Search Results for: infrastructure

Vital rail line gets one-year reprieve

Looking forward to
possible economic development in the South County, the Lassen County, Calif.,
Board of Supervisors, Union Pacific and Lassen Valley Railway, an affiliate of
V&S Railways, reached an agreement that will save the Wendel/Flanigan rail
line-a piece of infrastructure that could prove invaluable in the future-for at
least one year, the Lassen Valey Times reports. Union Pacific, the current owner of the 21.77 miles of rail
line, abandoned it in 2007, and planned to sell it for salvage and dispose of
the property.

 

Rail report pleases locals

The sale of a Canadian
National Railroad line to shortline operator Grenada Railway, LLC, has had
local businesses and officials concerned about the future of the rail in Tate
County, Miss., The Democrat reports But after a report by Larry Hart, current
Water Valley mayor and a former railroad employee, things might be better than
they first seemed.

 

TriMet using stimulus to maintain reliable light rail service

TriMet and the city of
Portland, Ore., are using $1.6 million of federal stimulus funds to repair
bricks in 20 intersections on Morrison and Yamhill streets in downtown
Portland. As the backbone of Portland’s light rail system, the Morrison and
Yamhill corridors have experienced significant wear and tear and have not had
major repairs in the 25 years since the tracks went in.

 

Huron Central bosses ratify one-year deal to save local line

Directors of Genesee and
Wyoming Inc., parent company of Huron Central Railway, have agreed to a
tentative deal that will keep the local railroad operating until August 14,
2010, SooToday.com reports. Sault Ste. Marie Mayor John Rowswell tells
SooToday.com that he has received confirmation of the ratification.

 

Spending on rail seen stuck at the station

Major U.S. freight
railroads and their advocates have argued for years that government investment
is needed in the country’s rail system to take freight off congested highways
and keep the economy moving, Reuters reports. But supporters say rail
investments have been largely ignored by Congress, suggesting political support
is lacking, despite warnings action must be taken sooner rather than later.

 

NS selects Greencastle, Pa., site for intermodal facility

Norfolk Southern will
construct a new intermodal terminal in Greencastle, Pa., to serve the
Mid-Atlantic region, as part of the railroad’s multi-state Crescent Corridor
initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal freight rail route between the
Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The $95-million facility, at which freight moving
in containers and trailers will be transferred between train and truck, will
occupy a 200-acre site adjacent to the planned Antrim Commons Business Park and
is expected to open in late 2011.

 

MTA releases draft capital program, capital needs assessment

New York City’s
Metropolitan Transportation Authority released its 2010-2029 Twenty Year Needs
and Preliminary 2010-2014 Capital Program for public review and comment. Taken
together, these documents identify the MTA’s long-term infrastructure needs and
a short-term plan to begin addressing them within current budget expectations.
The documents are available online at www.mta.info, where the public can also
submit comments.

Illinois locals line up for rail bonanza

Jim Coston is betting
that the billions of federal dollars aimed at a high-speed rail system could
reassert Chicago’s place as the nation’s rail center — and jump-start his
attempt to resurrect a business that flourished here a century ago: building
passenger rail cars Crain’s Chicago Business reports.

 

Rail conference calls for papers

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.

Prince Rupert British Columbia’s ship finally comes in

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.

CN grows jet-fuel traffic at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport

CN is developing a fast-growing business supplying jet fuel to airlines serving Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport. The effectiveness of CN’s rail pipeline for jet fuel to Pearson prompted the construction of a C$65-million new Jet Fuel Rail Offloading, Storage and Distribution Facility near the airport, adjacent to CN’s Malport rail yard in northwest Toronto. On July 21, CN and airline and supplier representatives celebrated the official opening of the terminal.

Wisconsin DOT secretary pushes passenger rail

(This article by Frank Busalacchi was published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is chair of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.)

Everyone who travels the nation’s roads, bridges and rails has a stake in a major project under way in Congress this year: the reauthorization of the country’s surface transportation law. This mammoth law, rewritten every six years, determines how much money will be available to maintain and expand the country’s transportation system. Moreover, the legislation determines how this huge pot of money — $286.5 billion in the last bill — will be spent.

As chair of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, I strongly urge Congress to revisit our transportation priorities, which for too many years have favored highways and airlines. It’s time to reinvest in a highly valuable and underused transportation mode: intercity passenger rail service.

