Railroad News

VIA Rail Canada will restore most of its trains to normal schedules by March 7, following protest blockades that prompted system-wide service cancellations for several weeks.

Between Feb. 13 and March 4, 1,071 VIA Rail trains were canceled due to blockades on CN’s lines, VIA Rail officials said in a press release.

A two-year "reverse-commute" pilot project between Metra and a group of suburban Chicago businesses and governments has exceeded its ridership goal for its first year, Metra officials announced yesterday.

In fourth-quarter 2019, the MetraMore reverse-commute service between Chicago and Lake County, Illinois, logged an average increase of 550 trips per day, Metra officials said in a press release.

New Jersey Transit has launched a task force to coordinate its response to the outbreak of COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus.

NJ Transit’s internal task force will closely monitor news of the disease and coordinate efforts with the state’s coronavirus task force, which was created by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this week, agency officials said in a press release.

Norfolk Southern Corp. yesterday announced promotions of three leaders to vice president and the appointment of a chief sustainability officer.

NS appointed Greg Comstock, former general manager of the railroad’s network operations center and general manager of the southern region, to VP of network operations; Lorri Kleine, former senior general counsel of workforce, properties and insurance risk management, to VP of law; and Patrick Whitehead, former assistant VP of mechanical and general manager of the northern region, to VP of transportation.

Despite uncertainty over the potential economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, the impact on rail traffic so far has been limited, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) announced yesterday.

Last month's 8.1 percent decline in U.S. freight rail traffic compared with February 2019 levels was primarily due to a reduction in coal carloads, said AAR Senior Vice President John Gray in a press release.

AECOM named Tom Prendergast head of transit within the firm’s design and consulting business in the Americas. Previously, Prendergast served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. AECOM also announced it has named Denise Berger to serve as chief operating officer of the Northeast region. Berger spent 32 years with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, most recently serving as chief of operations for authority’s engineering department, AECOM officials said in a press release.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) operations and maintenance department deployed a data analytics and decision support platform developed by RailcarRx to help improve asset lifecycle management processes. MBTA officials told RailCarRX that the platform has reduced the processing time for critical data and helped their decision-making on locomotive component lifecycles, RailcarRX officials said in a press release.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) yesterday issued a notice of funding opportunity to solicit proposals for $8.5 million in grant funding for transit projects aimed at helping lift communities out of poverty and support recovery from substance abuse.

Titled "Helping Obtain Prosperity for Everyone" (HOPE), the grant program supports planning, engineering and technical studies or financial planning to improve transit service in areas experiencing long-term economic distress, FTA officials said in a press release.

Seattle's future National Hockey League (NHL) team will offer free transit passes to fans traveling by light rail or bus to the team's venue starting in 2021.

NHL Seattle — the team doesn't yet have a name — will be the third sports franchise in the United States to offer free public transit to fans traveling to games, as a way to ease traffic congestion in the city, Fast Company reported last week.

The Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit District (SMART) in California recorded ridership growth in the first two months of 2020 compared with the same period last year.

SMART logged 71,974 riders in January, a 26 percent increase from January 2019's ridership, and 71,676 riders in February, up 40 percent, according to ridership data SMART released yesterday.

The Lost Creek Rock Products Coastal Reload Yard opened March 1 at the Port of Coos Bay in Oregon.

The multi-commodity, rail-to-truck and truck-to-rail terminal will serve the southern Oregon coast with a link to domestic and global markets, Port of Coos Bay officials said in a press release.

The Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma received a $1.1 million grant from the the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to improve freight-rail infrastructure. 

The grant — matched with $1.1 million from local investments — will fund rail crossing repairs and interchange improvements at the port, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a press release. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City on Monday announced an update to its sanitizing protocols as it continues to take precautions in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The frequency and intensity of sanitizing procedures are being increased at each station and on the full fleet of rolling stock at MTA New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, as well as the bus and access-a-ride systems, MTA officials said in a press release.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday announced that by March 31 its One Metro New York (OMNY) contactless fare payment system will be installed at more than 200 MTA New York City Transit subway stations.

This month, MTA will begin installing OMNY readers on the 5 Line between Morris Park and Eastchester–Dyre Avenue stations.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has extended until March 9 the public comment period on the agency’s proposed fiscal-year 2021 budget to gather feedback on several proposed changes, such as expanded service hours and fare and service adjustments.

WMATA’s board will consider the feedback prior to making key decisions about the budget, WMATA officials said in a press release. 

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) received a $17.4 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for construction of a new rail station on the Hartford Line in Windsor Locks, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced last week. 

The $64.9 million station will be part of a transit-oriented development project adjacent to an apartment complex and a mixed-used redevelopment site.