Railroad News

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) marked its 155th anniversary yesterday.

The union was founded on May 8, 1863, in Marshall, Michigan, as the Brotherhood of the Footboard. In 1864, the group changed its name to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), the name it retained for 140 years until merging with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Jan. 1, 2004, when it became the BLET.

President Donald Trump has proposed rescinding $279 million of prior-year surface transportation funding, including $100 million of public transit and intercity passenger-rail grants, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced yesterday.

In a "legislative alert," APTA said that the president's administration has proposed rescinding:
• $47 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) formula grants that had been provided in federal fiscal-year 2005 and prior years; and
• $53 million in the Federal Railroad Administration-issued capital assistance for high-speed rail corridors and intercity passenger-rail service, including $47 million for the Chicago-to-Iowa City intercity passenger-rail project.

In 2017, VIA Rail Canada Inc. provided almost 4.4 million rides, marking a 10.5 percent increase compared to ridership in 2016.

That increase marked the railroad's greatest year-over-year growth in ridership in the last decade, VIA Rail officials said in a press release.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will receive a $574,000 federal grant for a project to establish a rail link to the Port of Pascagoula.

The proposed 4,300-foot rail connection in Jackson County is part of the port's intermodal improvement project, according to a press release issued yesterday by U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.).

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Progressive Railroading’s fourth annual Secure Rail Conference, held April 24-25 in Orlando, Florida, featured 23 presentations on topics that addressed how railroads can improve the security of assets, passengers and employees.

Sound Transit has named Don Billen executive director of planning, environment and project development department.

Billen previously served as the department's deputy director. Since September 2017, has has been the department's acting executive director.

A Pennsylvania court last week determined that the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority (JRA) must award a freight railroad operating contract to Carload Express Inc.

The Commonwealth Court's ruling addressed a dispute over the JRA's interpretation of its legal ability to award a contract for the operation of five short-line routes in Centre, Lycoming, Northumberland, Mifflin, Montour, Columbia and Clinton counties.

Military Times has named Union Pacific Railroad and Amtrak to its 2018 list of the top 100 best employers for veterans.

Amtrak was ranked 21st on the list, while UP was 68th. UP, which appears on the list for the eighth time, was the only Class I among the top 100 this year.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) yesterday announced a three-year capital project to rebuild outdoor platforms at 20 rail stations.

The work is aimed at fixing structural deficiencies. Temporary fixes have been made at many stations, WMATA officials said in a press release.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is calling on the U.S. Department of Transportation to take a "supportive regulatory approach" to how railroads will use automation technology.

The AAR's comments were submitted in response to the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) request for public comments on the potential benefits, costs, risks and challenges to implementing automated railroad operations.

Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario have signed a CA$2.5 billion contract with Mosaic Transit Group to design, build, finance and maintain the Finch West light-rail project in Toronto.

The contract reflects payments during construction, along with a "substantial completion payment" and monthly service payments during the 30-year maintenance period, IO officials said in a press release.

BNSF Railway Co. reported first-quarter 2018 total revenue rose 8 percent to $5.6 billion from $5.2 billion a year ago as a result of a 5 percent increase in unit volume.

First-quarter net income net income soared 37 percent to $1.1 billion from $838 million a year ago, while operating income climbed 11 percent to $1.7 billion from $1.6 billion, BNSF reported in a press release.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has released its Metro Vision 2028 plan, which outlines steps to improve local mobility and quality of life over the next decade.

The plan includes improvements to Metro's state-of-good-repair program to help reduce rail and bus service disruptions. Over the next decade, the agency aims to build a "state-of-the-art, condition-based asset management practice" for maintaining mission-critical assets and upgrading to current technologies, Metro officials wrote in the plan.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has scheduled a meeting June 12 in Washington, D.C., to solicit input from stakeholders in the railroad and trucking industries on whistleblower issues.

OSHA is looking for comments and suggestions on how it can better deliver "whistleblower customer service," as well as assistance it can provide to better explain the whistleblower laws it enforces. The meeting will be the first in a series requesting public input on the whistleblower program, OSHA officials said in a press release.

Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) this month will begin weekend tunnel and station closures to finish installing and testing positive train control (PTC) equipment and software.

The closures will begin May 19 and resume July 7 through October's end. PATH conducted a similar weekend closure program during 2016's second half for the first phase of PTC implementation, which involved equipment and signal installation.

Sally Librera has been appointed to lead MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) department of subways.

She will oversee the development and delivery of a long-term strategy to modernize the system, NYCT officials said in a press release.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating a passenger fatality last month involving an MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train at the station platform in Lynbrook, New York.

The NTSB late last week issued a preliminary report of the April 5 incident, in which a passenger on the platform came into contact with the side of the train, fell and died as the train was leaving the station.