Railroad News

Rail News Home Passenger Rail May 2017 Rail News: Passenger Rail

Alstom’s iLint multiple unit is the world’s first train to run on a hydrogen powered cell, the company says.Photo – Alstom/Michael Wittwer By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate EditorSuppliers often face uncertainty in the passenger-rail locomotive market as public support ebbs and flows for transit projects. Elected officials, too, offer varying levels of support for passenger-rail plans.Even so, several manufacturers believe the global demand for passenger locomotives and multiple units will remain steady, and perhaps even grow."We're hopeful that the market will be buoyant in the future," said Siemens Rolling Stock President Michael Cahill. "There's a long pipeline of needs across the United States from various commuter railroads and transit systems, but how they get funding, of course, is the key question."Funding concerns notwithstanding, other train builders characterize the overall passenger locomotive market as stable. And while they continue taking orders for their tried-and-true offerings, they're also piloting new technologies.Over the past couple years, Siemens has been busy filling orders for its Charger locomotives. The company in March 2014 obtained a $225 million contract to build 32 of those units for departments of transportation in Illinois, California, Michigan, Washington and Missouri.That order, which was coordinated by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) on behalf of the other states, included options for 225 additional locomotives. California, Illinois and Maryland in November 2015 opted to purchase 34 more Chargers.Taking chargeFourteen of those units were set aside for the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak route in California; the remaining locomotives were divided between IDOT and the Maryland Transit Administration. The locomotives, which can operate at speeds up to 125 mph, meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tier 4 emissions standards. The units also feature a 4,400 horsepower Cummins QSK95 diesel engine.As part of a separate order, Siemens also is building locomotives for Brightline, All Aboard Florida's privately funded passenger-rail line between Miami and West Palm Beach, Fla. Those units have many of the same underlying features as the Chargers in the IDOT order, said Cahill."But there are some variations in the end product based on customer demands," he added.For example, Brightline locomotives feature what Cahill described as Siemens' "high-speed train look" — that is, a closed front-end with a sleek nose to provide better aerodynamics.In addition, there are some differences in the locomotives’ signaling systems. The units also have been designed to work with various positive train control (PTC) systems, Cahill said.Six of the new Chargers last month began revenue testing on Amtrak's Capitol Corridor route in California. IDOT also tested the locomotives on the Chicago-Milwaukee, Chicago-Carbondale and Chicago-Quincy routes in April.Siemens’ Charger locomotives can operate up to 125 mph.Siemens

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Supplier Spotlight

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Mechanical

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Rail Industry Trends

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Mechanical

5/11/2017    

Rail News: People

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Rail Industry Trends

5/11/2017    

Rail News: Norfolk Southern Railway

Rail News Home MOW May 2017 Rail News: MOW

Progress Rail offers a range of special trackwork, including flange-bearing crossing diamonds.Photo – Progress Rail By Michael PopkeRailroads continue to ask suppliers of special trackwork components to make their offerings easier and safer to install, and to last longer — be they turnouts, switch point guards, insulated joints, frogs or other products.“The main emphasis has been on reducing the impact put on trackwork that leads to degradation of components,” says Scot Campbell, director of Class I sales in the Engineering and Track Services Division of Progress Rail, which is field testing what the company believes is a more efficient rail-welding technique.“Railroads need us to keep getting better,” adds Ken Ouelette, vice president of marketing for special trackwork supplier voestalpine Nortrak, which has made improvements to products and facilities over the past year. “They want to see products that last longer and are easier to install.”And freight railroads likely will want more of them this year, some suppliers say.“We anticipate things will pick up from last year, when there was a bit of a downturn in the freight market,” Ouelette says.Progressive Railroading recently contacted suppliers of special trackwork to learn about their latest product offerings and the trends that impact that market sector. Five special trackwork suppliers responded, either by phone or email. Their edited responses follow.Turnout geometry and flange-bearing technologyThe expansion of Atlantic Track’s facilities in recent years — including ones in Memphis, Tenn., and St. Clair, Pa. — indicate a commitment to infrastructure technology and capacity, said Jeff Grissom, the company’s vice president of engineering and operations, in an email.In Memphis, Atlantic Track now provides more dedicated, product-specific manufacturing work centers for compromise rails, guard rails and plate work.In St. Clair, the installation of an enhanced electric third rail machining, processing and assembly work center better positions the company to serve the industry, Grissom said.Budgets for special trackwork materials appear steady at most freight railroads, Grissom said, adding that he has detected a slight uptick in Class I activity when it comes to overall maintenance. At the forefront of the special trackwork discussions are issues of turnout geometry at the point of switch entry and mainline speeds through turnouts, Grissom said.The industry also is working to better define the parameters for full-flange bearing crossings and their ideal usage as it pertains to crossing angle and signalization within heavy-haul applications, he added.“Flange-bearing technology has been around for decades in transit to eliminate that ‘ticka-tacka, ticka-tacka’ pounding of the train against the ties,” he said. “Now it’s evolving in heavy-haul applications, too.”Wanted: highly reliable insulated rail jointsMeanwhile, L.B. Foster Co. notes a “continuing drive by the rail industry for long-lasting, highly reliable insulated rail joints as a key requirement for their special trackwork, as well as for mainline track,” said Sid Shue, general manager of the Allegheny Rail Products division of L.B. Foster, in an email.Shown: a premium Class I design turnoutAtlantic Track

