Railroad News

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has identified 138 regional impact transportation projects that it anticipates funding and scheduling for construction over the next decade.

The projects include seven related to rail for a total of $96 million in state funding and three related to transit for a total of $191 million.

The Maryland Department of Transportation's Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA) yesterday unveiled an organizational restructuring aimed at keeping the agency on track to complete more than $900 million in rail infrastructure upgrades.

The restructuring was initiated in response to feedback received through an American Public Transportation Association (APTA) peer review.

Vista Proppants and Logistics LLC has entered into a definitive agreement with JupiterMLP LLC for transloading crude oil from truck to rail at its facility in Pecos, Texas.

Vista and Jupiter plan to ship crude oil via Union Pacific Railroad through 2019 and potentially into 2020, depending on pipeline construction timelines and capacity availability, the companies announced earlier this week in a press release.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) on Tuesday introduced new "stopped-train" messaging on its countdown clocks along the Red, Orange and Blue heavy-rail lines, as well as at Mattapan Trolley stops.

When a train has spent two minutes or longer than predicted in an area of track, the clocks will notify passengers how many stations away it stopped. Previously, the countdown clocks became "stuck" and simply displayed the last estimated time of arrival for a train, according to an agency press release.

MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) A and S rail service on Queens' Rockaway Peninsula will resume service Sept. 4 after completing the first two phases of a major flood protection project.

Crews installed foundations for a 20-foot-tall perimeter flood wall to surround the 3-acre site. Workers also installed steel sheet piles, extended a concrete retaining wall and began construction on a new building for compressor equipment, which provides compressed air to elevated tracks for signals.

U.S. railroads' combined intermodal volume continued to surpass carload traffic in the week ending Aug. 25, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total intermodal volume rose 6 percent to 290,372 units during the week, while carloads ticked up 1.8 percent to 275,334 units compared with the same week a year ago.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has certified transit-rail state safety oversight (SSO) programs in Illinois and Tennessee, the agency announced yesterday.

States with transit-rail systems in operation or under construction must get their SSO programs certified by April 15, 2019. In total, 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are required to obtain the certification.

The Florida Development Finance Corp. (FDFC) yesterday approved a $1.75 billion bond issue that will finance infrastructure for Brightline's passenger-rail service in five Florida counties.

The financing will pay for infrastructure in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Brevard and Orange counties, Brightline officials said in a press release.

Union Pacific Railroad announced yesterday it will continue to "implement, test and refine" positive train control (PTC) technology in 2019-20.

The announcement was part of UP's regular quarterly updates of its PTC implementation progress.

More public transit usage can significantly lessen cities' traffic death rates, according to a recent American Public Transportation Association (APTA) analysis.

Conducted by APTA and advocacy group Vision Zero Network, the analysis showed that metro areas that log more than 40 annual transit trips per capita experience a traffic mortality rate that's 40 percent lower than in metro areas with 20 transit trips per capita.

The Sacramento Regional Transit District's (SacRT) board on Monday agreed to reduce fares in a bid to boost ridership.

The board approved staff recommendations to use funds from cost-cutting measures and operational savings to "invest back in the Sacramento community," agency officials said in a press release.

MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) Cathedral Parkway-110th Street subway station in Manhattan will reopen over the Labor Day weekend following structural repairs.

The repair effort, which lasted less than five months, was completed on time and on budget, agency officials said in a press release. The project included functional improvements to the station's steel and concrete structure, mezzanine, walls, stairs and platforms.

The Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) logged its best July ever in container volumes, with total container movements rising 17 percent over the same period last year, port officials announced yesterday.

Nearly 97,250 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) moved through the port last month, according to a Jaxport press release.

The Reading & Northern Railroad has appointed Susan Ludwig vice president of customer service.

She will oversee all customer service managers, as well as all business — including anthracite coal, forest products and general merchandise — for over 70 customers, Reading & Northern officials said in a press release.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in October will start construction on a major Green Line track and signal replacement project, the agency announced earlier this week.

The project calls for installing 25,000 feet of track and 6.5 miles of modernized signal infrastructure along the Green Line's D Branch. The work is expected to continue through December 2020, according to an MBTA news release.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has issued a final rule to allow eligible smaller railroads and their contractors to use automated systems instead of paper records to comply with federal employee hours-of-service recordkeeping requirements.

The rule, which takes effect today, is part of the FRA's broader effort to reduce the paperwork burden of its regulations, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week issued $88 million in transit security grants aimed at protecting transit agencies from acts of terrorism and boosting the resilience of transit infrastructure.

The grants include a $6.2 million award to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) for track and tunnel intrusion technology to be installed throughout its underground rail stations.

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway has chosen Rockwell Collins' ARINC RailwayNet platform for positive train control (PTC) implementation. The platform creates a common communication infrastructure for PTC solutions and allows for interoperability between short lines, commuter railroads and Class Is, according to a Rockwell Collins press release.

Infinity Transportation Logistics LLC (ITL) this fall will add new next-generation domestic refrigerated intermodal containers to its fleet in various lanes to and from Washington state and Oregon. The new units will more than double the company's existing fleet, ITL officials said in a press release. The fleet will be able to haul up to 44,000 pounds. Meanwhile, the company is adding staff to its Kansas City, Missouri, office due to increasing demand for temperature-controlled intermodal service, ITL officials said.