LaHood. “We believe this is an important step toward making freight, intercity and commuter rail lines safer for the benefit of communities across the country.”
Under the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, major freight railroads and intercity and commuter rail operators must submit their plans for PTC to FRA for approval by April, 16, 2010. PTC systems must be fully in place by the end of 2015. The proposed rules will specify how the technically complex PTC systems must function and indicate how FRA will assess a railroad’s PTC plan before it can become operational.
“FRA is setting the bar high in terms of design, construction and oversight of PTC technologies among different railroads,” said FRA Administrator Joe Szabo. “FRA will continue to advocate for ways to strengthen safety standards in the railroad industry.”
The major freight railroads have reached an agreement for the operation of PTC technology across different rail systems, allowing for industry-wide use. In addition, FRA is coordinating efforts with the Federal Communications Commission to make a sufficient amount of radio frequency spectrum available, which is essential for PTC technology to function properly. This development will allow PTC technology to send and receive a constant stream of wireless signals regarding the location and speed of passenger and freight trains moving along rail lines.
At a ceremony at Toronto’s Union Station, the Government of Canada and VIA announced C$300 million dollars in support for the largest-ever improvement and investment program in the 153-year history of passenger rail service between Montreal and Toronto: VIA’s Canadian National Kingston Subdivision Project.??Totaling more than C$300 million, VIA’s CN Kingston Subdivision Project is a series of infrastructure improvements at eight locations along the 539-kilometer (334-mile), double-track rail line. It will boost capacity by eliminating bottlenecks and greatly reducing delay-causing conflicts between VIA passenger and CN freight trains.
Phase I of the project will allow for the addition of two daily roundtrip frequencies on VIA’s busy Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa routes. The latter operates over the Kingston Subdivision between Toronto and Brockville.
VIA’s CN Kingston Subdivision Project is part of an unprecedented C$923 million investment by the Government of Canada in passenger rail renewal and expansion. Of this amount, C$407 million is under the government’s Economic Action Plan.
Other elements of VIA’s program include expanded, fully-accessible station facilities at strategic locations on the Montreal-Toronto route, major infrastructure and station upgrading on other routes, accessibility projects for travelers with special needs and the complete rebuilding of service-proven locomotives and rolling stock. The program will benefit rail travelers across the entire VIA transcontinental system, from Halifax to Vancouver Island.
Highlights of VIA’s CN Kingston Subdivision Project include: construction of additional (third) main line track to enable VIA and CN trains to pass or overtake each other safely and quickly; extensions to sidings and yard tracks to allow CN freight trains to exit and clear the main line when required; and- other track and signal improvements to smooth the flow of VIA passenger and CN freight traffic, assuring consistent on-time performance for both.
Work on VIA’s CN Kingston Subdivision Project will begin this summer and wrap up in 2011. To date, CN has hired 100 track and signal workers for its portion of the work, which will be performed under contract with VIA. Additional jobs will be created throughout the two-year span of the project within both CN and other private sector companies participating in this project.
The Denver Regional Transportation District has agreed to buy BNSF Railway property that’s to become part of the FasTracks system, including an initial southern segment of the Northwest Rail Corridor, according to the Longmont Times-Call. RTD expects to pay $93.7 million to buy BNSF right-of-way and other properties the railroad company owns between Denver’s Union Station and a point near 72nd Street in Westminster, under an agreement the transit agency announced July 16.
The RTD plans to use that real estate for commuter rail service on FasTracks’ Gold Line between Denver and Wheat Ridge, as well as for the southern segment of the Northwest Rail Corridor between Denver and Longmont.
The RTD’s agreement with BNSF also commits the transit agency to spending an estimated $32 million to relocate or realign several BNSF facilities between Union Station and Pecos Street, including work at BNSF’s 23rd Street yard.
The RTD board is still wrestling with how to cover a projected $2-billion shortfall to complete the entire $7-billion FasTracks system by the original 2017 target date. But FasTracks spokeswoman Karen Morales said that the money to buy the BNSF properties and pay for relocating BNSF facilities will be available under the transit agency’s current system-improvements budget.
Formal purchase agreements are to be carried out by January, when the RTD expects to take over ownership of the BNSF property.
Morales said the RTD still is negotiating with BNSF over terms of an operating agreement under which the RTD would pay the railroad company for “time slots” to operate Northwest Rail Corridor passenger service on the tracks north of Westminster — tracks BNSF would continue to own and use for its freight trains. Morales said the RTD expects to complete the agreement about shared use of those tracks sometime in 2010.
The celebration will include a display of about 45 North American Rail Car Operators Association motorcars during an open house at the Harsco facility in Fairmont. The 45 restored cars were originally built at the Fairmont plant and shipped to railroads around the United States and Canada.