5/10/2017    

Rail News: High-Speed Rail

5/10/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

5/10/2017    

Rail News: Amtrak

5/10/2017    

Rail News: Safety

5/10/2017    

Rail News: MOW

5/10/2017    

Rail News: Intermodal

5/10/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

5/10/2017    

Rail News: Shippers

Rail News Home Passenger Rail May 2017 Rail News: Passenger Rail

Completed in late 2014, the Englewood Flyover replaced a heavily used Metra and Norfolk Southern Railway crossing at 63rd and State streets in Chicago. Now each day, nearly 80 Metra trains cross the bridge over tracks used by about 60 freight and Amtrak trains.Photo – Norfolk Southern Railway By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorSound Transit’s Sounder commuter-rail service runs between Everett, Seattle and Lakewood, Wash., on tracks owned by BNSF Railway Co. The transit agency owns the stations and provides security, while the Class I operates Sounder trains and Amtrak maintains them.BNSF is exploring the possibility of establishing a command center in the Seattle area to co-locate all parties involved in Sounder operations. Sound Transit officials back that effort because they believe a local governing facility would enable each party to have a representative available to promptly respond to issues as they arise and elicit joint input on service matters.“This would serve to enhance operations coordination for communicating to passengers, responding to emergencies, and addressing security issues and service interruptions,” Sound Transit officials said in an email.When it comes to the operational complexities of passenger railroads sharing freight railroads’ track — namely, dozens of each other’s trains trying to make it through congested metropolitan areas each day in tight windows and during rush hours — coordination is vital. It’s also paramount in vice-versa situations, such as in Dallas where BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad use a Trinity Railway Express (TRE) corridor.The delicate working balance between the track owner-host railroad and user railroad teeters on three other “C” words, as well: communication, cooperation and compromise. In order for freight roads to meet shippers’ transit-time needs and passenger roads to achieve their on-time performance (OTP) goals, the four Cs come into play essentially 24/7. For commuter railroads, OTP typically is defined as pulling into a station within five minutes of a scheduled arrival.“We continually endeavor to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations, thereby earning their loyalty,” Sound Transit officials said. “Our target is to operate at or above 95 percent on time.”One other C word is essential, too: clockwork. It takes that precision to keep all trains moving efficiently each day in a busy metropolitan area like Chicago, where several passenger railroads and six Class Is interplay, says Don Orseno, executive director and chief executive officer of Metra, which uses track owned by BNSF, UP and Canadian Pacific.“We operate 750 trains a day, plus there are more than 400 operated by others. You must have open lines of communication … [and] be committed to working together,” he says. “You need to have an understanding of each other’s needs and trust what the other party is saying.”Commitment issuesBut there isn’t always that level of commitment and consideration. Since a Class I might have a premium train that’s behind schedule or a track maintenance issue on a shared line that triggers a slow speed order, a passenger railroad’s needs could take a back seat. Moreover, a Class I might not immediately inform a passenger road about freight pattern changes that could affect a line, while a passenger road might not readily alert a Class I that it needs more track capacity on certain days because ridership is fluctuating.“We are diametrically opposed in our missions — with them, it’s freight, and for us, it’s passengers. There are some tensions,” says Tim McKay, executive vice president of growth and regional development for Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), which owns and operates the 275-mile TRE corridor with the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (FWTA).The biggest challenges in balancing operations between freight and transit are passenger performance expectations and capacity consumption, said UP officials in an email.“These are best addressed when the passenger entity is willing to share responsibility for the solutions,” UP officials said.Therefore, finding common ground through some give and take is job No. 1 for hosts and users. And it’s a task they both continue trying to get better at, especially given the money at stake for hosts in usage fees and infrastructure costs, and the working relationships at stake for both parties as operational partners.Canadian Pacific handles dispatching duties for Amtrak’s Hiawatha service between Chicago and Milwaukee — the national intercity passenger railroad’s busiest Midwest corridor.
Canadian Pacific

5/9/2017    

Rail News: Supplier Spotlight