In a move that places Los
Angeles County in contention to receive its fair share of future federal rail
funding, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of
Directors voted to pursue long-term funding agreements through the US.
Department of Transportation to build the Westside Subway Extension and
Regional Connector projects.
Picture Lewis and Clark
splitting up at some point between present-day Umatilla and Boardman and racing
to the Pacific Ocean, the East Oregonian reports. Two contemporary economic
explorers, the general managers of the ports of Umatilla and Morrow, are doing
just that. Their goal, however, is developing a better shipping route from the
mid-Columbia River to Puget Sound.
Beginning August 30, MAX
Yellow Line trains in downtown Portland, Ore., will move to the new tracks on
5th and 6th avenues along the Portland Transit Mall. Also on August 30, MAX
Green Line trains will begin two weeks of test runs on the Mall and along I-205
before opening for service on Saturday, September 12.
As workers finished
exploratory drilling for the planned Westside subway extension, Los Angeles
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other elected officials said they want to speed
up construction of the $4.1-billion transit project, which has been scheduled
for completion in 2036, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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.
Sullivan City, Texas, Mayor
Rosendo Benavides traces his finger along a line on the map leading from Monterrey
to South Texas, The Monitor of McAllen, Texas, reports Abruptly, right before
it crosses the Rio Grande near his small town of 4,000, it jags straight east –
running near the river before heading into the United States near Brownsville. That
line – a Kansas City Southern railroad track that stops just across the river
from Sullivan City – offers the best chance his city has to secure an
international bridge, he said.
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.
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.
(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.
Installation of a new pedestrian crossing at San Marcos Street will require a short detour on buses for some Sprinter train riders this weekend, the North County Times reports. The commuter trains will continue to operate west of the Palomar College Station and east of the San Marcos, Calif., Civic Center Station on Saturday and Sunday.
The North County Transit District, which owns and operates local public transportation, will operate special buses on a 1.6-mile route between the two stations to bridge the gap in service.
The reason for the changes is the installation of a pedestrian railroad crossing across the tracks at San Marcos Street in an area where people have been climbing the fence to cross the tracks illegally since the Sprinter began running in March, 2008. Many of the pedestrians seen jumping the fences are believed to be coming or going from San Marcos Middle school, which is south of the railway.
The crossing will give residents of the city’s Richmar neighborhood a sanctioned path to cross, protected by warning bells and by automatic metal gates that close when a train is coming. Sam Marcos councilman and transit district director Chris Orlando said that it took extra effort by city employees to get approval for the crossing, which is expected to cost nearly $800,000 to install.
"The city had to do a number of surveys to demonstrate that the safest way to handle the problem we have out there was installing the crossing," Orlando said. It took additional work, he said, to find the cash to pay for the crossing. The bulk of the cost will be paid with a $596,230 Safe Routes to School grant from the state Transportation Department.
Securing permission to add ground-level pedestrian crossings to active rail lines has been difficult in North County. Encinitas has been working for years to add four undercrossings in sections of coastal rail where pedestrians often illegally cross tracks. Because trains move at up to 80 mph in the area, federal regulators have resisted simple ground-level crossings like the one to be installed in San Marcos. Instead, vertically-separated crossings are under consideration. Those crossings, basically tunnels under the rails, were estimated at $5 million in 2008, more than five times more costly than the San Marcos solution.
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.
