FTA Administrator Peter
Rogoff announced federal funding for Denver Union Station, the centerpiece of the
Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks transit expansion plan. The
Department of Transportation approved a $151.6-million Transportation
Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan and a $152.1-million
loan application under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing
Program for Denver Union Station.
CN plans to establish a new
$100-million CN Calgary Logistics Park in Conrich, located in Rocky View County
north east of Calgary. The 680-acre park is planned to include a
state-of-the-art intermodal terminal with room for customers to co-locate with
CN and custom build their facility in place. The Logistics Park will be
designed to include a multi commodity transload and warehouse facility, an
automotive compound, and a liquid/bulk transload and distribution facility. The
site is strategically located a few miles east of the Calgary Airport, on Twp
Road 250/ McKnight Boulevard, providing fluid access to Stoney Trail and other
major roadways.
Norfolk Southern hasn’t laid down any of the track that will connect
its main line to the proposed $112-million intermodal terminal in Rossville, Tenn.,
but the company is laying down a foundation to keep the project on target to
open in two years, The Daily News reports.
Despite the loss of $3
million in state funding promised in July 2008 by then-state Sen. Joseph Bruno,
a $40-million rail-yard project in Mechanicsville, N.Y., is still in the works,
local newspapers report. The new facility is to be built by Pan Am Southern
LLC, a joint venture of Pan Am Railways, formerly Guilford Transportation and
before that the Boston and Maine Railroad, and Norfolk Southern Railway. Boston
and Maine once operated extensive rail yards here, connecting with the Delaware
& Hudson Railway, but those yards were gone by the 1980s.
The city of Winter Haven,
Fla., is moving forward on the Integrated Logistics Center to be developed in
conjunction with the CSX Intermodal Terminal planned for the southern portion
of the city, The News Chief reports. The planning commission discussed during a
workshop Feb. 2 a change in future land use from Institutional-2 as designated
by Polk County to industrial-business park center for the approximately 932
acres. The city annexed the property in 2005 but didn’t assign a land use
designation or zoning.
A
national environmental group with deep pockets and specialized legal expertise
is joining the effort to block a permit for one of the area’s biggest development
projects, The Kansas City Star reports. The Natural Resources Defense Council
filed a lawsuit Feb. 1 to halt the environmental permit issued for a rail yard
proposed for southwest Johnson County.
The
lawsuit is separate from one brought by Hillsdale Environmental Loss Prevention
Inc. and several other plaintiffs. Unlike the earlier lawsuit, BNSF Railway is
not named as a defendant.
The
defense council’s entrance into the case is significant because of the hefty
resources at its disposal. During 2007-08, the organization raised $108
million, according to its tax returns from that year. As of mid-2008, the group
had assets of $186 million.
Its
decision to join the legal dispute "guarantees there will be some funding at
least for the plaintiffs," said John Ragsdale, who has taught environmental law
at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Groups
like the council have national constituencies with dues paid by thousands of
people, enabling the groups to assemble lots of money with small donations,
Ragsdale said.
"Many
of these groups have staffs of attorneys … that are very, very competent and
skilled," Ragsdale said. "They can bring a strong force to bear."
BNSF
wants to build what’s known as an intermodal hub for transferring freight
arriving on West Coast trains to trucks for shipment elsewhere. The railroad
plans to develop the hub on 492 acres while a private developer builds a nearby
distribution and warehouse complex to store some of the incoming freight. Overall,
the project promises the creation of 13,000 jobs when fully built in about 20
years.
BNSF
is seeking $50 million in federal stimulus money to get the project started.
The state of Kentucky has
given preliminary approval to $400,000 in tax incentives for the Paducah &
Louisville Railway to build a new "green" headquarters. The Paducah
Sun reported that the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave
initial go-ahead for the tax credits, which will go toward a $4.2-million
headquarters and end the company’s search for a new home.
Cutting-edge environmental
technologies and green design will make the Northwest Ohio Terminal Facility, a
new freight transit hub under construction in North Baltimore, Ohio, one of the
most environmentally friendly and technologically advanced freight terminals in
the country.
