The NJ TRANSIT Board of
Directors authorized a major pedestrian and traffic circulation improvement
project at Newark Penn Station that will enhance safety, reduce vehicular
congestion, strengthen the historic facility’s connection to an increasingly
vibrant downtown business and entertainment district and create an estimated
125 jobs.
SEPTA is celebrating the
end of an historic project – the reconstruction of the Market-Frankford
Subway-Elevated Line. A fixture of mass transit in the region, SEPTA’s busiest
and oldest heavy rail line has been fully modernized through a series of
initiatives.
Watco
Transportation Services, Inc., said a definitive agreement has been reached
with Rio Grande Pacific Corporation to obtain 36 miles of track from the Idaho
Northern & Pacific Railroad. A notice will be filed shortly with the
Surface Transportation Board to operate the track as the Boise Valley Railroad
(BVRR), to be headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
As the deadline to apply
for a piece of $8 billion in stimulus funding for passenger rail service
approaches, Ohio officials have cleared a major hurdle with the delivery of a
ridership study that projects annual demand for rail service at nearly half a
million Ohioans, the Dayton Business Journal reported.
Norfolk Southern commended
its partners in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee for
their leadership in supporting the Crescent Corridor program to increase rail
freight transportation capacity and improve mobility and the environment.
The Illinois Department of
Transportation said it is seeking $300 million in federal stimulus funds for a
package of 16 projects that are part of the Chicago Region Environmental and
Transportation Efficiency Program. CREATE is a first-of-its-kind partnership
bringing together Illinois DOT, the Chicago Department of Transportation and
the Association of American Railroads. Illinois DOT is eligible for the funding
under the federal Transportation Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant
program established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition
to the $300 million being sought via the federal TIGER grant, CREATE partners
also have committed to an additional 39 percent match in funding – $117.4
million in state and private monies – for the program of projects outlined in
the application.
CN reached a voluntary
mitigation agreement with the Village of Hawthorn Woods, Ill., located
approximately 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, that addresses the
municipality’s environmental issues with CN’s acquisition of the principal
lines of the former Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company. CN completed the
acquisition on Jan. 31, 2009, and is running trains over the line.
After two years of
studying options for a new transit system for the Crenshaw Corridor, the Los
Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is encouraging public
comment on draft environmental documents at four public hearings scheduled
throughout the community in late September and early October.
At a ceremony in Cobourg,
Ontario, Northumberland-Quinte West MP Rick Norlock, Mayor Peter Delanty and
John Marginson, VIA Rail Canada’s Chief Operating Officer, said VIA plans a new
station with improved and expanded facilities. VIA estimates that it will
invest as much as C$7 million for the new station and related improvements from
recent capital funding for VIA announced by the Government of Canada. C$1
million of the project’s cost will come from the government’s Economic Action
Plan.
The Union Pacific sidetrack
is under construction west of California, Mo., in the vicinity of Elkhorn
Crossing, the California Democrat reports. When completed in December 2009, the
9,000-foot rail side track will allow two trains to pass, adding capacity and
reducing delays for both rail freight shipments and the Amtrak Missouri River
Runner trains between Kansas City and St. Louis.
MTA Metro-North Railroad
is streamlining its study of how best to provide direct train service from its
New Haven and Hudson lines into Penn Station in New York City via the east
Bronx and Manhattan’s West Side. An environmental review began a decade ago
with the intent of developing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a
"Preferred Alternative" pursuant to the National Environmental
Protection Act. Through two screening processes, an initial list of 22 service
alternatives was narrowed to four "Build" alternatives, two
alternatives for Hudson Line service to Penn Station and two alternatives for
New Haven Line service to Penn Station.
The coastal city of
Eastport, Me., sees its future economic prosperity linked to a 30-kilometre (18.6-mile)
railway connection leading to the Canadian border at St. Stephen, N.B., the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The Maine city needs a railway to
carry cargo to and from its deep-water port to other markets in Canada and the
United States.
Union Pacific’s new Joliet, Ill., Intermodal Terminal will
support customer growth by increasing the railroad’s international and domestic
container capacity and improving rail traffic efficiencies in Chicago, the
nation’s largest rail center. Once on line, customers from across Union
Pacific’s network will benefit from Joliet’s annual capacity of 500,000
ocean-going containers. Officials and customers gathered Sept. 3 to celebrate
the construction commencement of Union Pacific’s nearly $370 million, 785-acre
Joliet Intermodal Terminal and CenterPoint Intermodal Center – Joliet, a
3,900-acre state-of-the-art integrated logistics center.
After an investment of
$408 million and a year of rapid construction, the first coal train will leave
the Signal Peak Energy Mine near Roundup, Mont., next week, carrying the first
load of low-sulfur Montana coal east to an Ohio utility, the Billings Gazette
reports. A new railroad junction near Broadview and the mine site south of
Roundup were officially dedicated Sept. 2 by top executives from BNSF;
FirstEnergy, an Ohio utility; the Boich Group of Ohio; Signal Peak Energy; and
a corral of Montana politicians, including Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
If a seaport were built on
dry land, it would look a lot like Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s new
Memphis intermodal facility, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Giant
cranes loom over vast expanses of tracks, roads and parking, soon to be piled
high with oceangoing shipping containers.
The governments of Canada and Quebec gave the green light to the rehabilitation and development of the Outremont rail yards in Montreal. The total estimate of the project is C$120 million (US$117,016,080). The Government of Canada has earmarked up to C$30 million (US$29,254,020) for the project from the major Infrastructure component of the Building Canada Fund. The province will provide a further C$30 million (US$29,254,020), while Montreal will contribute C$60 million (US$58,508,040). Federal funding will be granted on condition that the project satisfies all federal eligibility requirements for the Building Canada Fund and that the Government of Quebec signs a contribution agreement.
Before highways, there were
railroads – Houston’s first circulatory system. Civic boosters bragged in the
1920s that Houston was the place "where 17 railroads meet the sea." The trains
hauled cotton and grain. Downtown had three passenger stations, the Houston Chronicle
reports.
At a ceremony in
Belleville, Ontario, Prince Edward-Hastings MP Daryl Kramp, Mayor Neil Ellis
and Pierre Santoni, VIA Rail Canada’s Senior Director, National Sales,
announced VIA’s plans for a new station with improved and expanded facilities.
VIA estimates that it will invest as much as C$7 million for the new station
and related improvements from recent capital funding for VIA announced by the
Government of Canada. C$2.5 million of the project’s cost will come from the
government’s Economic Action Plan.
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.
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.
