Railroad News

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) last week proposed a $5.1 billion budget for capital improvements in 2020-24 and a $1.57 billion operating budget for 2020. 

Expenses for the 2020 operating budget are $18.4 million higher than the 2019 budget and $44.5 million higher than the 2019 forecast. The majority of the increase is due to rising pension, health insurance and workers’ compensation costs, according to the budget proposal document. 

Class Is as of mid-September employed 136,865 people, down 1.74 percent from mid-August's level and down 7.63 percent from September 2018's count, according to Surface Transportation Board (STB) data.

All six workforce categories posted decreases last month compared with August.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's (PANYNJ) board last week advanced $4.5 billion in infrastructure projects, including dollars for the new AirTrain program at LaGuardia International Airport in Queens, New York, and a project to replace the existing AirTrain system into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

The projects were approved to accommodate continuing record passenger growth at the port authority's airports, PANYNJ officials said in a press release.

Metro Transit-St. Louis yesterday announced it will install fencing and other infrastructure at the Delmar Loop and Central West End MetroLink light-rail stations to create secure and monitored access to platforms.

Metro Transit security officers will check fares and monitor MetroLink passengers as they arrive at modified platform access points, agency officials said in a press release. 

Florida's Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) announced yesterday it achieved record volumes in containers, vehicles and overall tonnage moved during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, authority officials announced yesterday.

Jaxport moved more than 1.3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a 5 percent increase over TEUs moved in the prior fiscal year, which also was a record for container volumes at the port.

Bay Area Rapid Transit's (BART) board approved the development of a trip verification technology (TVT) that would enable BART riders to enter a priority security screening line at San Francisco International Airport.

With TVT, airport-hired staff could use devices at a designated entry point to scan Clipper fare cards or QR codes on BART mobile applications to verify a rider used public transportation to get to the airport. If the trip is verified, the rider would then proceed to a priority line for Transportation Security Administration screening.

Sound Transit earlier this week began construction of a 3.4-mile Link light-rail extension in downtown Redmond, Washington. 

The project to extend Sound Transit’s Blue Line from Redmond Technology Station into southeast Redmond to its terminus in downtown Redmond includes construction of two new stations and 1,400 parking spaces, Sound Transit officials said in a press release.

The Gateway Program partners this week announced a new phase of work has begun on the Hudson River rail tunnel project, with dozens of geotechnical exploration borings to be conducted along the proposed alignment of the new tunnel that will connect New Jersey with New York City.

The exploration began in October and is expected to run through early 2020, Gateway Development Corp. (GDC) officials said in a press release.

Illinois Railway LLC (IR) is one of the first short lines to implement fully functional positive train control (PTC) and enable the safety technology on its trains, the railroad's parent, OmniTRAX Inc., announced yesterday.

The IR has installed PTC equipment on three locomotives to maintain interoperability with similar technology used by BNSF Railway Co. and Metra trains operating on the commuter railroad's busiest territory between Aurora and Eola, Illinois, OmniTRAX officials said in a press release.

Metra announced yesterday that BNSF Railway Co. crews tomorrow will begin a major tie replacement project on the BNSF Line between Downers Grove and Aurora, Illinois. 

BNSF plans to replace 17,000 ties over 15 miles of track.

Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) staff earlier this week informed the agency's board that a shortage of light-rail operators and bus drivers may require a temporary reduction in service.

RTD is experiencing an ongoing labor shortage and issues with recruiting and retaining its light-rail and bus operators, ultimately leading to service disruptions and unscheduled cancellations, RTD officials said in a press release.

Support for legislation that would make the short-line tax credit permanent reached another milestone in the U.S. House, where the number of co-sponsors on the bill has rolled past two-thirds of House membership, American Short Line and Regional Railroads Association (ASLRRA) officials announced yesterday.

The sponsor and co-sponsor count reached 294 House members for the Building Rail Access for Customers and Economy Act (BRACE), or H.R. 510, which would make the 45G tax credit permanent.

The Port of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) handled 679,585 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo in August, a 4.3 percent increase over the same month last year and an all-time record for the month.

Through August, the port logged 4,995,420 TEUs in 2019, according to the port’s Breaking Waves blog.

The decline in U.S. freight-rail traffic continued in Week 42, with railroads logging 507,381 carloads and intermodal units, down 8.6 percent compared with the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

U.S. railroads reported total carloads for the week ending Oct. 19 were 245,002 units, down 7.8 percent, and 262,379 intermodal containers and trailers, down 9.3 percent.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has awarded the 2019 North American Environmental Employee Excellence Award to Brian Zacker, an environmental field services senior manager at CSX.

AAR's award recognizes leading contributions to environmental responsibility and excellence in the industry. The award is considered the highest honor for rail industry environmental professionals, CSX officials said in a press release.

Microsoft and the US High Speed Rail Association (USHSR) will host the Cascadia Rail Summit Nov. 6-9, an event dedicated to building a high-speed rail linking Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

The summit will build on early feasibility studies that have demonstrated the market viability of the high-speed rail concept and confirmed it could be successfully developed and operated, according to the summit's website.

The Mobilinx consortium signed a $3.5 billion, 30-year contract with Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 4-mile Hurontario light-rail line in Mississauga, Canada. The Mobilinx team includes Hitachi Rail STS SpA, Transdev North America Inc., John Laing Investments Ltd., Astaldi Canada Enterprise Inc., Amico Concessions Inc. and Salini Impregilo Canada Holding Inc.

Tideworks Technology Inc. announced that the entire CSX intermodal terminal network is live with Tideworks’ operating system (TOS). CSX’s largest terminal — in Bedford Park, Illinois, outside Chicago — marks the final terminal in the network to convert to Tideworks’ intermodal TOS solutions, which uses the company's Intermodal Pro® TOS and Traffic Control™ equipment dispatch system. The solutions are designed to increase efficiency of container and rail-car management and improve accuracy and coordination of container and truck movements through CSX’s terminal network, Tideworks officials said in a press release.