Metrolinx awards Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown tunnel contract

In Toronto, ON, Canada, the Metrolinx Board awarded the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown tunnel construction contract from the west launch shaft area near Black Creek Drive to Yonge-Eglinton station to Crosstown Transit Constructors

Mass. Gov. Patrick appoints MassDOT Board of Directors

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appointed Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Board of Directors, adding to the panel new individuals with extensive expertise and leadership in transportation and business.

ENSCO delivers TrackIT® System to Amtrak

ENSCO, Inc., has delivered the TrackIT® Track Chart Management System to Amtrak. The web-based system hosts Amtrak’s official track charts and provides them as high-quality PDF digital copies or hard copies. The system is a module of ENSCO’s TrackIT Data Management System.

Efforts to rebuild WMATA system picking up steam

Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority’s investment in projects to rebuild and modernize its railroad, trains, stations and buses grew by 26 percent to $770 million in FY2012, an increase of nearly $160 million and is on track to continue ramping up to nearly a billion dollars this year.

Phoenix Valley Metro accelerates LRT project

Construction of light rail is back on the move in Phoenix, Ariz., with the re-launch of the Northwest extension along 19th Avenue from the current end-of-line north 3.2 miles to Dunlap Avenue. The project has received approval to accelerate the completion year from 2023 to 2016. Final design is underway; construction will begin in early 2013.

Amtrak continues to hit ridership records

Amtrak ridership is surging this year with 11 consecutive monthly ridership records. In each month of the current fiscal year, Amtrak has posted the highest ridership total ever for that particular month with the final month of September also expected to be a new record. In addition, July was the single best ridership month in the history of Amtrak.

AECOM awarded contract to help Denver RTD complete I-225 rail line

AECOM Technology Corporation was awarded a contract to provide final design services for the Denver Regional Transportation District’s forthcoming I-225 light-rail line.

Simmons-Boardman and RailAdvisor join forces

Railway Age, International Railway Journal and Railway Track and Structures have partnered with RailAdvisor to present the world’s railway information in a more concise and global manner than ever before.

Amtrak opens Niantic River Bridge

Amtrak has achieved the main focus of its project to replace the movable Niantic River Bridgein East Lyme, Conn. On the night of September 7, all rail traffic shifted to the new bridge and the existing 105-year-old bridge was removed from service. 

Sen. Schumer: FRA OKs Niagara Falls Intermodal Center funding

The Federal Railroad Administration has finalized the grant agreement with local stakeholders unlocking $16.5 million in U.S. Department of Transportation funding for the Niagara Falls Intermodal Transportation Center in New York. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer wrote to FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo in July, urging the administrator to finalize this important grant agreement and allow this long awaited project to finally move forward.

Twin Cities celebrates joining of Central Corridor, Hiawatha LRT

Crews joined the Minneapolis – St. Paul Central Corridor light-rail track to existing Hiawatha light-rail track as they welded the two lines together between the Metrodome and Cedar Riverside stations.

Metra breaks ground on Ravenswood Station reconstruction

The Chicago-area Metra Acting Chairman Larry Huggins and CEO Alex Clifford joined Alderman Ameya Pawar and Representative Greg Harris on September 5 to break ground on the construction of the new Ravenswood Station on the Union Pacific North Line.

Metro-North plans New Canaan Branch track maintenance

Track maintenance work on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metro-North Railroad’s New Canaan branch, connecting New York to Conneticut, will happen over the course of the next four weeks.

Twin Cities’ Central Corridor project installs first of 14 substations

Crews have completed placement of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Central Corridor light-rail line’s first traction-power substation just south of the Raymond Avenue Station. Fourteen substations, located about one mile apart, will convert alternating electrical current to direct current, which will power the light-rail vehicles using a system of overhead catenary wires. Throughout the next year, the 13 other substations will be installed at a rate of one a month.

All structural work complete for the I-210 Gold Line bridge

After more than one year of intense activity, Southern California’s Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority says that all structural work has been completed on the I-210 Gold Line Bridge.

LOSSAN pedestrian safety project installs rail bridge

A portion of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) coastal rail line between Oceanside and Downtown San Diego, Calif., will be shut down as construction crews work to install a new rail bridge for the pedestrian safety undercrossing at Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas.

Richmond to Hampton Roads HSR Project receives Final Environmental Impact Statement approval

The Federal Railroad Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) have issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for two routes connecting the Hampton Roads area to Richmond and the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor in Virginia. The newly identified route south of the James River recommends a new, 90-110 mph alignment from downtown Norfolk through Petersburg to Richmond, while maintaining Amtrak’s current service from Newport News through Williamsburg to Richmond.

LaHood Calls on states to strengthen transit safety oversight

In a letter dated August 28, 2012, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called on the governors of 26 states, Puerto Rico and the mayor of the District of Columbia, to prepare to meet new federal regulations that the U.S. Department of Transportation plans on proposing in the near future. The proposed federal regulations would require them to strengthen and increase their oversight of public transit safety and are part of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), a new two-year transportation authorization bill signed by President Obama in July, 2012.

San Diego trolley renewal project makes great strides

The San Diego Trolley’s Green Line will run through Downtown San Diego past the Convention Center and Petco Park all the way to the 12th and Imperial Transit Center starting September 2,

NYCT FASTRACK begins next week on the Lexington Avenue Line

Beginning Monday, September 3, segments of New York City Transit’s 4, 5 and 6 lines will be shut down from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m., suspending all Lexington Avenue Line service between Grand Central-42nd Street and Atlantic Avenue in both directions for three consecutive weeknights for FASTRACK work.

LOAD MORE