Norfolk Southern is
clearing land for a planned intermodal train terminal even as attorneys for
Montgomery County try to block the project’s state funding, the Roanoke Times
reports. A demolition contractor leveled a house Jan. 18 and a barn Jan. 19.
One more house, vacant like the first to go down, is scheduled to be razed, as
well. A silo visible from U.S. 460/11 will come down later this month,
according to heavy equipment operator Randy Dickenson.
Coffman Specialties, Inc., of San Diego has been awarded a
$36.3-million contract to construct a rail spur and intermodal rail yard at the
Mesquite Regional Landfill, where municipal solid waste will be received for
disposal by way of California’s first waste-by-rail project. The Sanitation
Districts of Los Angeles County awarded the contract to Coffman Specialties,
the lowest of eight bids received for the project that will include a rail
spur, bridge and construction of the facilities where containerized trash will
arrive by train for disposal at the regional landfill. The Mesquite Regional
Landfill is located about five miles east of Glamis, Calif.
Gov. Haley Barbour wants
Mississippi to create a transportation hub in Palmer’s Crossing to handle
increased container traffic from the Port of Gulfport, the Hattiesburg American reports. But area residents say they’ll need to hear more details before they
consider the proposal a good fit for their community.
Norfolk Southern’s Crescent
Corridor Intermodal Freight Project has received the endorsement of the Retail
Industry Leaders Association (RILA). As noted in a letter dated December 16,
2009, from Katherine Lugar, RILA’s Executive Vice President, Public Affairs to
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood:
The
Alaska Railroad is inviting the public to a series of open house to provide an
opportunity to review and comment on a proposed Program of Projects for 2010. The
open houses will showcase continuing and proposed capital improvement projects
that are in various stages from conceptual planning to engineering and
construction. Project managers will be on-hand to explain projects that are
located all along the railroad system from Seward to Fairbanks.
In recognition of the
critical importance freight rail transportation offers shippers throughout the
U.S., Norfolk Southern’s Crescent Corridor program has been endorsed by 60
legislators on Capitol Hill as 2010 begins.
Paducah & Louisville
Railway is looking for incentives to build a new headquarters in downtown
Paducah rather than move to one of the other cities where it does business, according to The Paducah Sun.
Railroad President Tony Reck told The Sun that the company is hoping to
stay in Western Kentucky, but isn’t close to making a commitment to any place.
The Board of Directors of the Intermodal Association of
North America (IANA) elected Stephen G. Branscum, group vice president,
consumer products at BNSF as its Chairman for 2010. Branscum, who succeeds Greg
Stefflre, chief executive officer at Rail Delivery Services, Inc., has held
numerous key intermodal positions for BNSF and its predecessor, Santa Fe. David
L. Howland, vice president, Optimodal, LLC, was elected IANA’s Vice Chairman
and Steve Rubin, president, Seacastle Chassis, Inc. was named the Association’s
Treasurer.
The Association of American
Railroads issued the following on December 30, 2009
Intermodal volume was up but
both carload freight and total volume as measured in ton-miles slipped from
year-ago levels during the week ended December 26, the Association of American
Railroads reported today.
The AAR also reported that
volume during the most recent week remained sharply below levels reported
during the comparable 2007 week. In order to offer a complete picture of the
progress in rail traffic, AAR will now be reporting 2009 weekly rail traffic
with year over year comparisons for both 2008 and 2007. Comparison weeks from
all three years included the Christmas holiday.
Intermodal traffic totaled
141,699 trailers and containers, up 14.2 percent from a year ago but down 10.7
percent from 2007. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume rose
21.6 percent and trailer volume dropped 14.5 percent. Compared with the same
week in 2007, container volume fell 4.5 percent and trailer volume dropped 34.4
percent.
Carload freight totaled
197,754 cars, down 1.1 percent from 2008 and 22.3 percent from 2007. In the
Eastern U.S., carloads were up 1.3 percent compared with the same week last
year, but off 25.2 percent compared with 2007. In the West, carloads were down
2.3 percent compared with 2008, and 20.7 percent compared with the same week in
2007.
