Railroad News

The operators of two commuter trains involved in separate New York City-area crashes in the past year were both suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea, according to records made public yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB made public the dockets of the fatal New Jersey Transit commuter-rail collision that occurred Sept. 29, 2016, in Hoboken, New Jersey, and the MTA Long Island Rail Road collision that occurred Jan. 4 at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York. The board's investigations into both accidents are ongoing.

The short-line industry recently lost two of its former leaders and contributors, according to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

Ohio Central Railroad System founder Jerry Jacobson died Sept. 13, and former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) President William Gifford Moore died Aug. 28. Jacobson was 74 and Moore was 91.

California Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month signed legislation that authorizes the San Mateo County Transit District to seek voter approval of a sales tax increase that would help fund certain transportation projects.

The legislation allows the district to place a sales tax of no more than one-half percent before voters to fund specific projects identified in an expenditure plan. The ballot measure would require the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors' concurrence as well as approval from two-thirds of county voters, district officials said in a press release.

The Atlanta City Council on Monday approved a plan to turn over the city's streetcar operations to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) next year.

The council approved an ordinance authorizing Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to transfer the streetcar's operations, staffing, maintenance and other functions to MARTA, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

CSX Corp. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America for the seventh consecutive year, the Class I announced yesterday.

The listing recognizes the company's sustainable and responsible business practices. CSX was the only U.S.-based railroad and one of three transportation companies included on the North American index this year, according to a press release.

After registering gains for most weeks in 2017, total U.S. rail traffic declined in the year's 37th week.

Traffic clocked in at 530,774 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Sept. 16, down 1.4 percent compared with total volume from the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Pipeline Foods LLC yesterday announced it acquired two Canadian Pacific-served grain elevators in Wapella and Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.

The U.S.-based supply chain solutions company focuses on non-genetically modified organism and organic food and feed. Both facilities are certified as organic through Pro-Cert, which is accredited in both the United States and Canada.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) today initiated a "safety stand-down" that resulted in a temporary suspension of mechanical inspections of the transit system's newest rail cars.

WMATA's action is in response to a safety concern raised by ATU Local 689, which represents the agency's operators, clerical and maintenance workers. The concern involved procedures for inspecting ground brushes, which are part of the train's undercarriage that return negative electrical current to the rails, WMATA officials said in a press release.

Loram Maintenance of Way Inc. has acquired substructure maintenance company HyGround Engineering. The acquisition is aimed at enabling Loram to better record and diagnose issues with ballast, sub-ballast, subgrade and drainage. In addition, the acquisition will pair HyGround's expertise in track geotechnics with Loram's ballast maintenance equipment to provide customers effective substructure maintenance management programs, Loram officials said in a press release. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

HDR has acquired Maintenance Design Group (MDG). Founded in 1995, MDG has designed upper-level work platforms for light-rail facilities. The firm employs nearly 40 professionals at offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Houston, Baltimore and Nashville, Tennessee. For more than a decade, HDR and MDG have worked together to serve transit clients, including the Kansas City Streetcar, said HDR President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Keen in a press release. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has finished a series of accessibility improvements at Metrolink's Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station in California.

Working in partnership with Metrolink and the cities of Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo, OCTA designed and constructed two ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

New Jersey Transit employees have donated clothing and supplies to employees of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), the Houston transit agency that experienced ervice disruptions due to Hurricane Harvey earlier this month.

Collections took place at employee work locations last week, NJ Transit officials said in a press release. Members of the NJ Transit Police Department delivered the items to Houston METRO.

Southwest Gulf Railroad Co. (SGRR) officially broke ground on the Medina Line, which is designed to increase the short line's customers access to Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway Co. lines in Texas and beyond.

The 9-mile line in Medina County, Texas, also will provide access to U.S. Route 90, railroad officials said in a press release.

Port Tampa Bay's board yesterday approved a public-private partnership agreement that will determine how to pay for a $60 million expansion of the Big Bend Channel.

The other partners involved in the agreement include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Florida Department of Transportation, Tampa Electric Co. and Mosaic Co., a global fertilizer company and one of the port's largest tenants, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has appointed John Bilich chief security officer, the agency announced yesterday.

A former commissioner of operations for the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Bilich joined PANYNJ in March 2015 as first deputy chief security officer.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has written a preliminary report on the Aug. 22 collision between two Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) trains.

The incident occurred when a SEPTA electrically powered single-car train struck an unoccupied SEPTA single-car train that was stopped at a passenger platform at the 69th Street Transportation Center on the Norristown Line in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate Editor

The exhibition hall for Railway Interchange 2017 officially opened Sunday.

Broward County's board of commissioners in Florida has approved a $31.4 million contract to purchase five streetcars from Siemens Industry Inc.

The units will be used on a planned  2.8-mile mile system in Fort Lauderdale, the Sun Sentinel reported Sept. 16. The board authorized purchasing five Siemens S70 vehicles for the Wave Streetcar, which is slated to open in early 2021. Construction on the $195 million project is expected to start in 2018.