Railroad News

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (LA Metro) board last week approved further study of a potential route for an eastern extension of the Gold Line from its current terminus in eastern Los Angeles.

The route would follow both Atlantic Boulevard and Washington Boulevard to Whittier, California, with proposed stations in East L.A., Commerce, Montebello, Pico Rivera, Los Nietos, Santa Fe Springs and Whittier. The route includes an underground segment under Atlantic Boulevard and both street-level and aerial segments along Washington Boulevard.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) last week announced that Trinity Metro in Fort Worth and the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) in Houston, Texas, will retain a combined $57.4 million of cost savings the administration generated from completed projects in the FTA’s Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program.

The FTA encourages project sponsors in the CIG program — which funds major transit projects — to develop realistic cost estimates when planning a project. Savings to the FTA generated from a completed CIG project can then be considered for use on eligible activities related to the project, FTA officials said in a press release.

BNSF Logistics LLC announced the winners of its annual Supplier Excellence award, which honors suppliers across all transportation modes for on-time service, capacity and customer service performance, company officials said in a press release. Winners include Norfolk Southern Railway in the rail and rail clearance supplier category, American Rail Center in the transloader category, and CSX in the domestic intermodal category.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded Tutor Perini Corp. a contract to complete civil improvements for a $432 million project to widen the L.A. Union Station portal to the Division 20 subway rail yards. Under the contract, Tutor Perini will demolish and modify the existing tunnel portal and install new track, a third rail, traction power and train control systems. The firm also will construct new storage areas and a new turn-back facility to improve rail-yard flow and efficiency, company officials said in a press release. Work is expected to begin in the spring and will be substantially completed in early 2024.

Wyoming's House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill that would require a minimum of two crew members in the cab of locomotives operating through the state.

House Bill No. HB0079 also would establish financial penalties of up to $10,000 for railroads that violate the law. The bill now moves on to the State Senate, according to a press release issued by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), which supports the legislation.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) earlier this week approved the installation of lights, gates and warning devices at several grade crossings in the state.

The PUCO approved construction authorization from the Ohio Rail Development Commission directing Norfolk Southern Railway, Chicago Ft. Wayne & Eastern Railroad and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. to install new lights and gates at seven crossings across seven counties.

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Parker appointed Scott Kreher chief of police and emergency management, effective March 9.

Kreher has 27 years of law enforcement experience, most recently serving as deputy chief of the Atlanta Police Department.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told the U.S. House Appropriations Committee yesterday that a plan to fix the aging Hudson River railroad tunnel would be a "faster and more cost-effective method" than building a new tunnel.

Chao, whose department has been criticized for holding up a proposal to build a new tunnel as part of Amtrak's Gateway infrastructure improvement program, said "beginning rehab work in the near term is the right move" as opposed to waiting years for construction of new tunnel tubes, according to a report on northjersey.com.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday announced the core accessibility, resignaling and system expansion projects scheduled to begin in 2020.

The projects are included in the MTA's 2020-2040 capital program, as well as some prior programs.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday released a fourth-quarter 2019 status report on railroads' progress in implementing positive train control (PTC) systems as required by Congress.

According to the FRA, the following eight host railroads are at risk of not fully implementing a PTC system on all federally mandated main lines by the Dec. 31, 2020, deadline: Alaska Railroad, The Belt Railway Company of Chicago, Florida East Coast Railway (including its tenant railroad, Brightline/Virgin Trains USA), Kansas City Terminal Railway, New Jersey Transit, New Mexico Rail Runner Express, Metra and TEXRail.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has awarded the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) a $21.5 million grant to be used for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Merchants Bridge.

The grant was awarded for fiscal-year 2019 under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program.

The Uber ride-hailing mobile application earlier this month launched an in-app feature to allow train riders in New York City and San Francisco to schedule a trip to select commuter-rail stations in coordination with train arrival times.

The “Make My Train” feature allows riders to enter a train station as their destination in the Uber app and view the train schedule for that station. Once a train time is selected, riders then chose when they’d like to arrive at the station prior to train departure. Uber then automatically books a trip to the station to accommodate those preferences. 

OmniTRAX Inc. and subsidiary Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad (STE)  have completed the preservation of a historic locomotive that is now on its way to be displayed at the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.

The EMD SW1200 locomotive was one of five similar units that were originally manufactured for the Reading Railroad Co. in 1963, OmniTRAX officials said in a press release.

Calgary Transit ordered 15 more S200 light-rail vehicles from Siemens Mobility to replace the agency’s nearly 40-year-old U2 vehicles, Siemens officials announced earlier this week. 

Siemens has delivered over 260 vehicles for use in the agency’s CTrain light-rail system in Calgary, Alberta. The new order will be built at Siemens’ plant in Sacramento, California.

U.S. railroads logged 482,690 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Feb. 22, down 7.6 percent compared with freight moved during the same week in 2019, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total carloads for the week was 232,869 units, down 9.3 percent, while intermodal volume was 249,821 containers and trailers, down 6 percent.

Federal lawmakers representing New Hampshire and Pennsylvania earlier this week introduced a bill that would help finance the construction of a commuter-rail connection between Manchester and Nashua, New Hampshire, and Boston.

The Invest in American Railroads Act, introduced by U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), would expand the use of funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program.