Railroad News

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday announced the recipients of more than $302 million in grant funds under the federal-state partnership for State of Good Repair Program to help repair railroad infrastructure. The grants will fund 12 projects in nine states.

The program funds capital projects to repair, replace or rehabilitate publicly or Amtrak-owned or controlled railroad assets to reduce the state-of-good-repair backlog and improve intercity passenger-rail performance. Eligible projects include upgrading track, switches, bridges, passenger stations and grade crossings; and equipment, including passenger cars, FRA officials said in a press release.

MTA Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) today increased capacity on some lines to accommodate increased ridership as some services in the Hudson Valley and Long Island, New York, reopen. 

Metro-North today added 18 trains to its schedule to increase train availability by 26 percent, MTA officials said in a press release.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) late last week temporarily laid off 450 employees as part of a cost-cutting measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The pandemic has resulted in an 80 percent drop in ridership and a loss of $90 million in monthly revenue — money that was essential to sustain operations, TTC officials said in a press release.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit's (SMART) board last week approved a California state-sponsored plan that calls for the agency to take ownership of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co.

The complex agreement was years in the making, with the sale's framework established in a 2018 bill that provided SMART with $4 million to buy the railroad, its equipment and exclusive rights to its track from Larkspur to north of Cloverdale, The Press Democrat reported last week.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) last week approved Kansas City Streetcar Authority’s (KCSA) Main Street extension project to enter the engineering phase of the federal Capital Investment Grants New Starts program.

The approval authorizes KCSA and the agency’s partners to execute engineering and construction contracts for a project to extend the streetcar route from Main Street to the University of Missouri-Kansas City. 

The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB) has upgraded its locomotive fleet with the arrival of eight Tier 1 Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives to replace aging engines and improve efficiency and overall emissions, the short line announced last week.

Now that the locomotives have arrived, NOPB will reduce its fleet size from 15 locomotives to eight. NOPB officials expect to reduce the railroad's annual fuel consumption by 25 percent and nitrous oxide emissions by 40 percent, they said in a press release.

Amtrak on Monday submitted a letter to Congress seeking an additional $1.475 billion in supplemental funding in fiscal-year 2021 to help the railroad operate minimum service levels and continue capital investments. 

The funds also would support Amtrak's 17 state partners on the national network and nine commuter and state partners on the Northeast Corridor.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded $91.5 million to Amtrak and New Jersey Transit for the project to replace the 110-year-old Portal North Bridge on the Northeast Corridor (NEC), U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced yesterday.

The award includes $55.1 million to Amtrak to fund construction of a new bridge span above the Hackensack River, and $36.4 million to NJ Transit to reconstruct an electrical substation in Kearny, New Jersey, that powers NEC main line services. The substation was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

New Jersey Transit last week resumed Hudson-Bergen light-rail service at the West Side Avenue Station following the completion of required utility work by the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority.

The action is the last step in reopening West Side Avenue Branch stations that were closed last year to accommodate work to replace sewer pipes that run directly under the light-rail tracks.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (LA Metro) contracted crews last week completed tunneling between the planned Wilshire/La Brea and Wilshire/Fairfax stations as part of the Purple Line Extension project.

A tunnel boring machine (TBM) reached the future Wilshire/Fairfax subway station site last week, marking competition of the first 3 miles of the initial 4-mile project section. The first TBM reached Fairfax last month.

The Bi-State Development’s Board of Commissioners last week approved the election of Rose Windmiller as chair and Justin Zimmerman as vice chair. 

Windmiller succeeds Michael Buehlhorn, who resigned from his board position earlier this year, Bi-State officials said in a press release.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) this week will introduce ultraviolet C (UVC) light technology to kill COVID-19 on trains and at rail stations in New York City.

The technology is part of a pilot program MTA launched with PURO Lighting to demonstrate the efficacy of UVC technology to kill viruses on subways and buses, MTA officials said in a press release.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has granted a request from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) to renew temporary emergency relief from certain rail safety regulations so that commuter railroads can address issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a May 22 letter to APTA President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas, FRA officials said extending the emergency relief from certain regulations for 60 days is "in the public interest, is necessary to address the COVID-19 public health emergency and is not inconsistent with railroad safety."

The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association (NRC) appointed Erika Bruhnke to its board. Bruhnke is vice president of training services at RailPros Inc. Previously, she worked for BNSF Railway Co. in various positions, including director of safety information. Bruhnke joins 19 other railway industry professionals who serve on the NRC board, with responsibility for governing the association, setting its guidelines and policies, and overseeing its programs and activities.

Railinc released research reports highlighting statistics and overall trends of North American rail-car and locomotive fleets in 2019. Among the findings, the report revealed that the number of rail cars in revenue earning fleets increased slightly; more than 80 percent of all new fleet additions have a gross rail load of 286,000 pounds; and newer units in a locomotive fleet trend toward six-axle AC units, Railinc officials said in a press release.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) earlier this week approved Ohio Southern Railroad (OSR) to improve a grade crossing in Zanesville.

The PUCO approved the Ohio Rail Development Commission's construction authorization directing OSR to upgrade active warning devices for traffic signal preemption at the State Route 719 grade crossing by May 20, 2021.

Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) riders ranked train or bus use as the least safe activity to participate in during the pandemic, according to an RTD survey of nearly 2,700 riders.

Conducted online earlier this month, the survey found that riders remain apprehensive about engaging in social activities. Most respondents deemed riding RTD as the least safe activity relative to other choices provided in the survey, such as grocery shopping, visiting a drugstore or pharmacy, visiting friends, visiting family and exercising outside.