Railroad News

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined this week that Amtrak's and CSX's failure to properly assess and mitigate the risk of conducting switching operations during a signal suspension, coupled with a CSX conductor's error, led to a fatal train collision in South Carolina last year.

The accident occurred Feb, 4, 2018, when a southbound Amtrak train diverted from the main track through a hand-thrown switch onto a storage track and collided head-on with a stationary CSX train near Cayce, South Carolina.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) board yesterday approved a reorganization plan that includes measures aimed at improving subway service, ending cost overruns and project delays, and reducing waste and inefficient processes.

Following approval, the board also released critical deadlines and milestones for several of the major initiatives outlined in the plan, MTA officials said in a press release.

U.S. railroads logged a 4.9 percent decline in carload and intermodal volumes for the week ending July 20 compared with the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total carloads for the week were 254,434 units, down 4.2 percent, while intermodal volume was 271,576 containers and trailers, down 5.6 percent.

Jeffrey Brantz, 39
Business system analysis manager
Metra 

Nominator’s quote: “Leadership requires the ability to see forward into the future and imagine what is possible, not necessarily what is easy, have the confidence to pursue the right path, and then gain the trust and commitment of all team members needed to execute effectively. It is not often that this type of leadership, the ability to see the future combined with the skills needed to construct a workable path to get there, are found in the same person. Metra is fortunate to have such a person in Jeff Brantz.” — Cherie Kizer, Metra

VisioStack, a drone imagery data management company, has been awarded a 2019 Small Business Innovation Research project from the U.S. Department of Transportation to research and develop its aerial crossing inspection system (AXIS). AXIS is a highway-rail grade crossing inspection system that uses unmanned aerial vehicles and machine learning to flag and report high-risk profile repairs, VisioStack officials said in a press release.

Systra has hired Norine Walker as vice president in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Before joining Systra, Walker was project manager for design and construction projects at Virginia Railway Express and served as VP of URS Corp., now AECOM, Systra officials said in a press release.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has completed a $25 million renovation of the Jefferson Park Transit Center in Chicago, the agency announced yesterday.

The renovation of the nearly 50-year-old facility is part of a larger $8 billion modernization project to rehabilitate and make track improvements across the O’Hare branch of the Blue Line, CTA officials said in a press release.

Caltrain earlier this week released a draft of its business plan for the next 20 years of commuter-rail service in California. 

The draft 2024 Service Vision, the first phase of development of a business plan, outlines plans to improve frequency, sustainability and connectivity. 

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday announced that it has implemented positive train control (PTC) on 1,081 route miles in the second quarter, bringing its PTC-operated route miles to 14,678, or 86 percent. 

UP now is running PTC operations in 22 states, and is working with freight and passenger railroads to implement PTC on its remaining 2,384 route miles by 2020, UP officials said in a press release. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday jointly signed legislation establishing the Gateway Development Commission, a bi-state entity that will oversee the multibillion-dollar infrastructure project.

Known as Amtrak's Gateway program, the proposed project would replace the 109-year-old rail tunnels under the Hudson River that Amtrak and commuter trains use to operate between New Jersey and New York.

CN yesterday reported that it achieved record earnings, revenue and operating income for the second quarter.

Second-quarter revenue rose 9 percent to CA$3.96 billion over the year-ago period mainly due to the inclusion of The TransX Group in the intermodal commodity group, the impact of a weaker Canadian dollar, freight rate increases and higher petroleum crude and grain volumes, company officials said in a press release.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding a $10.5 million grant to the Southeast Arkansas and Northeast Louisiana Multimodal Freight Corridor improvement project to help pay for needed upgrades to a short-line rail system in Arkansas and Louisiana, federal lawmakers announced yesterday.

Grant funds will be issued under the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program.

Norfolk Southern Corp. today reported second-quarter 2019 net income rose 2 percent year-over-year to $722 million as the result of a 4 percent increase in railway operations income.

NS posted diluted earnings per share of $2.70, up 8 percent over the same period a year ago and a second-quarter record, the company announced in a press release.

Matthew Bell, 31
Rail government affairs consultant

Nominator’s quote: “Over the past four years, Matt led, managed or participated in every aspect of the operations of the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC), including membership, directory formulation, conference logistics, safety regulation meetings, safety awards and committees, grassroots events, finances and government affairs.  In 2018, Matt led the NRC’s grassroots effort, which included 20 grassroots events — an 82 percent increase from the prior year.” — David Bergstrom, Ragnar Benson Construction

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police Department recently swore in 12 police officers, four community service officers and emergency preparedness manager Jody Traversaro. 

The latest additions bring the department's hiring totals for the year to 33 officers and 12 community service officers, compared with the 24 officers and 10 community service officers who were hired last year, BART officials said in a press release.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) yesterday announced that it received the American Public Transportation Association's Gold Award for Safety.

The railroad was recognized for its incident prevention task force that includes a senior safety officer and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) police officer who combat trespassers, illegal debris dumping and encroachment along tracks systemwide, LIRR officials said in a press release.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) announced two new Tier 4-compliant locomotives completed trials and now are in service at its California Northern Railroad Co. (CFNR) subsidiary.
 
The locomotives were built by Knoxville Locomotive Works and purchased in part with $3.7 million in grant funding from California’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District, a regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county San Francisco Bay area.
 
Featuring high-efficiency, 12-cylinder MTU engines, the 2,400-horsepower diesel locomotives use selective catalytic reduction technology to meet Tier 4 air emission requirements set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, G&W officials said in a press release.

The units are expected to provide fuel savings of 25 percent and cut carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions by 80 percent compared with the two circa-1976 locomotives they replaced, the officials said.

TransLink last week released cost estimates and three development options for a proposed SkyTrain line extension from Surrey to Langley, British Columbia. 

The full proposed extension would run nearly 10 miles from the King George Station in Surrey to a future Langley Terminal, and would include eight stations and 55 vehicles. The estimated project cost is CA$3.12 billion. Annual operating and maintenance costs would total CA$32.4 million, offset by estimated annual fare revenue of CA$21.3 million per year starting in 2035, TransLink officials said. 

U.S. Class Is as of mid-June employed 141,360 people, down 1.1 percent from mid-May's level and down 4 percent from June 2018's count, according to Surface Transportation Board (STB) data.

Only one of six workforce categories posted a gain versus mid-May's total: professional and administrative staff, which rose 1.5 percent to 11,453. The categories showing declines as of mid-June were maintenance of equipment and stores, down 2 percent to 25,367; transportation (train and engine), down 1.5 percent to 59,363; executives, officials and staff assistants, down 0.8 percent to 7,756; maintenance of way and structures, down 0.8 percent to 31,864; and transportation (other than train and engine), down 0.2 percent to 5,567.

Progressive Railroading yesterday honored 25 people chosen as the Rising Stars of the North American railroad industry at a recognition dinner held in conjunction with the American Association of Railroad Superintendents Annual Meeting in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Twenty of the 25 Rising Stars attended and were presented their award from Progressive Railroading Senior Associate Editor Julie Sneider. 

Norfolk Southern Railway yesterday announced the transition to its new TOP21 operating plan earlier this month went smoothly.

The phase one roll out in July's first week in the merchandise network resulted in a seamless changeover with minimal impacts to customer service and network operations, NS officials said in a press release. The first phase focuses on the carload and automotive networks.