With a catchy new name and
wads of cash, the LSTAR has left the station, the San Antonio Express-News
reports. The Lone Star Rail District said that it’s moving closer to a goal of
connecting San Antonio to Austin and beyond with a commuter rail line.
A proposed $500-million
project to improve commuter train service in Chicago and its suburbs includes
adding four stops in McHenry County, the Chicago Tribune reports. Prairie Grove
and Johnsburg would get train depots. Those communities are along a branch line
off the Metra UP Northwest Line that veers north near Crystal lake, Ill., to
the city of McHenry. The other proposed stops would be about 1.5 miles apart
along tracks that run parallel to U.S. Highway 14. Those stops would be between
existing downtown depots in Crystal Lake and Woodstock.
It’s been decades since
select ground just east of Floyd Boulevard in Sioux City, Iowa, was exposed to
sun and other elements, the Sioux City Journal reports. Now, the area is being
laid bare by workers moving southward, pulling out old railroad spikes and
prying up the steel track.
The South County Caltrain
Improvement Project is California funded by the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority is under way for future double tracking and capacity
improvements. The project aims to increase Caltrain service capacity and
improve safety by constructing a second set of new railway track along the
Caltrain railway corridor and various intersections from Tilton Avenue in
Morgan Hill, to Blanchard Road in south San Jose. The focus of this
construction work is on utility relocation.
The Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority’s BART Silicon Valley
Project exemplifies findings
from the recently released "Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment"
report, which demonstrates how increased investment in public transportation
provides green jobs, wages and business income in industries that have been
particularly hit hard by the economic downturn.
Economic analysis of the BART
Silicon Valley project by Wilber Smith and Associates estimated an overall
return on investment of four to six dollars for every dollar spent on the $6-billion
project.
By 2030, the 16-mile
extension is estimated to generate an additional $11.42 billion in gross
regional product and $3.27 billion in personal income, with 66 percent of those
dollars staying in Santa Clara County and the remainder benefiting the Bay Area
region. The national average of short- and long-term economic benefits of
public transit investments outlined in the APTA report is for every $1 invested
in public transportation, $4 is generated in economic returns.
The Association of American
Railroads awarded the 2009 Environmental Excellence Award to CSX Transportation
employee Paul Kurzanski. A 30-year veteran of the railroad industry, Kurzanski
currently serves as manager of environmental remediation with CSXT in
Jacksonville, Fla. The award was presented at the annual Railroad Environmental
Conference at University of Illinois, Urbana.
Passenger- and
freight-railroad operators are pressing the White House to scale back proposed
rules that would mandate billions in new safety hardware to prevent collisions,
warning that the financial burden could lead to cuts in passenger-train service
instead of the expansion President Barack Obama wants, reports the Wall Street
Journal.
Railroads might have their
roots in the 19th century, but they still are important to the area economy,
say transportation and economic development officials, The Longview News-Journal
reports. Two area groups, meanwhile, are working to provide more rail options.
Cowboys Stadium will get
temporary commuter rail service for the 2011 Super Bowl, but it might not be
the plan that was previously announced, The Dallas Morning News reports.
Top BART, State of
California, regional transit and local officials broke ground on the subway
portion of the Warm Springs Extension, a 5.4-mile project that will bring BART
closer to San Jose.
Iowa Governor Chet Culver joined
Congressman Bruce Braley in Waterloo to reopen the Iowa Northern Railway
bridge, a freight line that was damaged when the Cedar River flooded in 2008.
The reconstruction project is funded through $1 million in Culver/Judge I-JOBS
funds, and $2.1 million in federal railroad funds, secured by Congressman
Braley. The bridge is completely repaired except for the laying of the tracks.
BNSF officials were
cautiously optimistic about the future at a special forum on the railroad
industry at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Ill., The Register-Mail
reported. Plans to build a diesel repair shop, a third main track in the BNSF’s
classification yard in Galesburg and storage tracks that allow freight trains
that are being made up to be moved aside to allow other traffic through, could
lead to the creation of more jobs once the economy rebounds, the officials
said.
Watco
Transportation Services, Inc., said a definitive agreement has been reached
with Rio Grande Pacific Corporation to obtain 36 miles of track from the Idaho
Northern & Pacific Railroad. A notice will be filed shortly with the
Surface Transportation Board to operate the track as the Boise Valley Railroad
(BVRR), to be headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
Freight trains have begun
moving across a new $43-million bridge over Iowa’s Des Moines River that
reportedly is the tallest double-track railroad structure in North America, the
Des Moines Register reports.
The Boone High Bridge, which is 2,550 feet long
and 190 feet high, will improve operational efficiency and customer service on
Iowa’s busiest railroad corridor, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for the Union
Pacific Railroad, which commissioned the bridge project.
The Illinois Commerce Commission has granted
approval for the installation of automatic
flashing light signals and gates at the Triumph Road grade crossing of Dakota
Minnesota & Eastern track near Leaf River, Ogle County. The total estimated cost to install the
new automatic warning devices is $162,363.
The Grade Crossing Protection Fund will be used to pay 95 percent of the warning device installation costs, not to exceed
$154,245. DM&E will pay all
remaining installation costs, as well as all future operating and maintenance
costs.
The Oregon International
Port of Coos Bay will begin repairs this week on a series of tunnels whose
deterioration led to the September 2007 closure of the 110-mile Coos Bay line
formerly operated by Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad, The News-Review in Roseburg, Ore.,
reports. The work is the first stage of a rehabilitation project to get the
rail line back in operational shape. Officials hope the line could be running
again by the second or third quarter of next year.
B.H.I.T., Inc., a publicly
traded
railroad support services company headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., has acquired 100 percent of
the equity securities of The Wood Energy Group, Inc. for $6.4 million, plus
customary closing adjustments.
As the anniversary of the
Sept. 12 Chatsworth train disaster approaches, officials with Southern
California’s sprawling commuter rail service are facing a vexing array of
technical, financial and potential legal challenges as they struggle to deliver
on pledges of trailblazing safety reforms, The Los Angeles Times reports.
If a seaport were built on
dry land, it would look a lot like Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s new
Memphis intermodal facility, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Giant
cranes loom over vast expanses of tracks, roads and parking, soon to be piled
high with oceangoing shipping containers.
The Port of Long Beach will host a series of public meetings to solicit community input on plans to expand a staging area for double-stack trains. The staging yard is in the vicinity of 9th Street and Pier B Avenue. The goal of the expansion is to increase the on-dock rail usage in the harbor.
