Railroad News

Rob Reich, a senior vice president at Schneider, has been elected chairman of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). He succeeds Nicola Motor Co. Chief Operating Officer Scott Perry.

Reich began his career at Schneider in 1992 after serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. His current title at the transportation logistics provider is senior vice president of equipment, maintenance and driver development.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) yesterday selected three contracting teams to develop proposals to design and build the first phase of the Red and Purple modernization program.

The three shortlisted teams are Walsh Fluor Design-Build Team, Chicago Rail Constructors and Kiewit Infrastructure Co. The CTA in June issued a request for qualifications for teams to work on the project.

The Texas North Western Railway (TXNW) and The Andersons Rail Group have established a rail-car repair and service center at the Panhandle Logistics Park near Sunray, Texas.

The new, 580-acre industrial park located in the Texas Panhandle is served by the TXNW Railway and BNSF Railway Co. A TNW Corp. subsidiary, TXNW owns and operates a private rail-car storage facility at the center that features nearly 11,000 storage spots.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's (PANYNJ) board yesterday approved a $3.2 billion operating budget and $3.4 billion capital budget for 2018.

The budgets — which contain no fare or toll increases — will fund agency efforts to enhance security, improve customer service, invest in sustainability and environmental protection, undertake state-of-good repair work and build new transportation facilities, according to a PANYNJ press release.

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Metra earlier this week offered a media tour of its GPS Center to demonstrate how the railroad communicates with riders.

Located at Metra's headquarters in downtown Chicago, the GPS Center is where platform announcements, website updates, email alerts and most service tweets originate, Metra officials said in a press release.

Southern California transit agency Omnitrans has hired Erin Rogers as deputy general manager.

Rogers has nearly three decades of transit industry experience, including 10 years as assistant general manager for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

In September and October, average weekday ridership in TransLink's Northeast Sector was 25 percent higher than the same months in 2016.

The sector comprises the cities of Coquitlam, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, as well as the villages of Anmore and Belcarra. The ridership jump followed the opening of the 6.8-mile Evergreen Extension of the Millennium SkyTrain line in December 2016.

Brightline, the new privately financed and operated express rail service in southern Florida, will begin "simulated service" between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale as soon as this week, the railroad announced on Twitter.

Although an exact date was not specified, the tweet stated that Brightline will run up to 10 trains a day on the route.

R. J. Corman Railroad Group yesterday announced a partnership with the Kentucky Labor Cabinet to create an apprenticeship program aimed at the recruitment and retention of new employees.

The program will start early next year, as R. J. Corman and the Labor Cabinet develop a curriculum, company officials said in a press release.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has released a final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for the second phase of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) Purple Line subway extension.

The report covers the segment that would run between the future Wilshire/La Cienega Station, downtown Beverly Hills and Century City. In particular, the document provides additional details on the Century City/Constellation Station, as well as potential public health and other impacts for the planned subway alignment.

U.S. intermodal rail traffic is on pace to set a new annual record this year, with strong gains in November and last week marking the best intermodal week in history, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) announced yesterday.

U.S. railroads logged 1,369,160 containers and trailers in November, up 3.8 percent, or 50,029 units, from the same month last year. Although U.S. railroads' carload traffic slipped last month 0.9 percent to 1,307,521 units, the combined total of intermodal and carload activity rose 1.5 percent to 2,676,681 for the month compared with November 2016, AAR officials said in a press release.

The Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) yesterday announced the appointment of Mark Miller and Dianne Costa to its board.

Miller, who serves as vice president of Hillwood Properties, will represent the city of Flower Mound, Texas. He was appointed to the board in June, DCTA officials said in a press release.

The San Mateo County Transit District (SMCTD) has launched a public engagement and education campaign to share information about solutions to the county's growing traffic problems.

Known as "Get Us Moving," the campaign also is designed to gather community feedback about proposed solutions.

CDPQ Infra has extended through Jan. 31 the tender process for a proposed 41-mile light-rail system in Montreal.

The company will launch a "period of intensive discussions" with the qualified consortiums for the project's engineering and construction contract, CDPQ Infra officials said in a press release.

A June 2016 train collision near Carvel, Alberta, occurred after one of two trains ran through a restricted speed signal, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) announced in a report issued yesterday.

The report highlights a number of safety risks, including the absence of physical fail-safe defenses to ensure that signals are consistently recognized and followed, TSB officials said in a press release.

Metrolink yesterday marked the completion of a 1-mile extension to downtown San Bernardino, California.

The commuter railroad's San Bernardino and Inland Empire/Orange County lines have been extended from their terminus at the San Bernardino Santa Fe Depot to the recently finished San Bernardino Transit Center.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) and GoRail yesterday honored House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) with the Railroad Achievement Award for his leadership on rail issues.

Shuster was recognized for understanding the critical importance of safe and efficient rail operations across the nation's 140,000-mile rail network, AAR officials said in a press release.