Railroad News

Last week, voters in all four jurisdictions in the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's (MARTA) service area approved a 1-cent sales tax to fund MARTA rail and bus service in Atlanta as well as in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties through 2057.

Voter approval of the amendment allows MARTA to extend its long-term bonding capacity. The extension was necessary for MARTA to maintain current service levels and capital expenditures, including the rehabilitation of 38 rail stations and the purchase of 254 new rail cars, MARTA officials said in a press release.

[Editor's note: The headline of this article originally posted on Feb. 20 was updated Feb. 21 at 9:39 p.m. CT]

Last week, county commissioners in all four jurisdictions in the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's (MARTA) service area approved a 1-cent sales tax to fund MARTA rail and bus service in Atlanta as well as in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties through 2057.

U.S. freight railroads hauled 479,137 carloads and intermodal units in the week ending Feb. 15, an 8.6 percent decrease in traffic compared with the same week in 2019, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Total carloads for the week declined 9.1 percent to 227,447 units, while intermodal volume fell 8 percent to 251,690 containers and trailers.

U.S. Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) tomorrow will announce legislation that calls for federal funding for the completion of California’s high-speed rail project, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) announced yesterday.

Costa is scheduled to hold a press conference where he will unveil the High-Speed Rail Corridor Development Act of 2020, which calls for providing $32 billion to fund projects in federally designated high-speed rail corridors. The bill would directly assist in funding needed to complete California's project to San Francisco to Los Angeles via the San Joaquin Valley.

VIA Rail Canada Inc. yesterday announced it will temporarily lay off about 1,000 employees because of ongoing protest blockades on CN's rail lines.

The passenger-rail company also said that a plan to resume VIA rail service today between Montreal and Quebec City has been scuttled due to a new protest blockade near St.-Lambert, Quebec.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) yesterday announced $1 billion in fiscal-year 2020 discretionary grant funding is available under the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program.

The grants are used for planning and capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and are to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact, USDOT officials said in a press release.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted OptiFuel Systems LLC a Tier 4 rail certification for its internal combustion engine that produces zero nitrogen oxide or particulate matter emissions. The rail engine can seamlessly operate on any combination of renewable and fossil natural gas in either compressed or liquefied form, OptiFuel officials said in a press release. OptiFuel’s rail engine is identical to the California Air Resources Board-certified Cummins ISX12N engine. The engine is the only U.S. EPA rail certified prime mover that exceeds all of California's proposed standards for Tier 5, OptiFuel officials said.

STV named David Isabelle vice president and operations director of the transportation and infrastructure division’s Northeast region. Isabelle will be responsible for that group’s project and financial performance in the region, as well as its resource management, quality and safety initiatives, STV officials said in a press release. He has more than 25 years of experience. Previously, Isabelle served as senior VP and Northeast regional team leader for another planning and engineering firm.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Office of the Inspector General has partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice Procurement Collusion Strike Force in an effort to detect fraud, bid-rigging and other crimes. 

The Strike Force was created in 2019 to deter, detect and prosecute antitrust crimes that affect government procurement, grant and program funding.

Crimes committed on Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (LA Metro) rail and bus systems declined 17 percent over the past five years, agency officials announced last week. 

Between 2015 and 2019, serious crimes fell nearly 23 percent and less serious crimes dropped nearly 11 percent across the system, LA Metro officials said in a press release.

TNW Corp., a short line and transportation logistics services operator, has acquired a multicommodity bulk material handling and storage facility in Harwood, Texas, the company announced yesterday.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday gave New Jersey Transit the green light to begin revenue service demonstration of its positive train control (PTC) system on the Morristown commuter-rail line between Summit and Denville, New Jersey.

The FRA's approval means NJ Transit is a step closer to meeting the federally mandated deadline of PTC certification by Dec. 31, NJ Transit officials said in a press release. 

CN is temporarily laying off about 450 employees in its Eastern Canada operations after canceling more than 400 trains over the past week in response to protest blockades along its rail line, Canadian news media reported yesterday.

The layoffs will affect operational staff, including employees working at Autoport in Eastern Passage, Moncton, Charny and Montreal, according to news reports.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has issued a final rule that launches the Risk Reduction Program to support an increasing standard of safety for Class Is, agency officials announced yesterday.

The final rule requires the nation's largest freight railroads to develop and implement an FRA-approved risk-reduction plan that identifies and analyzes hazards and associated risks to safety. The railroads also must develop and implement plans to eliminate or mitigate those risks, FRA officials said in a press release.

The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) logged 1,777,136 riders in fiscal-year 2019 from Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019, marking an all-time high for the intercity passenger-rail service in Northern California. 

The previous annual ridership record was logged in FY18, when CCJPA recorded 1.7 million riders, according to the authority’s annual performance reports. 

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) last week named Rhonda Allen the agency’s first chief customer experience officer.

In this new role, Allen will serve as MARTA’s “internal customer advocate” responsible for establishing the agency’s inaugural Riders’ Advisory Council, MARTA officials said in a press release.

Alaska Railroad Corp. will promote Sean Mesloh to chief mechanical officer effective March 1. He will succeed Don Freestone, who will retire Feb. 28.

Mesloh began his railroad career in December 2000, when he was hired as a mechanical worker in the railroad's rail-car shop in Anchorage, where he advanced through apprenticeship levels and learned to maintain freight and passenger cars.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) board last week selected the joint venture firm that will redevelop the agency's headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. 

WMATA selected the Stonebridge and Rockefeller Group joint venture to add three floors to the  Jackson Graham building and redesign it into a mixed-use commercial development.

Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) board last week approved a $38.3 million contract for T.Y. Lin International Great Lakes Inc. to provide planning and preliminary engineering services for the Red Line extension project. 

Under the contract, the firm will prepare a final environment impact statement for the project that will extend CTA’s Red Line 5.3 miles between 95th and 130th streets in Chicago.