Railroad News

Metro Transit-St. Louis announced it will station contracted security guards from G4S Secure Solutions across its rail system beginning April 1, two months later than initially planned.

Metro Transit and the Bi-State Development Board last year approved a contract with G4S to provide security services for the agency last year. Initially, the security services were to begin Feb. 1, however the agency extended the deployment date to accommodate more time for hiring, background checks and training efforts, Metro Transit officials said in a press release.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) last week reopened the Nostrand Avenue Station in Brooklyn, New York, after a more than two-year, $28 million renovation project.

The rebuilt two-track elevated station features two elevators, four staircases, platform canopies, tactile warning strips and digital train departure information displays.

The Amtrak Downeaster service achieved a record ridership of 574,404 passengers in 2019, a 7.8 percent increase from the previous record ridership set in 2017, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority announced late last week.

The service, which operates from Brunswick, Maine, to Boston, logged record ridership growth in nine out of the 12 months of last year, authority officials said in a press release.

Durfee Avenue in Pico Rivera, California, will be closed for the next 27 months starting today as part of the $107.8 million grade separation project being constructed by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG).

Located north of Whittier Boulevard and south of Beverly Boulevard, the grade separation effort is part of the Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) project, a program of 19 roadway-rail grade separations and safety improvements along the high-volume transcontinental ACE freight-rail corridor.

VIA Rail Canada last week issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) to pre-qualify interested general contractors for a construction project to upgrade VIA Rail’s rail maintenance facilities in Montreal and Toronto. 

The project calls for construction of new maintenance facilities and upgrading existing ones to accommodate a future fleet of 32 Siemens train sets to be delivered in 2022, VIA Rail officials said in a press release.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) union that represents CN's train conductors and yard crews in Canada has ratified collective agreements with the railroad, CN announced late last week.

The three-year agreements are retroactive to July 23, 2019, and provide wage increases and benefit improvements for 3,200 conductors, CN officials said in a press release.

Alfred Benesch & Co. added four senior project managers to its rail division to help deliver grade crossing solutions. Rick Campbell, Nicole Jackson, Tim Oster and Kurt Anderson have decades of combined expertise in freight- and transit-railroad signal preemption; crossing diagnostics; quiet zone implementation and railroad signal design, Benesch officials said in a press release.

The Top Employers Institute recognized Alstom as a top European employer in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The Top Employer designation certifies a company’s dedication to providing the best working environment for employees through progressive human resources practices, Alstom officials said in a press release. To select a company for recognition, the institute performs an independent audit of talent strategy, workforce planning, on-boarding procedures, professional and leadership development practices, performance management, compensation, career management and culture.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) earlier this week entered into a five-year, $3.3 million agreement with Penn Medicine to rename the University City rail station in West Philadelphia.

The station was renamed to Penn Medicine Station. 

The Kansas City Streetcar Authority recorded 2,228,942 riders in 2019, a 5.5 increase compared with 2018's ridership level. 

In 2019, streetcar ridership was highest on the weekends, authority officials said in a press release.

Dallas-Fort Worth transit agencies together will launch a regionwide survey next month to gauge ridership demand and patterns on the region's rail system. 

The survey is funded by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) and Trinity Metro.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) earlier this week announced eight of its 2019-20 "Most Wanted" list of transportation safety improvement recommendations have been implemented.

The recommendations included one addressing emergency response to railroad hazardous materials events, which was issued to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Two New York state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require all freight trains to have a minimum of two-person crews.

State Senate Bill S7151 was introduced earlier this month by State Sen. Timothy Kennedy (D) and a companion bill was introduced by State Assemblyman William Magnarelli (D), according to a press release issued by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLET).

The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) partners announced this week that CSX has selected Mathewson Right of Way Co. to provide right-of-way acquisition services for two projects that are part of the 75th Street Corridor improvement project.

Mathewson will serve a portion of the Forest Hill Flyover project and the 71st Street grade separation project, CREATE officials said in a press release.

VIA Rail Canada Inc. has selected a joint venture formed by AECOM and Arup as the owner’s engineer (OE) to analyze a proposed high-frequency rail service in the Quebec City-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor.

The joint venture will support VIA Rail and the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) in all technical and engineering matters during the pre-procurement phase of the project. Engineering and technical analysis is required for the project to receive final recommendation, VIA Rail officials said in a press release.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) yesterday awarded Archer Western Construction a $11.6 million contract to build a new light-rail station in Irving, Texas.

The future Hidden Ridge Station will be located between the existing North Lake College and Irving Convention Center stations on the Orange Line.

CN's road transportation subsidiary CNTL has selected ISAAC Instruments' telemetry solution to optimize the Class I's road safety efforts on its fleet of more than 1,000 trucks.

The devices are expected to be delivered and installed in the next 30 days, CN officials said in a press release.

U.S. railroads hauled 485,282 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending Jan. 25, a 6.7 percent decrease in traffic compared with the same week in 2019, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Six of the 10 carload commodity groups that AAR tracks on a weekly basis posted increases. They included metallic ores and metals, up 1,064 carloads to 20,918; grain, up 288 carloads to 21,723; and miscellaneous carloads, up 234 carloads to 8,474.