The reasons for spending more on rail are many. Perhaps the most important reason is public demand. Travelers are voting for more intercity passenger rail service by boarding trains in record numbers. In 2008, Amtrak carried a record 28.7 million passengers — the highest number in the passenger railroad’s history. When gasoline prices broke the $4-a-gallon barrier last summer, increasing numbers of travelers changed their travel plans to rail, including nearly 900,000 travelers in Wisconsin.

Price alone is not the only reason many travelers are switching to rail. Growing congestion on our nation’s highways and increasing delays in the air are making rail an attractive option for millions.

Of course, as more people choose to travel by rail, the demand on the system rises. Amtrak is facing an unprecedented equipment shortage: 17 percent of Amtrak’s locomotives and 15 percent of its passenger fleet are out of service. Investment in track and signal infrastructure is needed now to deal with existing rail congestion and to add new passenger rail service for the future.

In the midst of an economic recession, investing in rail is a wise use of federal dollars. It is estimated that for every $1 billion invested in passenger rail projects, 30,000 new, good-paying jobs are created. In Wisconsin, Amtrak pays $4.3 million annually in wages.

Last year, I had the pleasure of serving on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The commission’s most significant finding illustrated the financial magnitude of the need: $357.2 billion in capital improvements required by the year 2050. Additionally, a commitment of $5 billion per year will be needed for the 80/20 federal rail grant program over the six-year reauthorizing period.

This important program provides 80 percent federal and 20 percent state funding for passenger rail projects, mirroring the funding split in highway projects. This funding split finally recognizes the importance of passenger rail in our national transportation system. The commission also identified a series of inherent advantages in passenger rail that further demonstrate the value in greater funding for this important transportation mode. Chief among them are:

Mobility: Intercity passenger rail offers an alternative to using the private automobile, bus or airplane for transportation. At the current average of 2.2 million monthly riders, this means that several million people every month are removed from the already overcrowded roadways and airports.

System redundancy: Intercity passenger rail creates system redundancy in the intercity corridors it serves. Redundancy helps to ensure that transportation is possible even when an event occurs that disrupts the primary transportation system.

Delay reductions: One of the potential benefits of intercity passenger rail service is reduced highway congestion. In congested corridors, intercity passenger rail would only have to capture a small share of the total traffic in order to generate a substantial public benefit for all corridor travelers.

Environmental: Intercity passenger rail may also generate potential health benefits by reducing vehicle emissions, lowering pollution, and indirectly mitigating health and environmental costs.

Safety: Passenger rail is one of the safest modes of travel — far safer than highway travel.

The reasons to invest more in passenger rail are compelling and in the national interest. The question is whether Congress has the will to take a fresh look at the nation’s surface transportation system and increase funding for rail — the transportation mode that moves people efficiently while reducing the burden on our congested highways and airlines.

Rail can help relieve congestion, NS CEO tells governors

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.”

Alabama rail relocation bid advances

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.

RailWorks names Dorris VP of Track Construction Division

RailWorks Corporation named William Dorris vice president and area manager for the Greater Chicago area for its operating subsidiary, RailWorks Track Services, Inc. Dorris has successfully led projects of all sizes for Class I, government and transit agencies and private industry throughout his 32-year career in the railroad construction and maintenance industry. Under his leadership, RailWorks’ Chicago-based track construction operations achieved revenue growth of more than 200 percent over the past several years.

In his new position, Dorris will expand his geographic base to include northern Indiana and Michigan, as well as the Chicago metro area. He also will lead the company’s new project to construct the track infrastructure for Union Pacific’s new intermodal yard in Joliet, Ill.

RailWorks Corporation Executive Vice President John August said Dorris’ promotion is part of a broader, longer-term commitment by RailWorks to provide a comprehensive construction and maintenance service offering throughout the Midwest and Northeast.

“We recently expanded our offices in Minooka, Ill., constructed a new shop and office facility in Youngstown, Ohio, and established a satellite office in western Massachusetts, “ said August. “These expansion activities and Bill’s promotion reflect RailWorks Track Services’ continued commitment to expand both its geography and its customer service capabilities.”

Government of Canada, VIA Rail launch improvement project

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.

New Jersey breaks ground on nation’s largest transit project

Building upon the region’s rich legacy of major public transportation assets, Governor Jon S. Corzine, Senators Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff and a group of other federal, state and local officials broke ground on the Mass Transit Tunnel project, the largest transit public works project in America.