Railroad News

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has installed Shelton Goode as executive director of diversity and inclusion.

He started the job in June. Goode most recently served as director of diversity and inclusion at Oshkosh Corp. He has more than two decades of human resources and business development experience.

The Short Line Safety Institute (SLSI) yesterday announced that Thomas Murta has been named executive director. Murta will join the organization July 10.

Most recently CSX's assistant vice president of safety and operations compliance, Murta served in a variety of roles during his 24 years at the Class I, including positions responsible for safety and compliance, hazardous materials systems, environmental compliance and infrastructure.

Officials from Maywood, Illinois, late last week held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Metra station.

The nearly 900-square-foot station replaces an existing outdoor shelter. In addition to providing shelter from the elements, the new station is heated.

​North American rail volumes continued to inch upward in week 26, with railroads reporting a 5.2 percent increase in carloads and intermodal units compared with traffic hauled during the same week in 2016, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) announced yesterday.

North American carloads for the week ending July 1 totaled 366,143 units, up 4.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week rose 5.9 percent to 353,457 containers and trailers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Build America Bureau will provide a $537.1 million loan to the New York State Urban Development Corp. for the Moynihan Train Hall redevelopment project.

The loan was issued through the department's Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program.

Leica Geosystems has acquired InfraMeasure, a company specializing in rail measurements. Financial details of the transaction weren't disclosed. InfraMeasure designed and developed the patent-pending SafeLoad® system, which is a portable, laser-based measurement and documentation solution. The system, which has been implemented by four Class Is, can help reduce high-wide measurement time and labor by at least 50 percent, according to a Leica Geosystems press release.

Harsco Rail has received an order for seven Stoneblower track geometry machines from Network Rail, the owner and manager of mainline rail infrastructure in Great Britain. The Stoneblower units automate the process for restoring track geometry by using pneumatic stone insertion below the cross ties. The latest generation units are equipped with a computerized measurement and design system and automatic stone metering system, Harsco officials said in a press release. The Network Rail order calls for deliveries over two years beginning in late 2019. The new units will succeed a fleet of retiring Stoneblower units that have logged more than two decades of service for Network Rail, which operates 20,000 miles of track in England, Scotland and Wales. Under a long-term agreement, Harsco Rail will ensure availability of spare parts and software support.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County has postponed implementation of a cashless, proof-of-payment system for its light-rail network in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The decision is the result of several factors, including a delay in the delivery of additional "ConnectCard" machines that dispense the new fare cards and tickets at system stations.

CIT Group Inc. announced last week it reached an agreement to sell its European rail leasing business unit NACCO to German firm VTG Aktiengesellschaft for $890 million.
The deal includes NACCO’s fleet of 14,000 freight cars and its car investments made between Jan. 1, 2017, and the transaction’s closing date that could total $160 million.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter pending customary closing conditions.

The Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority (RPTA) board has elected Suzanne Klapp chair.

Klapp serves as vice mayor of Scottsdale, Arizona. She began her first term on the Scottsdale City Council in January 2009 and was re-elected to a second term that began in January 2013.

In late May, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) members ratified their first-ever labor contract with the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad LLC (WNYP).
 
The four-year contract governs about a dozen WNYP workers and runs through Dec. 31, 2021. The pact establishes hourly wage rates, overtime pay, and health and welfare benefits. It also provides due process protections for BLET members that define a process to be followed when disciplinary charges are levied due to an alleged rule violation, union officials said in a press release.

Prior to the contract ratification, there were three pay rates for both locomotive engineers and conductors at WNYP. The new pact transitions wage scales to a single engineer hourly rate and a conductor hourly rate by 2021. Over the term of the contract, wage increases will range from 15.91 percent to 28.44 percent for engineers, and from 15.91 percent to 33.75 percent for conductors, BLET officials said.

The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) has received $4.5 million from the Salt Lake County Council to double track a portion of its S-Line streetcar route, the agency announced late last week.

The move will enable UTA to run streetcars every 15 minutes along the 2-mile route, agency officials said in a press release.

Caltrain's board on July 6 will solicit public feedback on proposed changes to fares and parking rates.

Under the proposal, the cost of traveling within one of Caltrain's zone would remain the same, but fares for additional travel would increase by 25 cents per zone.

The probable cause of a BNSF Railway Co. ethanol train derailment two years ago in South Dakota was related to the railroad’s decision to defer track maintenance and continue operating high-hazard flammable unit trains on the Aberdeen subdivision, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced last week.

The incident occurred Sept. 19, 2015, when the train derailed at a small bridge near Lesterville, S.D. The train was hauling three locomotives, 96 loaded tank cars and two hopper cars filled with sand, according to the NTSB report.

Sound Transit has begun building light rail in the center lanes of the Homer M. Hadley floating bridge across Lake Washington. The work on Interstate 90 is part of the agency's 14-mile East Link light-rail extension project.

Constructing light rail across a floating bridge marks a world-first achievement, Sound Transit officials said in a press release. The track on the bridge was engineered to compensate for six ranges of lake motion, according to the agency.

Northern Plains Railroad (NPR) has launched a new logo as it celebrates its 20th year in business serving customers in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Launched in 1997, NPR first operated out of a small office in Devils Lake, N.D., where it served the surrounding area on the former Soo Line/Canadian Pacific Railway "wheat lines," NPR officials said in a press release.

Amtrak last week provided an update on its infrastructure renewal work at Penn Station in New York City.

Engineering crews recently completed projects that include:
• renewal of 125 feet of station track 7 at east end limits, including the replacement of 600 railroad ties;
• total switch replacement in several sections within tracks in the "A" interlocking on the station's west side;
• wood, timber and rail replacement within the "JO" interlocking on the station's east side;
• replacement of 96 block ties in Line 1 of the East River tunnels;
• replacement of block ties within station tracks 2 and 10; and
• positioning of equipment in New York and New Jersey in preparation for the extensive summer work in July and August.

Transport Canada recently proposed new regulations aimed at lowering the risk of terrorism on the Canadian rail system.

Published in the Canada Gazette last month, the regulations would apply to freight trains that transport dangerous goods such as flammable or radioactive materials.

The North County Transit District (NCTD) on Wednesday will kick off a revenue service demonstration with its positive train control (PTC) system.

Herzog Technologies Inc. is implementing the technology for the San Diego-area commuter railroad.