Railroad News

California has filed suit against the Trump administration for canceling a nearly $1 billion federal grant awarded in 2010 for the state's high-speed rail program.

State and California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) officials filed the suit May 21 in federal court in San Francisco, according to Reuters. The filing claims the U.S. Department of Transportation lacks authority to withhold the $929 million in federal funds previously awarded to the high-speed rail program.

President Trump yesterday awarded the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor posthumously to the late Brent Thompson, a Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) police officer who was killed in 2016 while on duty.

Thompson, who was 43 at the time of his death, became the first DART police officer to be killed in the line of duty. He was shot by a mass shooter on July 7, 2016, during a protest against police. 

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)’s Fiscal and Management Control Board earlier this week awarded a $26.5 million contract to Fischbach & Moore Electric Group LLC to upgrade the signal system at the North Station terminal in Boston. 

Under the project, the contractor will replace the signaling in and around North Station with microprocessor technology contained within nine new signal houses that control the five major interlocking switching areas at the terminal, according to an MBTA project overview.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will replace Talgo rail cars similar to those involved in a fatal 2017 Amtrak derailment near Dupont, local news media reported yesterday.

WSDOT officials made the announcement a day after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the lightweight vehicles didn't meet current crashworthiness standards and were permitted to operate only through a "grandfathering agreement" with the Federal Railroad Administration.

U.S. railroads logged mixed traffic results for the week ending May 18, with carload activity up and intermodal down compared with volumes during the same week in 2018, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total combined U.S. rail traffic for the week was 536,358 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.8 percent. Railroads registered a combined total of 267,006 carloads, up 2.2 percent, and a combined total of 269,352 intermodal containers and trailers, down 5.5 percent versus a year ago.

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TrinityRail Maintenance Services Inc., a subsidiary of Trinity Industries Inc., has selected a 2,230-acre site in Shell Rock, Iowa, to construct a new rail-car maintenance services facility by 2020's end. Factors in the site's selection included its co-location with the Iowa Northern Railway Co., optimal access to the Class I network and strategic access to the upper Midwest, according to a company press release.

Balfour Beatty has completed construction of a 2.3-mile extension of the Regional Transportation District of Denver's E, F and R light-rail lines. Known as the Southeast Rail Extension during construction, the project adds three new stations: Sky Ridge, Lone Tree City Center and Ridgegate Parkway.

MTA Metro-North Railroad has met key benchmarks in its “Way Ahead” program, railroad President Catherine Rinaldi announced yesterday.

Six months ago, Metro-North launched Way Ahead to enhance safety, customer service, infrastructure and communications. 

Virgin Trains USA, formerly Brightline, yesterday began construction on the company's passenger-rail line between Orlando and southern Florida.

The rail line's second expansion phase involves 170 miles of new track that will run into the completed intermodal facility located in the new South Terminal at Orlando International Airport. The project is estimated to represent $4 billion of private investment, Virgin Trains officials said in a press release.

CSX Corp. has appointed Farrukh Bezar senior vice president and chief strategy officer as of May 29.

Bezar joins CSX with more than 25 years of strategic leadership in transportation and logistics. Most recently, he served as founder and managing partner of Lynwood Partners, a transportation and logistics advisory firm.

Failure to provide effective mitigation of a hazardous curve and the inadequate training of the locomotive engineer led to the deadly derailment of an Amtrak train near Dupont, Washington, in late 2017, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced yesterday.

Three of 77 passengers were killed and 65 others were injured on Dec. 18, 2017, when Amtrak Cascades train 501, on its inaugural run on the Point Defiance Bypass between Seattle and Portland, Oregon, derailed on an overpass as the train entered a 30-mph curve at about 78 mph.

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U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao yesterday announced appointments to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Drone Advisory Committee (DAC).

The committee provides the FAA with advice on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) integration issues by helping to identify challenges and prioritize improvements. The committee helps to create broad support for an overall integration strategy and vision, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) press release.

Nearly 76 percent of New Hampshire residents support passenger-rail service expansion from Boston to Nashua and Manchester, New Hampshire, according to a survey conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center. 

The poll indicates that 75.5 percent of residents support the expansion, 14.5 percent oppose it and 10 percent had no opinion. 

The Georgia Ports Authority's (GPA) board yesterday elected William McKnight chairman to succeed Jimmy Allgood.

McKnight, who has served as vice chairman since 2018, will assume his new role July 1. He is president of his family's construction company in Augusta, Georgia.