Railroad News

California cannot enforce a fee on rail shipments of crude oil, chlorine and other hazardous materials, a federal appeals court ruled late last week.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction against California Senate Bill 84, the so-called Oil by Rail Safety Act, which requires railroads to collect fees from customers shipping certain hazardous materials and then send those fees to California.

Arctic Gateway Group reported yesterday that a fatal derailment occurred Sept. 15 on the Hudson Bay Railway near Ponton, Manitoba.

The derailment resulted in the death of an employee on the locomotive. A second employee sustained "serious injuries" and was airlifted to a nearby hospital, Arctic Gateway officials said in a press release.

Nine railroads — all passenger — have been determined to be "most at risk" of failing to qualify for an extension of the Dec. 31 deadline to implement positive train control (PTC), Federal Railroad Administrator Ronald Batory told a congressional panel last week.

Railroads that had installed less than 90 percent of its PTC system hardware as of June 30 are most at risk of failing to qualify for an "alternative schedule" for PTC implementation, Batory told the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials during a hearing held Sept. 13.

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

Alstom and Merrill Technologies Group announced the completion of the first power car bodyshell for the Avelia Liberty trainsets that will operate on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. At its facility in Alma, Michigan, Merrill is manufacturing 56 bodyshells for Alstom. In the coming weeks, the first bodyshell will arrive at Alstom's passenger rolling stock center in Hornell, New York, where the company will complete manufacturing of the power cars, according to a press release. The power car bodyshells are made from U.S. steel. In 2016, Alstom and Amtrak announced a contract for 28 next-generation Avelia Liberty trainsets. The agreement included long-term technical support and spare components and parts for the units' long-term maintenance.

Class Is and short Lines are "rapidly" adopting Railroad Software's TrackHOS software, the company announced last month. The software keeps track of hours-of- service regulations, generates employee time reports and provides alerts of violations to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The application meets the FRA's regulations for electronic record keeping. TrackHOS was designed to give train, signal and dispatcher employees access to time entry from their mobile devices and web browsers, said Railroad Software Chief Executive Officer Jeff Birmingham in a press release.

Bay Area Rapid Transit's board (BART) has authorized agency staff to enter an exclusive negotiating agreement with a local joint venture to create a transit-oriented development (TOD) above the Lake Merritt Station in Oakland, California.

The joint venture comprises the East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. and Strada Investment Group. The team's plan calls for four new buildings on BART-owned lots above the station, BART officials said in a press release.

The Effingham Railroad has started construction on a new 9,000-square-foot facility in Effingham, Illinois.

The new building will provide more efficient office and shop space for the short line's staff, according to a post in The Short Line Connection newsletter published by the Illinois Western and Effingham railroads. The building's shop space is designed to accommodate a 90-foot flat car.

Texas Central Partners has secured a $300 million loan toward the development of its proposed 240-mile, Dallas-to-Houston bullet train, the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday.

The company will use the loan, which is backed by Japanese sources, to advance the permitting, design and engineering on the project, the newspaper reported.

CN has been placed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) for the seventh consecutive year and the North American index for the 10th consecutive year, the Class I announced yesterday.

The DJSI World Index recognizes the top 10 percent of the 2,500 largest companies in the S&P Global Broad Market Index from each sector based on their sustainability scores.

The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority has received proposals from four teams vying for a design-build contract for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) light-rail extension to Montclair, California.

The proposals include each team's technical approach to completing the design and construction of the $1.5 billion project, their management method and other specifications.

CSX Corp. yesterday announced a change in leadership for its merchandise and intermodal sales and marketing teams with the appointment of Dean Piacente to vice president of industrial products and Maryclare Kenney to VP of intermodal and automotive.

Piacente previously served as VP of intermodal. He now is responsible for the Class I's chemicals, metals, paper and forest product businesses. He has more than 30 years of experience across different segments at CSX.

Amtrak will seek a deadline extension from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to complete positive train control (PTC) implementation on all its railroad operations, an Amtrak executive told a congressional committee yesterday.

Railroads required by federal law to implement PTC have until Dec. 31 to complete the process, unless they qualify for an extension from the FRA of up to two years.

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

Caltrain logged 65,095 average weekday passengers during its annual ridership count conducted earlier this year. The figure marked a 1.5 percent increase over last year's count, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

Traditional peak-hour ridership grew to 34,373 this year from 33,548 passengers in 2017. In addition, the railroad reported a 5.1 percent increase in reverse-peak riders, along with a 5.8 percent decrease in evening riders and a 9.2 percent dip in midday riders.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is looking for participants in a new pilot program aimed at expediting transit capital projects.

Authorized under the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the program includes a streamlined federal review process to help deliver projects more quickly, FTA officials said yesterday in a press release.

Following a recent audit, Amtrak's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has determined that the railroad's information technology (IT) management has room for improvement if it wants to minimize the possibility and impact of IT service disruptions.

The audit evaluated Amtrak's business continuity planning and testing efforts, then compared them to private- and public-sector IT management controls standards issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and ISACA, according to the OIG report, which was released this week.

U.S. railroads moved 502,208 carloads and intermodal units — up 4.1 percent — in the week ending Sept. 8 compared with rail traffic during the same week a year ago, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total carloads for the week increased 2.6 percent to 253,293 units over last year, while intermodal volume rose 5.8 percent to 248,915 containers and trailers, according to an AAR press release.

Instead of raising fares in 2019, Metra board members and executives will spend the next year calling for more state aid and "sounding the alarm" about the impact the lack of such funding has on the Chicago commuter railroad's service levels and state of good repair.

The railroad's board yesterday agreed that another fare hike for capital needs would overburden riders following four consecutive fare increases, Metra officials said in a press release.