Representatives from the Connecticut Department of Transportation and URS engineering consultants held an information session
in Brookfield Town Hall June
16 to introduce four alternatives for improving the Danbury rail line. One
potential option includes extending passenger service up to New Milford, which
would include a stop in Brookfield, the Brookfield Patch reports.
The key to getting federal
support for a railroad project is a solid study that supports it, a
Massachusetts planner told local business leaders, the Bristol, Conn., Press
reports. Tim Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission in Springfield, told an audience at the Central Connecticut Chambers
of Commerce the story behind the successful Knowledge Corridor rail line in his
region.
Amtrak is urging the
Federal Railroad Administration to be bold and unambiguous in its vision for
the future of the national rail system, including the Amtrak network, as it
develops a long-range National Rail Plan (NRP).
(This column by Rep. Bill
Shuster (R-Pa.) appeared at RollCall.com.) America has the greatest
freight rail network in the world. Our system is the most efficient of its kind
and essentially relies on no subsidies from the federal government. More than a
century ago, America’s railroads ushered in the great advancements in industry
that sparked America’s emergence as an economic power on the world stage.
America’s railroads revolutionized transportation, gave promise to freedom of
movement and made business more efficient.
The effort to fix a
dangerous and congested rail intersection near downtown Fort Worth known as
Tower 55 may finally be on track, the Ft. Worth Star Telegram reports. Texas
Department of Transportation officials said that they would formally endorse an
application for federal funding for the Tower 55 project, a $93.7-million
proposal to modernize crossings often used by children on the way to school.
The Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners authorized the agency to move ahead
with the purchase and redevelopment of Greenville Yards, a century-old rail
yard in Jersey City, N.J., that will serve as the lynchpin to removing up to
360,000 trash trucks annually from trans-Hudson crossings and New Jersey
highways by moving New York City’s sealed containerized solid waste and other
commodities by barge and rail when appropriate facilities are completed by
2013.
Industry has proposed an
agreement that, with government assistance, might keep rail service in Grand
Forks, B.C., said Mayor Brian Taylor. A group of shippers that use the
railway, including Pacific Abrasives and Interfor, contacted Omnitrax, which
owns the Kettle Falls International Railroad, the Grand Forks Gazette reports.
Buses will replace train
service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and
Valley Stream the weekend of May 15-16 as work is completed on the construction
of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel. The
$24.5-million project, which is funded through the MTA Capital Budget and
federal grants, began in March and is wrapping up as planned in time to
accommodate the weekend beach crowds expected in Long Beach beginning Memorial
Day weekend.
Signaling its most forceful
objection yet – and perhaps protracted court battles – Union Pacific has
notified the California high-speed rail authority that it will fight the
state’s newest plans to run bullet trains from the South Bay to the Central
Valley, including along Monterey Highway in San Jose, the Mercury News reports.
Several members of the
U.S. House of Representatives held a field hearing Monday in Miami to review
national high-speed rail plans, including Florida’s project to build a
high-speed line between Miami and Tampa via Orlando partly funded by Obama
administration stimulus money, the Miami Herald reports. While Florida sought
$2.5 billion for the Tampa-Orlando stretch and $30 million to advance the
Orlando-Miami leg, the Federal Railroad Administration granted Florida $1.25
billion for Tampa-Orlando and nothing for Orlando-Miami.
(The following editorial appeared
in the Fort Worth, Texas, Star Telegram.) America’s railroads have a good track
record when it comes to hauling toxic inhalants. Accidents are extremely rare
even though volume is extremely high — trains hauled 72,000 tank cars of such
dangerous cargo in 2008.
Buses will replace train
service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and
Valley Stream May 1-2 as work continues on the construction of two new railroad
bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel. The $24.5-million project,
which is funded through the MTA Capital Budget and federal grants, will also
require another train outage on the weekend of May 15-16. The railroad’s goal
is to complete the installation of both bridges before Memorial Day.
Your eyes weren’t
deceiving you. Yes, that was a passenger train rolling down the Florida East
Coast Railway toward Miami, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. On May 1,
the same train will return north to Jacksonville, this time filled with state
and local officials who are pushing to return passenger service to the coastal
tracks. Amtrak board chairman Tom Carper also is expected to be on board.
A deal is imminent for a
$90-million rail and trucking facility at Charlotte/Douglas International
Airport that could bring the region $7 billion in business over the next two
decades, the Charlotte Business Journal reports.
The Federal Railroad
Administration will soon begin accepting grant applications for the deployment
of positive train control collision avoidance systems and complementary advanced
technologies under a new $50-million Rail Safety Technology Program, FRA
Administrator Joseph Szabo said.
Unless agreement can be
reached in two weeks, $131 million meant to separate railroad tracks in Colton
will go to other Southern California projects, and leave the region’s two
freight railroads without a project they say is critical to moving goods out of
the region, The Press-Enterprise reports.
MTA Metro-North
Railroad’s new April 11 timetable will make temporary, minor schedule changes
on all three lines to allow for track maintenance projects. On the Upper Hudson
Line, schedule adjustments will allow for installation of concrete ties until
June 2010. Poughkeepsie, New Hamburg and Beacon customers in all time periods
will be affected by schedule changes requiring trains to depart earlier or
later, and in some cases, to travel up to seven minutes slower or 10 minutes
faster.
Elburn,
Ill., Planning Commissioners revisited a past proposal to construct a
pedestrian crossing over the railroad tracks between the Metra station and the
north side of the village, local newspapers report. They hope the village can
pursue the project in the future to reduce risks for people walking across the
railway to and from the station and their homes or downtown Elburn.
An agreement is near
regarding improvements around a long-sought railroad overpass in Colton,
Calif., between railroad and local officials, as the overall project’s fate
heads to a state commission, The Press-Enterprise reports.
Buses will replace train
service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and
Valley Stream the weekend of March 20-21 as work continues on the construction
of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel.
