Railroad News

Politicians in New York and Illinois are the latest policymakers to announce the award of federal funding for positive train control (PTC) implementation projects at several freight and passenger railroads.

Yesterday, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded a $1.2 million grant to the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad for PTC installation.

Thirty-three weeks into the year, U.S railroads’ traffic continued to mount. During the week ending Aug. 18, they moved 567,477 carloads and intermodal units, up 3.7 percent year over year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

U.S carloads increased 2.9 percent to 278,701 units and intermodal volume rose 4.4 percent to 288,776 units. Nine of 10 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR posted a gain in the week, including grain, up 5,491 carloads to 23,404, and petroleum and petroleum products, up 1,544 carloads to 10,898. Coal carloads fell by 4,534 units to 93,248.

Yesterday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal joined other state officials, port representatives, and business and civic leaders at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Chatsworth to officially open the Appalachian Regional Port (ARP).

Managed by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) and served by CSX, the inland port facility will provide logistics services for customers in a four-state region and remove an estimated 50,000 trucks from local highways each year, GPA officials said in a press release. The ARP targets shippers in north Georgia, northeast Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky who seek a more efficient option to move cargo to and from the Port of Savannah, they said.

United Technologies Corp. has acquired Predikto Inc., an Atlanta-based predictive analytics software firm. Predikto has developed a cloud-based predictive health maintenance solution aimed at enabling its customers to forecast and improve asset reliability with better certainty. The acquisition will reinforce United Technologies' global digital strategy of making strategic business investments to deliver "new forms of value" for customers, employees and shareholders, company officials said in a press release.

Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems has acquired Federal-Mogul Corp.'s intellectual property rights for the development and production of friction materials for rail vehicle and industrial applications. In return, Federal-Mogul will receive a "back license" from Knorr-Bremse that will enable the company to continue supplying rail friction materials. The acquisition will help Knorr-Bremse reinforce its system expertise and invest in new and improved customer-oriented products, company officials said in a press release. The integarted development of rail braking systems and brake pads is expected to lead to greater deceleration, lower noise emissions and reduced lifecycle costs, according to Knorr-Bremse.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (RTA) board yesterday appointed Floun'say Caver as interim chief executive officer and general manager.

He's slated to serve from Sept. 1 until March 1 while the board conducts a search to fill the position permanently, according to a GCRTA press release.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and its commuter-rail contractor Keolis Commuter Services will begin an infrastructure improvement program Aug. 25 along the Worcester Line.

The project calls for replacing 38,000 feet of rail. Expected to take eight weeks to complete, the work may cause minor delays for some weekend trains and weekday morning rush-hour trains, MBTA and Keolis officials said in a press release.

Jennifer Homendy was sworn in Monday as a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member.

The board now has all five member positions filled. The NTSB operated with four members from April 2014 to December 2017, and with three members from January to early August 2018, when Bruce Landsberg was appointed vice chairman.

Patriot Rail Co. LLC's Louisiana & North West Railroad (LNW) recently welcomed a new tenant in Gibsland, Louisiana: Shale Support Holdings LLC.

A frac sand and logistics service provider to the oil and gas proppant market, Shale Support operates a terminal in Gibsland. The 24/7 facility can handle 100 rail cars and features on-site storage plus additional room for future storage.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded a nearly $30 million grant to the Rio Metro Regional Transit District for the implementation of positive train control (PTC) on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express system.

Without the grant, the district likely would have needed to cut service to accommodate PTC costs, according to a joint press release issued by U.S. Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and U.S. Reps. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.).

BNSF Railway Co. yesterday unveiled its newest logistics center during an event held in Moore, Oklahoma, for customers, local officials and residents.

Located within the city limits of Oklahoma City and Moore, Logistics Center Oklahoma City is designed to accommodate manifest and unit trains, and store freight. The facility can handle up to four manifest and two unit trains at a time.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced yesterday that David Stackrow Sr. has been nominated as chair.

Currently APTA's vice chair, Stackrow is as a board member of the Capital District Transportation Authority in Albany, New York. He previously served as chair of the agency, according to APTA's latest Passenger Transport newsletter.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) has begun allowing bicycles on CTrail Hartford Line trains.

After conducting an analysis at the request of riders and bicycle advocates, the department determined that bicycles could be safely stored on board, CTDOT officials said in a press release.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has named Boris Lipkin the regional director for Northern California.

He has been serving as acting regional director for that area since spring. Before that, Lipkin was deputy director of strategic planning as appointed by California Gov. Jerry Brown. In that role, he helped negotiate agreements with Caltrain and other partners, CHSRA officials said in a press release.

Pipeline Foods LLC has acquired a grain elevator in Atlantic, Iowa, from Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM).

Pipeline Foods plans to install new equipment and make improvements necessary to upgrade the elevator to test, clean, grade, dry, store and ship organic grains. ADM will continue to maintain soybean originations at the elevator.

New York & Atlantic Railway (NY&A) has promoted Charles Samul to director of sales and marketing, effective Sept. 1.

He will report to Eric Jakubowski, vice president and chief commercial officer of NY&A owner Anacostia Rail Holdings. Samul joined the short line in 2014 as a marketing project manager and became manager of sales and marketing in 2015.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) system this month reached its first anniversary of service.

The 43-mile system runs from Santa Rosa to downtown San Rafael, California. Since it opened in August 2017, SMART has served nearly 700,000 passengers, officials from the railroad said in a press release.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved a proposal by Toyota Logistics Services to redevelop its Pier B facility, build a renewable energy power plant and create a fueling station.

One of the port's oldest customers, Toyota Logistics operates a marine terminal to off-load new automobiles from ships, process the vehicles and transport them off site via rail and truck. The planned redevelopment project would make those operations more efficient, Port of Long Beach officials said in a press release.

The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. and Watco Cos. LLC have agreed to discontinue their GBW Railcar Services (GBW) rail-car repair joint venture, the companies jointly announced yesterday.

Under a dissolution agreement, the repair shops and employees at each GBW location will again be managed by their previous operators. The move enables both Greenbrier and Watco to better capitalize on current trends in North America's rail-car repair market and to meet demand for car repairs within their respective business models, officials from the two companies said in a joint press release.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and U.S. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) recently joined members of the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA) and the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) for tours of rail suppliers' facilities and public policy discussions.

Peters joined representatives from REMSA member company Harsco Rail earlier this month for a tour of the company's Ludington, Michigan, facility, which engineers and produces track maintenance equipment for railway systems in North American and global markets.