Railroad News

California officials announced yesterday they've received approval from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to complete environmental reviews of the first phase of the state's high-speed rail project. 

Under a National Environmental Policy Act assignment from the FRA, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) is now responsible for approving the project's environmental documents , authority officials said in a press release.

Starting Sept. 23, Amtrak will offer direct service between Washington Union Station in Washington, D.C., and New York Penn Station in New York City.

The Acela nonstop service initially will operate on weekdays, with one southbound train departing at 6:35 a.m. and one northbound train departing at 4:30 p.m. per day. The travel time is about 2 hours and 35 minutes, Amtrak officials said in a press release. 

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) earlier this week published a notice of proposed rulemaking for a new regulation that would require installation of inward- and outward-facing video cameras on all lead locomotives in passenger trains.

The image-recording devices would record while a lead locomotive is in motion and retain the data in a crashworthy memory module, according to a notice the FRA published July 24 in the Federal Register.

The U.S. Department of Transportation yesterday announced $856 million in proposed award grants through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program.

"This significant federal investment will improve major highways, bridges, ports and railroads around the country to better connect our communities, and to enhance safety and economic growth,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in a press release.

Kelley Carr, 34
Senior manager of positive train control
Amtrak

Nominator’s quote: “Kelley’s hard work has directly contributed to Amtrak’s implementation of over 17,000 miles of PTC on Amtrak’s network to date, making Amtrak an industry leader as the most interoperable of any railroad in the United States. He leads a team consisting of many Class I freight and commuter railroads to develop policies and procedures for the use of PTC in the field. He has earned the respect of these railroads for his leadership in this area. He is seen by many throughout the industry, including regulatory entities, as a PTC subject matter expert.”
— Ken Hylander, Amtrak

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) earlier this week announced it is adding new features at six stations on the Blue and Yellow lines to improve safety and communication of rider information.

The stations, all south of the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, have been closed since May for platform repairs and will reopen in September. 

Sound Transit earlier this week announced it will use specially engineered attachments to install light-rail track on the Homer M. Hadley floating bridge in Seattle. 

To enable light-rail trains to transition from fixed track sections onto the floating bridge, the track construction requires special concrete attachments that minimize weight and isolate stray current from the electric system that powers the trains, Sound Transit officials said in a press release.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) last week released a request for qualifications (RFQ) as part of the agency's efforts to find a contractor to design, build and maintain track and systems infrastructure. 

Under the proposal, the contractor would manage rail infrastructure and be responsible for the operation, inspection, maintenance and renewal of all track and system work for at least 30 years. The contractor also would be responsible for all system testing and commissioning. 

Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad (RBMN) has promoted Jonathan Barket to vice president of communications and signals, and Matthew Collins to assistant vice president of communications and signals.

Barket joined RBMN in 2003 as a signal assistant. By 2007, he was named manager of communications and signals, and in 2010 he became AVP of communications and signals.

Ray-Mont Logistics announced this week the construction of a new facility for bagging plastic pellets for shipping out of Port of Prince Rupert in Vancouver, British Columbia.

When completed, the facility will improve the speed and efficiency of plastic pellet exports in containers for producers in Alberta that are served by CN, Ray-Mont officials said this week in a press release.

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.