Railroad News

Valley Metro last week received approval from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to advance the Phoenix agency's South Central light-rail extension project to the engineering phase.

The FTA action allows Valley Metro to move forward in its application for a federal Capital Investment Grant (CIG). Entry into the project's next phase also allows for engineering and pre-construction work to continue, including procurement of long-lead special trackwork. The 5.5-mile extension that would connect south central and downtown Phoenix includes nine new stations a transit hub, according to a Valley Metro press release. 

Today, Progressive Railroading announces the names of 25 people chosen for recognition as the Rising Stars of the North American railroad industry in 2019.

This is the seventh year that Progressive Railroading has sponsored the Rising Stars Awards program. The magazine defines a Rising Star as someone under the age of 40 who has made, or is making, a positive impact on his or her company, organization, department or team, and is viewed by others — peers, colleagues, supervisors, clients or associates — as an up-and-coming leader in the rail industry.

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Senior Associate Editor

RailWorks Corp. subsidiary RailWorks Track Systems Inc. has been contracted to build 134,000 track feet at Savage Gulf Rail LLC’s new storage and handling yard in Gregory, Texas. The track construction will begin this summer and be completed in 2021, according to a RailWorks press release. Once completed, the rail yard will be able to handle and store up to 1,100 rail cars and will include arrival and departure tracks for Union Pacific Railroad access. The site will also include a hydrocarbon rail-car storage yard, rail-car wash facility, loading facility and rail-car maintenance facility.

RGCX LLC has hired Misty Weisbrod as chief financial officer. Weisbrod has been working with the company on a contract and consulting basis since June 2018. She has more than 25 years of management experience in accounting, financial operations, process documentation and optimization and software development projects. Most recently, Weisbrod served as CFO for retail furniture company Healthy Back Brand Holdings.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) this week announced the deaths of two former district leaders: Daniel Knorek and John "Sonny" Kertesz.

Knorek, the former general chairman of the CSX Northern Railroad Lines General Committee of Adjustment, died April 1. He was 71, according to a BLET press release.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit's (DART) board earlier this week approved the renaming of three stations. 

Union Station in Dallas will be renamed EBJ Union Station in honor of U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), a major proponent for DART and public transportation, according to a DART press release. 

Preferred Freezer Services will invest $60 million to construct a 200,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse that will be served by rail in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The new facility will be used to import, export, process and distribute food products. It will position the refrigerated warehousing company to meet the growing demand for cold storage space, Virginia officials said in a press release issued by Gov. Ralph Northam's office.

Positive train control (PTC) is fully operational on all Virginia Railway Express (VRE) trains as of yesterday, the railroad's chief executive officer announced today.

Each of VRE's 32 inbound and outbound trains on the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines ran under PTC operation for the first time yesterday, said CEO Doug Allen in a press release.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has announced the details for its May 22 public hearing on railroad demurrage and accessorial charges.

The board will receive information from railroads, shippers, receivers, third-party logistics providers, and other interested parties about their recent experiences with demurrage and accessorial charges, including matters such as reciprocity, commercial fairness, the impact of operational changes on such charges, capacity issues and effects on network fluidity.

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate Editor

BNSF Railway Co. last week was granted exemptions from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016, which will help lay the foundation for expanded drone operations, according to an FAA grant of exemption document. 

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate Editor

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) will end switchbacks on the T Third Street light-rail line in an effort to provide more reliable service to southeast San Francisco, agency officials announced this week.

To accommodate the elimination of switchbacks, a train will be on standby along the route to fill gaps of service and the agency will provide updated schedules with more accurate travel times.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has formed the Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee, which will advise the agency on security issues related to rail and other modes of surface transportation.

The committee's makeup includes representatives of freight and passenger railroads. Voting committee members will represent surface transportation providers and users, and nonvoting members represent federal departments and agencies with surface transportation oversight.

Ontario government officials yesterday unveiled a new transportation improvement plan that calls for a CA$28.5 billion expansion of Ontario's transit network.

The amount is the "most money ever invested to get shovels in the ground and get new subways built," government officials said in a press release.

Union Pacific Railroad will host a celebration May 9 in Ogden, Utah, to mark the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad's completion.

The ceremony will be held at Ogden Union Station, a day ahead of Utah's celebration at Promontory Summit where the "golden spike" was originally tapped into place, according to a UP press release.

Grade crossing collisions and fatalities related to rail trespassing in the United States increased in 2018, Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) announced yesterday.

Citing recent but preliminary Federal Railroad Administration statistics, OLI officials said crossing collisions in 2018 rose to 2,214 to from 2,122 collisions in 2017 — a more than 4 percent increase. Total casualties — injuries and fatalities — related to rail trespassing climbed 2.8 percent last year, according to an OLI press release.

U.S. railroads reported a 2.8 percent decline in carload and intermodal volume for the week ending April 6 compared with the same week a year ago, according to Association for American Railroads (AAR) data.

Combined, the railroads logged 510,192 carloads and intermodal units during the week. The total number of transported carloads fell 3.9 percent to 251,417 units, while intermodal dipped 1.6 percent to 258,775 containers and trailers versus year-ago levels.

Sound Transit yesterday received approval from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to advance its light-rail extension project to the engineering phase — a step toward securing a critically important federal grant. 

With FTA's approval of Sound Transit’s Federal Way Link Extension project into the engineering phase, FTA locked in the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) funding at $790 million, the amount requested by the transit agency, according to a Sound Transit press release