Railroad News

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority's (SFRTA) board last week elected Hal Valeche to serve as chair and Esteban Bovo as vice chair.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Valeche was appointed to SFRTA's board by the Palm Beach County Commission in June 2018. He also serves on the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) yesterday signed an agreement with SunPower Corp. and Goldman Sachs Renewable Power LLC (GSRP) to install solar paneled carports or canopies over parking areas at four rail stations.

Combined, the four sites will have 12.8 megawatts of electrical capacity, making the installation the largest community solar project in the area and one of the largest in the nation, WMATA officials said in a press release.

G3 announced yesterday it opened a new grain export terminal at the Port of Vancouver on Canada's West Coast and new grain elevators in Morinville and Carmangay, Alberta.

The two new loop-track grain elevators will ship grain to G3 Terminal Vancouver. Construction on the terminal began in March 2017. It is designed with a focus on high velocity grain receiving and shipping, as well as environmental and safety standards, G3 officials said in a press release.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) researchers are evaluating a number of commercially available products for potential long-lasting effectiveness against the coronavirus on trains and at stations.

The EPA Office of Research and Development Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response is conducting the research, using the surfaces that mimic the high touch point on mass transit trains and stations, EPA officials said in a press release.

CSX Corp. has named James Wainscott to its board.

Wainscott is the retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of AK Steel Holding Corp. He joined the company in 1995 as vice president and treasurer, was appointed chief financial officer in 1997 and became president, CEO and board member in 2003. In 2006, he was named AK Steel's chairman.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHRSA) tomorrow will release a draft environmental impact report and statement (EIR/EIS) for a 49-mile segment of the state’s high-speed rail project between San Francisco and San Jose. 

The segment would provide service between the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco and the San Jose Diridon Station along the Caltrain corridor primarily on a shared, two-track configuration.

U.S. freight-rail traffic declined 2.4 percent to 437,989 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending July 4 compared with the same week a year ago, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Carload volume decreased 12.7 percent to 192,767 units, while intermodal volume rose 7.7 percent to 245,222 containers and trailers during the week.

India’s Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corp. (UPMRC) issued a letter of award valued at $275 million to Bombardier Transportation to build and deliver 201 rail cars and a signaling solution for the Agra-Kanpur Metro projects. Bombardier will provide the Agra Metro and Kanpur Metro 67 Bombardier Movia metro three-car trainsets and the Bombardier CITYFLO 650 rail control solution. UPMRC has an option of an additional 51 cars.

Affiliates of Paceline Equity Partners LLC, a private equity manager, acquired railroad maintenance-of-way equipment lessor R.E.L.A.M. Inc. Paceline affiliates also acquired the affiliated rail infrastructure and track maintenance services businesses, Acme Construction Co. Inc. and Timiny RR Construction Inc. The companies will operate with 1435 Rail Inc., a lessor of railroad MOW equipment that was acquired by Paceline affiliates in late 2019. John Roberts will serve as R.E.L.A.M.’s chief executive officer. He previously served stints at Marmon Crane Services Inc. and Railserve Inc.

Calgary Transit last week launched a mobile ticketing application for its rail and bus riders in Calgary, Alberta.

The new app, My Fare, allows CTrain light-rail riders to purchase tickets and passes from their smartphones. Riders will then ‘activate’ the ticket prior to entering a fare restricted area at a CTrain station, and present the proof of payment to a Calgary Transit Peace Officer when requested. 

Metra in Chicago yesterday unveiled a dashboard reporting ridership trends so riders can better plan trips based on social distancing.

Released as a test starting with weekday trains only, the dashboard indicates the average number of riders per train car over a five‐day period. 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's (PANYNJ) cargo volume dropped 16.5 percent in May to 537,412 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) from 643,706 TEUs in May 2019, authority officials announced Monday.

PANYNJ officials attributed the decline to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. The loss brings the authority's total cargo volume for 2020 through May to 2,854,319 TEUs, according to PANYNJ's Breaking Waves blog.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday awarded more than $500,000 in Railroad Trespassing Enforcement Grants to law enforcement agencies to support trespass prevention.

The $528,028 in grants were awarded to 11 projects in six states: California, Florida, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina and New Jersey. The agency received 23 eligible applications for consideration.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) last week unveiled a 10-point plan to ensure light-rail riders are confident returning to its system in California. 

The 10-point plan includes:

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is accepting funding applications for projects that benefit freight movements in the state. Up to $56 million is expected to be available for fiscal years 2023-2025 through the Minnesota Highway Freight Program.

Railroads, ports, airports, waterways, and Minnesota cities and counties can apply for funding by Sept. 28.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County yesterday began nightly closures of the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel in Pittsburgh for repairs. 

Wellington Power Corp. will be replacing lighting and cable inside the tunnel as part of the project.

Kansas City Southern in late June released an update to its 2019 sustainability report.

Safety statistics shared annually in sustainability reports now will include data from KCS’ Mexican operations, the update states. Titled "For the Long Haul: Delivering Prosperity, Valuing People, Protecting the Planet,” the 2019 report now shows the Class I improved its consolidated reportable train accident frequency ratio by 26 percent and consolidated reportable injury frequency ratio by eight percent.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) last week partnered with the State University of New York, City University of New York and Microsoft to launch a virtual hackathon for local students and professionals to assist in improving real-time train seating availability information for MTA Metro-North Railroad riders.

The event will connect participating developers, data scientists and designers with Microsoft’s cloud services, public datasets and the MTA’s in-house tech staff in an effort to help Metro-North build upon the functionality provided in the recently updated MTA Long Island Rail Road Train Time app.