Railroad News

By Mike Choat, NRC Chairman

I hope that all of you are having a fantastic summer and staying cool during what has been a scorcher!

The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. has introduced a covered hopper rail car to its line of rail-car products. Made specifically for transporting grain, the newly designed car features the Tsunami Gate, a door and hatch system that permits shippers to customize the discharge speed of grain. The rail car has a capacity of 5,185 cubic feet. At 50 feet and six inches long, the car is shorter than traditional models, allowing more rail cars per fixed amount of track, Greenbrier officials said in a press release.

Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure acquired VIP Rail ULC, a short line logistics business affiliate of Alpenglow Rail LLC. VIP Rail provides first- and last-mile rail transportation and storage solutions to a blue chip customer base in Sarnia, Ontario. Meanwhile, CC&L Infrastructure formed a partnership with Alpenglow Rail to develop and operate a diversified portfolio of rail businesses across North America, CC&L Infrastructure officials said in a press release.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) announced that eight new rail cars entered into passenger service today.

The rail cars are the first of a complete fleet of 202 cars designed and manufactured by Kawasaki Rail Car. The 188 remaining cars are expected to begin passenger service in March 2021, LIRR officials said in a press release.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has effective procedures to determine whether grade-crossing incident data are complete and accurate, however the agency needs to update its accident prediction model and improve guidance for inspectors who use the data, a federal audit has found.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently initiated the audit of the FRA's grade-crossing database to assess the agency's collection of grade-crossing incident and investigation data, as well as the data's use to reduce collisions at grade crossings.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) yesterday announced it will open the Blue Line between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach in late October. 

The line will open following completion of a $350-million initiative to upgrade and modernize it. The project included track replacement, train control and overhead power system upgrades and installation of four new switches, LA Metro officials said in a press release.

The Port of Long Beach's board agreed on Monday to call for construction bids on a planned rail project designed to increase the port's efficiency.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners is scheduled to award a construction contract by December on the $25 million project, which would provide greater efficiency for on-dock rail and on local roadways by shifting more cargo from truck to rail, port officials said in a press release.

An OmniTRAX Inc. affiliate has completed its acquisition of the Winchester & Western Railroad (WW) from Covia Holdings Corp., the railroad and transportation management company announced today.

The acquisition expands the OmniTRAX-managed short-line portfolio into new key East Coast distribution locations, OmniTRAX officials said in a press release.

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Enviro Tech Chemical Services Inc. (ETCS) has announced plans to build an $8 million chemical manufacturing facility in the Levelland Industrial Rail Park in Levelland, Texas. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 20.

The 243-acre industrial park is served by Watco Cos. LLC's Lubbock and Western Railway, which interchanges with BNSF Railway Co. in Lubbock, Texas.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) yesterday announced its crews have completed work to replace the Woodland Avenue Bridge in Philadelphia. 

SEPTA worked in partnership with the city of Philadelphia to replace the original Woodland Avenue Bridge that was built in the 1920s, authority officials said in a press release.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Nominating Committee last week selected Nuria Fernandez to serve as the board’s chair and Jeffrey Nelson to serve as vice chair. 

General manager and chief executive officer of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, California, Fernandez previously was APTA’s vice chair. Nelson is a former member of the APTA Executive Committee and general manager of the Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District in Moline, Illinois.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) yesterday announced it's accepting multimodal transportation fund (MTF) applications to help pay for improvements to railroads, transit facilities, roadways, bridges, park and ride facilities, and other transportation infrastructure in the state.

Eligible applicants include railroads, public transportation agencies, ports, municipalities, government entities, economic development organizations and business/nonprofit organizations. Projects that will be considered should coordinate local land use with transportation assets to enhance existing communities, PennDOT officials said in a press release.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday announced it has appointed Abbey Collins chief communications officer to oversee all aspects of strategic communications. 

Collins most recently served as a director at Kivvit in New York, where she advised Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, not-for-profits and governments on strategic and crisis communications while creating public affairs campaigns.

Caltrain has logged a 2.3 percent decrease in 2019 ridership so far for weekday passengers, with an average mid-weekday ridership of about 63,597 passengers.

There was less than a 1 percent increase in traditional peak riders — who travel northbound in the morning peak period and southbound in the afternoon peak period — from 34,373 riders in the same point in 2018 to 34,552 so far in 2019, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

The 42 railroads that are subject to the statutory positive train control (PTC) mandate continued to make steady progress with implementation in the second quarter, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced yesterday.

Based on the railroads' Q2 progress reports, PTC systems were in operation on about 50,300 of the nearly 58,000 route miles required to be equipped with the technology, a 4 percent increase in route miles since Q1, FRA officials said in a press release. Class Is reported that PTC systems were in operation on about 91 percent of required mainlines as of June 30, also a 4 percent increase since Q1.

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Metrolinx last week announced it has signed an agreement with Icomera Canada Inc. to connect the agency's GO Transit train network serving the greater Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, areas with free wireless internet connection beginning in spring 2020.

Icomera later this year will begin installation of the necessary infrastructure and equipment to provide a complete end-to-end Wi-Fi solution for GO passengers, Icomera officials said in a press release.