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.
Metropolitan
Transportation Authority Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder unveiled a new and
dramatically simplified Website that offers the MTA’s 8.5 million daily
customers access to better organized and far more detailed information about
their daily commute.
While Paul Dulmage has
never been on a train in his life, he still feels rail lines should be
protected, EMC News reports. And the mayor of Carleton Place, Ont., Canada,
will be doing his part to ensure that the Canadian Pacific former Ottawa Valley
line, which passes through the town, is not disposed of or torn up.
Two statewide environmental
coalitions are warning that soil under the rail bed of the proposed Lackawanna
Cutoff line in Morris, Sussex and Warren counties could be filled with
carcinogens and want NJ Transit to investigate that possibility, the Newark Star-Ledger
reports. But NJ Transit officials contended there is no such evidence.
Monroe, Ld., Mayor Jamie
Mayo, District 1 Councilman Jay Marx and city engineer Sinyale Morrison will be
in Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 13-14 to meet with Kansas City Southern Railway
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mike Haverty to discuss multiple local
projects, the Monroe News Star reports.
After a decade of talks,
Centennial Park in Helena, Mont., is finally whole, the Helena Independent
Record reports. BNSF officially donated a 9.1-acre former Great Northern spur
line to the city last month, prompting an official thank-you from city
commissioners this week.
After enduring the most
brutal year in the history of Bay Area public transit, train and bus operators
are barreling down a track toward bankruptcy, the San Jose, Calif., Mercury
News reports. The near-inevitable result will be costlier and longer commutes
for all, whether they ride or drive.
RailComm has been chosen to
provide a major expansion of its Yard Automation System at Transnet’s Ermelo
Yard in South Africa. The automation system will be comprised of the existing
DOC® (Domain Operations Controller) server-based central control
system and 10 new associated outdoor-rated control panels. Per Transnet
requirements, the system operator is in charge of selecting the appropriate
control mode based on desired operating conditions.
When Hampton Roads
Transit’s board meets in special session Jan. 11 to discuss the future of
embattled President Michael Townes, the members cannot immediately fire him, The
Virginian-Pilot reports. Townes’ contract requires that he be given 30 days
notice of a vote to terminate his employment. That notice was given Dec. 28,
when four board members wrote him demanding that he resign or they would
introduce a resolution to dismiss him at the Jan. 28 board meeting.
Denver’s Regional Transportation
District — in the wake of a fatal commuter rail crash in Los Angeles — is
installing $3 million in safety technology, The Denver Post reports. The Automatic
Train Stop technology, or ATS, is designed to prevent trains from going through
a red signal, the cause of the 2008 Los Angeles accident in which 25 people
were killed.
The very foundation of the
Burlington, Iowa, railroad bridge project over the Mississippi River may have
to be shifted before significant work can continue on-site for increasing the navigation
channel by constructing a lift-span, the Burlington Hawkeye reports. In
drilling foundations for a new pier on the east side of the span to support the
new lift-span, contractors encountered large rocks and sheet metal that
prevented them from finding bedrock and securing the foundations.
With the extension and a
new method for painting the bridge, Gadsden, Ala., officials think the project
will be completed before the grant expires in September, the Gadsden Times
reports. The city received a grant for $500,000 from the Federal Railroad
Administration in 2005 for the CSX Transportation Railroad Bridge coating
project, but the appropriation was reduced because of across-the-board
rescissions by the Federal Highway Administration.
Brooklyn’s transit hub at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues – where MTA Long Island Rail Road customers can transfer for connections with 10 subway lines – has a new, $108 million home with the opening of the Atlantic Terminal Pavilion.
The three-story limestone, granite and glass structure features a soaring atrium that allows natural light to reach the below ground LIRR concourse and subway station. Two sweeping staircases provide direct access from the street to the concourse below. The Terminal building is linked internally to an office building and retail complex.
The renewed facility serves approximately 25,500 LIRR customers each day as well as approximately 31,650 NYC Transit subway customers. Work on the project, begun in 2002, was done in two phases in order to coordinate improvements with MTA New York City Transit work on their subway facilities and a private developer, Forest City Ratner.
The new Atlantic Terminal building marks an early milestone in the overall effort to transform this area of Brooklyn. A recent court decision cleared the way for a new sports center that is to be the new home of the Nets basketball team. Additional residential and commercial buildings also are planned nearby.
After a decade, a train may
be returning to Snohomish, Wash., by next summer, the Snohomish County Tribune
reports. The Port of Seattle purchased the Eastside rail corridor Dec. 21 from BNSF
in a deal totaling $81 million. The purchase covers 42 miles of rail line from
Renton to Snohomish.
A top adviser for Los
Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be transferred Jan. 4 to a new job
aimed at bringing a light-rail system to Los Angeles and L.A./Ontario
international airports, the Los Angeles Times reports. Deputy Mayor Diego
Alvarez will serve as the regional transportation coordinator for Los Angeles
World Airports, which operates both airports, according to Villaraigosa’s
office.
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, The Birmingham
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.
Amtrak has been working
hard to lure more business travelers to its trains, with advertisements highlighting
its advantages over air travel – roomier seats, power outlets on its Acela trains
and fewer annoyances, the New York Times reports. And its efforts have borne
some fruit: the number of riders on its Northeast corridor trains has been
rising.
As construction to
replace the 80-year-old Vandeventer Bridge in St. Louis continues, work to
remove the old bridge will require a MetroLink system outage between the Grand
and Central West End MetroLink Stations from December 26 through January 3.
During this time, MetroBus shuttles will replace MetroLink light rail service between these two stations, enabling passengers to navigate around the
construction zone and continue their commutes.
One day after telling
City Council that light-rail construction costs will not exceed the latest
estimate of $328 million, Hampton Road Transit officials said that the price
could climb another $12 million, The Virginian-Pilot reports. During a
closed-door executive committee meeting, HRT consultants revealed that the
project, which was budgeted to cost $232 million when construction started,
could rise to about $340 million, a 47 percent increase, several board members
confirmed. They added that the projection is preliminary.
After years of waiting,
Burlington, Iowa, residents were rewarded for their patience with a Christmas
gift, The Hawkeye reports. At midnight Dec. 24, the city became a train horn
quiet zone. Earlier this month, quiet
zone status was granted by the Federal Railroad Administration based on safety
modifications to downtown railroad crossings.