Carload volume was down
largely because of a more-than 21,000 carload (19.1 percent) drop in coal
loadings. Seventeen of the other 18 carload freight commodity groups were up
compared with the same week last year, with fourteen reporting double digit
increases, including motor vehicles (52.1 percent); lumber and wood products
(44.8 percent); grain (31.1 percent); metals (31.7 percent) and chemicals (18.7
percent).
Total volume was estimated
at 22.1 billion ton-miles, down 0.9 percent from the comparable 2008 week, and
down 17.5 percent from the comparable 2007 week.
For the first 51 weeks of
2009, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 13,585,290 carloads, down
16.3 percent from 2008 and 18.2 percent from 2007; 9,731,474 trailers or
containers, down 14.3 percent from 2008 and 17.8 percent from 2007, and total
volume of an estimated 1.47 trillion ton-miles, down 15.4 percent from 2008 and
16.3 percent from 2007.
Canadian railroads reported
volume of 55,572 cars for the week, up 33.5 percent from last year, and 30,653
trailers or containers, up 49 percent from 2008. For the first 51 weeks of
2009, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,192,327 carloads, down
18.2 percent from last year, and 2,084,051 trailers or containers, down 14.2
percent from last year.
Mexican railroads reported
originated volume of 10,718 cars, up 37.7 percent from the same week last year,
and 5,462 trailers or containers, up 53.3 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican
railroads for the first 51 weeks of 2009 was reported as 594,083 carloads, down
9.5 percent from last year; and 284,211 trailers or containers, down 12.9
percent.
Combined North American rail
volume for the first 51 weeks of 2009 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and
Mexican railroads totaled 17,371,700 carloads, down 16.4 percent from last
year, and 12,099,736 trailers and containers, down 14.2 percent from last year.
Rhode Island’s planned
extension of commuter rail service from Boston and Providence to Warwick and
North Kingstown is on track.
The Rhode Island Department
of Transportation (RIDOT), with approval from the State Properties Committee,
completed the purchase of property needed for the Wickford Junction train
station and parking garage. The purchase price for the land and easements
located on Route 102 in North Kingstown, near its intersection with Route 4, was
$3.2 million, of which 80 percent came from federal funds.
The Wickford project, along
with the Warwick Intermodal Facility currently under construction, will provide
the infrastructure necessary to support the initial start-up phase of the South
County Commuter Rail Service. This service will extend existing Massachusetts
Bay Transit Authority trains through Providence an additional 20 miles with
stops at T.F. Green Airport and Wickford Junction. The new service is intended
to provide an alternative mode of travel to the already congested I-95 and
Route 4 corridor, which is the State’s fastest growing region, and provide
access to major employment, retail and recreational centers in Providence and
Boston. MBTA is expected to add commuter rail stops at T.F. Green Airport in
2010 and at Wickford Junction in 2011.
Once built, Wickford
Junction Station, with an estimated construction cost of $30 million, will
feature a train station and platform along with a 1,100-space parking garage.
It is expected that once construction begins it will take approximately 16
months to build the station and garage. Commuter rail service would start
shortly after that. Daily ridership is projected to be approximately 1,750
passengers, with eight weekday round trips planned.
Norfolk Southern Corp. paid
nearly $12 million to purchase the 316 acres in McCalla, Ala., where it plans
to build a $112 million railroad hub, according to county records, TheBirmingham
News reports. The railroad company bought land from six different property
owners in transactions ranging in price from $72,545.40 to more than $5.8
million, the property records show.
According to government forecasts, freight volumes
in the United States will significantly increase by 2020. Unless major
transportation infrastructure improvements are made, this could lead to reduced
productivity resulting in job losses, higher prices for the goods we buy and
reduced worldwide demand for the goods we sell. The National Gateway – an $842-million
multi-state public-private infrastructure initiative – will help meet current
infrastructure needs and prepare the nation for this projected growth by
investing in surface transportation infrastructure improvements.
