Railroad News

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has selected the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) as the first U.S. transit agency to participate in an expedited project delivery pilot program.

The federal funding program will include VTA’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Phase II project, a heavy-rail extension from north San Jose to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, California. The project will include a maintenance facility and storage yard, and three underground stations and one at-grade station.

Schneider earlier this month began offering intermodal service at a CSX ramp in Indianapolis.

The new service provides shippers in central and southern Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati markets with a more cost-competitive transportation option to eastern U.S. markets, Schneider officials said in a press release.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) yesterday announced the winners of its annual Rail Safety and Security Excellence Awards.

The awards recognize public transportation organizations for "innovative and proactive" safety and security programs. Winning agencies provide value to the industry by benchmarking successful programs so that other transit systems can adopt them, APTA officials said in a press release.

Keolis has launched its first North American light-rail operation in the Waterloo region of Ontario, Canada. As part of the GrandLinq Consortium, Keolis’ local subsidiary Keolis Grand River will operate nearly 10-mile light-rail for the next 10 years, and maintenance for the next 30 years.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) partnered with DMI to launch an app-based inspection system designed to replace handwritten notes and outdated palm devices used to gather defect data. The Portable Inspection Reporting Tool (PIRT) uses voice recognition software to allow inspectors to do their job hands-free, and artificial intelligence to reference the FRA’s extensive database on railway problems, according to a press release.

TEXRail last week received a Celebrating Leadership in Development Excellence (CLIDE) Award from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

The CLIDE Awards recognize development programs that plan for future growth and seek to support a sustainable North Texas, according to a TEXRail press release.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) won the Rail Transit Team Achievement Award at the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) International Rail Rodeo, which was held June 21-22 in conjunction with the association’s 2019 Rail Conference in Toronto.

The award is given to the system with the highest rail operator and maintainer team combined score. The winning team members were Joshua Vining, Justin Strong, Gary Crandall, Steven Dore and Erroll Luciano.

Utah Transit Authority's (UTA) board announced yesterday it selected Carolyn Gonot as executive director, effective Aug. 19.

A 25-year transit professional, Gonot will join UTA after 22 years at the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority. There, she led the funding and planning for the 16-mile, six-station extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system into San Jose, California, UTA officials said in a press release.

Virgin Trains USA officially broke ground yesterday on an extension of its privately funded passenger-rail line from West Palm Beach to Orlando, Florida.

Formerly Brightline, Virgin Trains is developing 170 miles of new track into the completed intermodal facility located in the new South Terminal at Orlando International Airport as part of the second phase of the expansion into central Florida.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) last week unveiled a $1 billion plan to increase capacity and reduce delays on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) rail system by 2022.

The capacity increases rely on more than $1 billion in capital investment — the ongoing $750 million investment in a new signal system that enables PATH to run more trains per hour; a prior commitment of $215.7 million for 72 new rail cars that will be delivered in 2021-2022; and a new capital commitment of $80 million for station modifications to enable nine-car trains on the Newark-to-World Trade Center (WTC) line.

Prompted by a fatal Amtrak train derailment in 2017, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling on the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to implement a passenger-rail operations safety program "without further delay."

The NTSB statement followed the release yesterday of its final report on the agency's investigation into the Amtrak derailment that occurred in DuPont, Washington.

The Little Rock Port Authority's board has elected Melissa Hendricks to a second term as chair. Her term will run from July 2019 through June 2020.

Hendricks was first appointed to the board in September 2011. During her tenure, she has served as treasurer, vice chair and chair of the external affairs committee.

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System's (SDMTS) board earlier this month approved a transit-oriented development (TOD) near the Grantville light-rail station in San Diego, California. 

The housing development would include 156 affordable units built by Affirmed Housing, 254 market-rate, student-oriented units built by Greystar and 96 parking spaces for SDMTS commuters, according to an SDMTS press release. 

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) will resume on July 7 the automatic door-opening feature on Red Line trains.

The feature, which has been tested throughout the system since February, is part of Metrorail's original design. But it was discontinued years ago due to a decline in reliability, WMATA officials said in a press release. 

The Twin Cities & Western Railroad Co. (TC&W) has promoted Tina Ryberg to assistant vice president of administration and operations.

Based at TC&W's headquarters in Glencoe, Minnesota, Ryberg oversees the railroad's transportation operations, maintenance of way, mechanical, safety, accounting, human resources and administration departments.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week announced the appointment of Harriet Richardson as the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) first inspector general. 

In her new role, Richardson will plan, direct and manage the independent oversight of BART operations to ensure the effective use of resources and compliance with federal and state laws. Richardson may also conduct independent audits and investigations, and provide reports of findings to BART’s board, the California State Legislature and the public.

By Vesna Brajkovic, Associate Editor 

Amtrak is on track to introduce new high-speed trains for revenue service on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from Washington, D.C., to Boston as early as 2021. 

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit's (DART) board last week approved a new name — the Silver Line — for its future commuter-rail service running on the Cotton Belt.

The planned 26-mile line will extend between the Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport in Dallas and Shiloh Road in Plano, Texas, and traverse five other cities including Grapevine, Coppell, Carrollton, Addison and Richardson.