Railroad News

Union Pacific Railroad is "pausing" construction of its new $550 million Brazos Yard in Robertson County, Texas.

The Class I will shift remaining funds planned for the Brazos construction in 2019 to siding extensions on UP's Sunset route — which runs between Los Angeles and El Paso, Texas — and a block-swap yard in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, a move that will add to UP's network flexibility, Chief Operating Officer Jim Vena told analysts during a first-quarter 2019 earnings conference call last week.

Amtrak has appointed Dennis Newman executive vice president, planning and strategy, railroad officials announced yesterday.

Newman will be responsible for corporate planning and strategy, schedule and consist planning, services and host groups, and the railroad's participation in the Gateway program, Amtrak officials said in a press release.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is soliciting applications for $900 million in fiscal-year 2019 funding through the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grants program, the department announced yesterday.

The grants for surface transportation infrastructure will be awarded on a competitive basis to projects that will have a significant local or regional impact, USDOT officials said in a press release. Grants can be used to support road, bridge, transit, rail, port or intermodal projects.

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (SDMTS) last week began rolling out its new generation of light-rail vehicles (LRV) on the UC San Diego Blue Line that operates between downtown San Diego and San Isidro, California, at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The S700 LRV is part of a 46-car order from Siemens that SDMTS placed in 2016, according to a SDMTS press release. 

Trinity Metro in Fort Worth, Texas, last week announced Jon-Erik Arjanen has been named vice president and chief operating officer for rail. 

Arjanen previously served as VP and general manager for Martin Marietta Materials subsidiary Rock & Rail LLC in Lakewood, Colorado, according to a Trinity Metro press release.

The Regional Transportation District (RTD) of Denver last week tested trains along the North Metro rail line, a future commuter-rail line under construction. 

“The testing process, referred to as systems integrated testing, evaluates all the elements [of the system] to verify that the construction produced a safe and reliable operating rail line,” said Chuck Culig, RTD North Metro rail-line project manager in a press release. 

Metra last week added two stations in Chicago to its capital program after Illinois state officials restored funding in recent state budgets.

The state released $20 million to build a station at Auburn Park on the Rock Island Line and $15 million to build a station at Peterson and Ridge Avenues on the Union Pacific North Line, according to a Metra press release.

The New Brunswick Southern Railway Co. (NBSR) has been fined CA$10,000 and required to pay CA$40,000 to implement safety research programs for two counts of violating Canada's Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.

NBSR was charged in 2017 after an investigation revealed it did not comply with all applicable safety requirements by transporting dangerous goods that were not accompanied by the required documentation, according to a Transport Canada press release.

The Greenbrier Cos. has entered into an agreement to acquire the manufacturing business of American Railcar Industries from ITE Management LP for $400 million this year. The acquisition will diversify and broaden Greenbrier’s product offerings, according to a Greenbrier press release. Greenbrier will acquire two rail-car manufacturing facilities in Arkansas and five other operations that provide rail-car component and parts supply. These operations build hopper car outlets, tank car valves, axles, castings and rail-car running boards, among other ancillary railcar products, according to a Greenbrier officials.

Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification (WAVE) will partner with Cummins Inc., Schneider Electric, Utah State University and Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI) to develop, deploy and demonstrate a 500 kilowatt wireless inductive charger to support zero-emission battery electric drayage trucks at the Port of Los Angeles. The project was awarded $8.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, according to a WAVE press release. The WAVE technology transfers power through the air from an embedded charging pad placed in the pavement to a receiving pad mounted on a vehicle's undercarriage. The fast charger will allow TTSI’s zero-emission drayage trucks to charge during normal cargo loading and unloading stops. WAVE will deploy and field test the system this year and next.

North Carolina Railroad Co., North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and local officials gathered yesterday in Charlotte to mark the completion of the Sugar Creek Road grade separation, a project designed to improve the safety of one of the state's busiest rail corridors.

The project — which involved construction of a bridge on Sugar Creek Road — was part of a series of upgrades in the Raleigh-to-Charlotte portion of the North Carolina Railroad's line. The Sugar Creek crossing was the busiest in the state, due to the number of daily trains and vehicles that use it, NCDOT officials said in a press release.

This year's dip in U.S. rail traffic continued in Week 15, with railroads posting 528,167 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.2 percent compared with the same week in 2018, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

U.S. railroads did post a 1 percent increase in carload volume for a total 260,800 units during the week ending April 13. However, U.S. intermodal volume fell 3.2 percent to 267,367 containers and trailers during the period versus a year ago.

New Jersey Transit will restore service on the Atlantic City Rail Line (ACRL) and Princeton Branch on May 12, two weeks ahead of the agency’s target date. 

While the ACRL service was suspended, NJ Transit completed the Federal Railroad Administration’s interim positive train control (PTC) requirements and now has until the end of 2020 to implement a fully functioning PTC system, according to a NJ Transit press release.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) rail car fleet is nearly exceeding its useful life and is due for replacement, according to LTK Engineering.

Under contract with GCRTA, LTK Engineering conducted a preliminary rail-car replacement study to determine the estimated life remaining in the GCRTA light- and heavy-rail fleet, according to a GCTA press release.

CN has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with The Lion Electric Co. for the concept, design and manufacturing of electric trucks as part of the Class I's strategy to reduce emissions.

Terms of the MOU were not disclosed.

Union Pacific Corp. today announced a 6 percent increase in net income during the first-quarter, despite dealing with severe flooding and a 2 percent decline in business volumes.

The Class I posted Q1 2019 net income of $1.4 billion, or $1.93 per diluted share, compared with $1.3 billion, or $1.68 per diluted share, in the same period a year ago, according to a UP press release.

The Georgia Port Authority has selected RailComm LLC to provide a yard management system for the Port of Savannah's multimodal connector. The system will allow for remote control of 83 powered rail switches and 38 powered derail devices, according to a RailComm press release. Switches can be thrown by a yardmaster or work crews from either a centralized office location or from a remote touchscreen kiosk. The yard control system will also allow crews to queue a set of routes as needed to assemble and disassemble trains on the appropriate tracks.

Koppers Inc. has named Travis Gross vice president of North American railroad products and services. Gross will oversee sales, operations, procurement and profit and loss management, according to a Koppers press release. Gross joined Koppers in 2007, and served as VP of commercial sales since 2016.