In June, Hennepin County,
Minn., will launch a nine-month, $200,000 study of the cost and community and
environmental impacts of adding more traffic to the St. Louis Park tracks, the
Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Standing
before a Depression-era railroad power station in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Gov. Edward Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter warned May 6 that
such aging relics could imperil the region’s commuter rail network and its
highways, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
WES commuter trains are now
operating more quietly in Beaverton, Ore. The Federal Railroad Administration
has approved TriMet’s request to waive certain regulatory requirements relating
to WES train horns. For the SW Lombard Ave segment between SW Farmington Road
and the Beaverton Transit Center, WES trains will sound a 78-80 decibel bell at
each crossing, rather than the current 96-decibel horn.
The time could be ripe to
attract federal money for a trolley system connecting downtown Lorain, Ohio,
with other parts of the community, supporters of Lorain Street Railway said, the
Morning Journal reports.
On Feb. 22, Lorain City Council committees will
consider a presentation from Dennis Lamont, president of Lorain Street Railway,
which advocates the streetcar system.
As swirling snow shrouded
eastern Queens, a yellow-and-black diesel train rumbled on the A subway line
towards the Rockaways, lights flashing, sirens sounding, the New York Daily
News reports. It was the peak of the
near-blizzard. Snowdrifts threatened to force suspension of subway service to
the peninsula. And NYC Transit had called in the artillery.
The Obama administration’s
recent decision to award $38.5 million in high speed rail funds to New Jersey
is the first step towards a stronger, faster rail system that will reduce
congestion, oil use, and carbon emissions, but there is much still to be done, local
media report. That was the message that New Brunswick’s Mayor Jim Cahill and
New Jersey Public Interest Research Group Program Associate Rebecca Alper made
clear when they gathered at New Brunswick Train Station to release "The Right
Track," a new research report from NJPIRG.
MTA NYC Transit said the
next phase of a major $89-million construction project to reconstruct and
rehabilitate five stations on the Pelham 6 line has begun. They are Whitlock
Avenue, Elder Avenue, Morrison Avenue-Soundview, St. Lawrence Avenue and
Parkchester.
Hugh Fuller has
joined HNTB Corporation as the Northwest railway practice manager and brings
more than 30 years of experience in the transportation and railway engineering
fields. He has managed or designed more than a dozen light rail, streetcar and
commuter rail projects, making him one of the leading railway engineers in the
United States.
The battle of the borough
train station continues as historians voiced concerns that the Victorian-style
NJ Transit station will go through the winter with peeling paint and rotting
holes in the wooden walls and window sills, the Asbury Park Press reports. NJ
Transit officials confirmed there are no plans for work on the station until
after next summer when contracts are scheduled to be awarded for repairs and
painting. However, they insist the station is structurally sound.
Capital Metro in Austin,
Texas, didn’t know what it was getting itself into, the Austin American-Statesman
reports. That might sound like a shot from one of the transit agency’s critics.
Instead, it is in effect the agency’s explanation for why its MetroRail
commuter line from Leander to downtown Austin is now 15 to 18 months late in opening.
And still counting.
Lynda Frost, a
spokeswoman for Montana Rail Link, said trains traveling through downtown
Billings, Mont., were supposed to stop sounding their horns Sept. 18, one
minute after midnight, according to The Gazette. And those are some big horns,
emitting blasts of 96 to 110 decibels, as per federal regulations. A subway
train, at a distance of 200 feet, registers at about 95 decibels, while 110
decibels is comparable to a power saw three feet away.
