Railroad News

Unexpected rail wear led to last week's systemwide closure of the Maryland Transit Administration's (MTA) subway network in Baltimore.

Inspectors found that the gauge face angle (GFA) — a factor used to calculate rail wear —exceeded internal standards on 11 sections of elevated track. GFA is the measurement of wear that occurs on the part of the rail that comes in contact with trains' wheels.

Canadian Pacific has launched CP TempPro™ for shipping perishable products, the Class I announced yesterday.

The new service will enable CP to grow its business with perishable protective service (PPS) customers. CP has a growing fleet of PPS to transport products that require strict temperature settings.

The opportunities to use Big Data to drive efficiency and improve safety are plentiful, but railroaders may face a steep learning curve when it comes to sorting through the sheer volume of information produced by new technologies.

For instance, data generated by automated track geometry units can be “overwhelming to a lot of people,” said Amtrak Principal Engineer-Track Geometry Michael Craft during his presentation at the University of Delaware’s Big Data in Railroad Maintenance Planning conference, which ran Dec. 14-15.

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

Brookville Equipment Corp. this week delivered the first of seven Liberty streetcars to Oklahoma City. The off-wire capable units were delivered as part of a $33.7 million contract, which covers the design, engineering and manufacturing of the vehicles, along with spare parts, training, and service and warranty support. The city's streetcar system is slated to begin revenue service later this year. The Liberty streetcars will operate in downtown Oklahoma City on two routes: a 2-mile east-west loop and a 4.9-mile north-south loop. The city is the third American city to receive Brookville's modern streetcar since 2015. The company also has delivered streetcars to Dallas Area Rapid Transit and Detroit's QLINE system.

Stantec was selected as lead engineer on a $1.9 billion design-build expansion project for MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Nassau County, New York. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board in December approved a contract with the 3rd Track Constructors consortium, which includes Dragados USA Inc., John P. Picone Inc., CCA Civil Inc., and Halmar International LLC. As the consortium's lead engineer, Stantec will lead all rail, building and infrastructure improvements for the project, which involves adding a third track along a 9.8-mile stretch of LIRR's track between Floral Park and Hicksville. The project is among Stantec's largest transportation programs, according to a company press release.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) Advisory Board elected William Lyons as national division trustee. He succeeds outgoing trustee Matt Wilson, who has retired.

Lyons serves as general chairman of the CSX-Northern Lines' General Committee of Adjustment, which represents nearly 3,000 active and retired members.

BNSF Railway Co. this week continued to roll out its 2018 capital expenditure plans for individual states where the Class I's network operates. BNSF's latest announcements: Texas, Kansas and Missouri.

In Texas, BNSF expects to spend $375 million this year on maintenance of rail, ties and ballast, as well as expansion projects designed to enhance the network's capacity and fluidity, BNSF officials said in a press release.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday issued three urgent safety recommendations based on the agency's findings in two ongoing railroad accidents.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) received one urgent recommendation based on the NTSB's findings in the board's investigation of the Feb. 4 collision between an Amtrak train and a CSX train near Cayce, South Carolina. The Amtrak conductor and engineer died as a result of the collision.

The Metropolitan Council has reported $8.4 billion in developments along existing and planned light-rail transit lines in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The council tracks developments proposed, under construction or completed along Metro Transit's Green and Blue lines. The council also keeps tabs on projects being developed along the lines' extensions.

Amtrak will consider suspending service on tracks that don't have positive train control (PTC) in place by the Dec. 31 deadline, the railroad's president told a House subcommittee yesterday.

President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson told the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials that there will be carriers over which Amtrak operates that are unlikely to have made "sufficient progress" by year's end to qualify for a two-year extension of the 2018 deadline.

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

The Rail Passengers Association (RPA) on Monday decried President Trump's fiscal-year 2019 budget proposal to halve federal funding for Amtrak.

The proposal would cut the national passenger railroad's budget from $1.4 billion to $738 million, which would lead to the "virtual elimination of Amtrak's national network," RPA officials said in a press release.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) earlier this week announced four capital improvement projects on its rail system.

To minimize service disruption, the work has been scheduled during the second half of the year when ridership is lighter, WMATA officials said in a press release. One project will address the Metrorail system's tightest curve between McPherson Square and Smithsonian stations.

Siemens has formed a long-term technical and digital service partnership with the Atlanta Streetcar.

Under the agreement, Siemens will provide technical support and materials for preventive and corrective maintenance on streetcars. The company also will use its Railigent™ digital rail services platform to analyze data to help improve streetcar operations, Siemens officials said in a press release.

The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) downgrading this week of two critical "Gateway" projects in the Northeast Corridor will further jeopardize the projects from receiving federal funding, supporters of the passenger-rail corridor said yesterday.

In its annual funding recommendations report to Congress on the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program, the FTA this week rated both the Hudson Tunnel and the Portal North Bridge replacement projects as "medium-low" in priority for federal grants. Medium-low is second-lowest rating on a five-point scale that helps determine whether federal funding is warranted.

Intermodal volumes continued their upward trend for U.S. railroads, which posted a 3.7 percent increase in containers and trailers for the week ending Feb. 10 compared with the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

U.S. railroads' total traffic volume for the week rose 1.6 percent to 519,545 carloads and intermodal units compared with the same week in 2017. However, carload traffic slipped 0.5 percent to 251,058 units compared with a year ago.

President Donald Trump has nominated former U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake to serve as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

Drake is an assistant director of public works for Norfolk, Virginia, and is the former director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT).

New Jersey Transit's board yesterday approved a proposed alignment for the Hudson-Bergen light-rail expansion project.

The locally preferred alternative consists of a 10-mile, two-track extension of the Hudson-Bergen line from its current terminus at the Tonnelle Avenue station in North Bergen to the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.