Railroad News

The rail industry needs to repair track defects, upgrade tank-car design and increase training of emergency responders in order to improve safe transportation of crude oil and ethanol, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

In their report, the academies raise concerns about the safety of rail in transporting energy liquids and gases, particularly in relation to track defects, rural communities' emergency response preparedness and the older tank-car designs that will continue to be used in unit trains, the report says.

Alstom and Bombardier Transportation have awarded contracts worth more than $100 million to Faiveley Transport to supply systems for the first 71 next-generation double-deck trains in Paris. The trains eventually will run on lines D and E of the city's passenger-rail work. A subsidiary of Wabtec Corp., Faiveley will provide braking systems, door systems, HVAC equipment, pantographs and tachometer systems. The scope of work includes studying, designing, engineering, manufacturing and delivering the rail systems, Wabtec officials said in a press release. Deliveries are expected to start by September 2018 and wrap up by 2022. France's national rail network SNCF earlier this year inked a contract for up to 255 trains with an Alstom-Bombardier consortium.

GE Transportation this week marked the arrival of the first of 1,000 Evolution series locomotives ordered by Indian Railways. The locomotive arrived at India's Mundra Port. The unit will be the first diesel-electric locomotive running on Indian tracks that complies with the UIC1 international emissions standards, GE officials said in a press release. Forty Evolution series locomotives are being imported to India from the United States; the remaining 960 units will be built at GE's factory under construction and slated to open in 2018 in Bihar. India's Ministry of Railways in 2015 signed a $2.5 billion order for 1,000 of GE's Evolution Series locomotives.

Stadler earlier this week unveiled its first "Fast Light Intercity and Regional Train" (FLIRT) for the TEX Rail commuter line in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Florida East Coast Railway President and Chief Executive Officer James Hertwig has been elected chairman of the Transportation Institute at the University of Denver (DTI). 

Hertwig was unanimously elected to the position by DTI's 50-member board. His leadership in the transportation industry "promises to deliver even more momentum and enhancements" to DTI's programs, said outgoing Chair Adriene Bailey in a press release.

State and local leaders last week broke ground on a project to improve and expand rail service to the Port of West Memphis, Arkansas.

The project includes construction of a new facility that will allow various commodities to be transferred between road and rail at the port's International Rail Port Logistics Park, West Memphis officials said in a press release.

At a congressional hearing yesterday, Sound Transit Chief Executive Officer Peter Rogoff called on lawmakers to continue providing federal funding for transit agencies.

Testifying before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Rogoff said he was encouraged by President Donald Trump's stated goal to rebuild U.S. infrastructure. However, Rogoff said he's disappointed by the administration's fiscal-year 2018 budget proposal that would undermine those goals.

U.S. railroads posted a 6.3 percent increase in carload and intermodal traffic for the week ending Oct. 7 compared with the same week a year ago, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Total carloads for the week rose 2 percent to 269,336 units, while intermodal volume soared 10.8 percent to 285,490 containers and trailers compared with last year's data, according to an AAR press release.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has approved Minnesota's state rail-safety oversight (SSO) program — making it the second state to achieve such certification, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced yesterday.

Federal law requires states with transit-rail systems to establish an FTA-certified SSO program by April 15, 2019. If they fail to meet the deadline, states risk losing federal funding for transportation agencies until certification is achieved, FTA officials said in a press release.

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For Lisa Stabler, being career driven and family oriented aren't mutually exclusive.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has installed 11 new mobile device charging kiosks at six of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson's (PATH) busiest stations.

Three kiosks are located at PATH's Newark Penn Station facility, while the remainder are spread between the Journal Square, Hoboken, 33rd Street, Exchange Place and Newport stations.

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday began a series of public hearings on a draft environmental report for a proposed higher-speed rail line between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia.

Released last month, the draft report recommends infrastructure improvements that would allow for nine additional daily passenger-rail trips between the two cities.

Fly-ash supplier Charah LLC has opened a storage rail terminal in partnership with OmniTRAX Inc. in Kelim, Colorado.  

The new terminal is part of Charah's expanding network of sourcing locations across the county, which supply Class C and Class F fly ash for concrete producers.

California Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday signed into law a bill that enables Caltrain's board to ask voters to approve a sales tax measure that would increase the commuter-rail agency's funding.

Authored by California State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), the law gives the board the authority to place a sales tax of no more than one-eighth of a cent before voters in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) yesterday formally presented its 2017 awards during its annual meeting in Atlanta.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) won the association's 2017 outstanding public transportation achievement award. The third-largest public transit system in North America, the TTC moves 1.8 million customers each day on its bus, streetcar, light-rail, subway and paratransit systems.

Ranking Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee yesterday called on U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to take immediate action on a stalled rule-making that would add four prescription opioids to the drug-testing protocols of train operators and other safety-sensitive transportation workers.

The Democrats' request follows news that two Amtrak maintenance crew members were using opioids or cocaine when they were struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Chester, Pennsylvania, in April 2016.

GE Transportation Chief Executive Officer Jamie Miller has been appointed chief financial officer of GE, effective Nov. 1. She'll replace Jeffrey Bornstein, who will leave GE on Dec. 31 after 28 years of service. In October 2015, Miller became president and CEO of GE Transportation. She's credited with helping lead GE Transportation's "Brilliant Factory" initiative, the business's digital transformation effort. Miller also helped open global markets around the world, GE officials said in a press release. She joined GE in 2008 as vice president, controller and chief accounting officer. Pascal Schweitzer, GE Transportation's global services leader, will serve as acting CEO. A permanent CEO will be named in the coming weeks, company officials said.

The Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) has chosen Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc. (LAN) to provide railroad engineering services for rail projects over the next three years. DCTA operates the 21-mile A-train commuter-rail line, which connects with Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Green Line in Carrollton, Texas. LAN will handle projects aimed at improving the existing transit network, such as A-train expansions to the Cotton Belt and North Denton regions. LAN's services will include rail system guideway design, signal system design, rail bridge engineering and inspection, station design, schedule modeling and emergency railroad engineering. The firm also will evaluate future rail expansions to other corridors.

Amtrak late last week opened a new $44.3 million intermodal station in Rochester, New York.

The station is designed to speed up travel with expanded track service, streamline operations with a modern concourse and baggage handling system.