Railroad News

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The Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar system on Sept. 9 will mark its second anniversary.

As of Aug. 19, the 3.6-mile system had logged 1,221,606 trips since it opened, according to ridership statistics from the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA).

Sound Transit helped save as much as 48 million gallons of gasoline last year as a result of passengers taking transit instead of driving automobiles, according to the agency's 2017 sustainability report.

Last year, more than 47 million people rode Sound Transit's trains and buses, up 10 percent over the prior year and 87 percent since 2011.

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (SDMTS) has received the first light-rail car from Siemens as part of a 45-unit order placed in 2016.

Denton County Transportation Authority's (DCTA) board will meet today to discuss last week's resignation of President Jim Cline.

"Our board is committed to identifying a successful plan of action that will enable the agency to continue to be a leader in advancing public transportation," said Nicole Recker, DCTA's vice president of marketing and communications, in a press release.

The Chicago Transit Authority last week reopened the Illinois Medical District (IMD) Blue Line station, following the completion of a $23 million modernization project.

Begun in early 2017, the project called for improvements to the station house, its concourse and the station-to-platform ramp.

OmniTRAX Inc. has sold the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill to the Arctic Gateway Group LP and a consortium of First Nations and communities in association with Missinippi Rail LP. The sale closed Aug. 31.

The Arctic Gateway Group consists of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. The financial value of the acquisition was not disclosed.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) on Wednesday toured Ontario Trap Rock's Middle River Marine facility in Chicago.

The company produces durable rock suited for railroad applications, including ballast. Ontario Trap Rock is a member of the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) and the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA).

Sound Transit has tapped WSP USA to perform design-build project management services for its Link light-rail extension to downtown Redmond, Washington. The 3.4-mile, elevated line will run from the Redmond Technology Station near Microsoft's  headquarters to the Redmond Town Center. The extension is the final segment of Sound Transit's East Link light-rail corridor. WSP's preconstruction services will include preparation and review of the design-build contract request for proposals, company officials said in a press release. The contract's financial value was not disclosed.

Harsco Rail obtained a contract from Singapore's Land Transport Authority to deliver a 16-stone grinder. Designed to accommodate electric motors, the grinder will operate on Singapore's new Thomson-East Coast passenger-rail line. Harsco has had a "strong partnership" with LTA for the past 15 years, said Harsco Rail President Jeswant Gill in a press release. The contract's value was not disclosed.

R. J. Corman Railroad Services completed 17.2 miles of surfacing and performed rail adjustments on two curves during a recent 48-hour shutdown of the Charlotte Area Transit Systems (CATS) light-rail system.

The project was the first time the company performed such work on a light-rail system, R. J. Corman officials said in a press release.

VIA Rail Canada Inc. is following Amtrak's lead in allowing pets on trains.

This week, the Canadian passenger railroad updated its pet transportation policy to allow small cats and dogs on board trains operating along the Quebec City-Windsor corridor.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has identified 138 regional impact transportation projects that it anticipates funding and scheduling for construction over the next decade.

The projects include seven related to rail for a total of $96 million in state funding and three related to transit for a total of $191 million.

The Maryland Department of Transportation's Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA) yesterday unveiled an organizational restructuring aimed at keeping the agency on track to complete more than $900 million in rail infrastructure upgrades.

The restructuring was initiated in response to feedback received through an American Public Transportation Association (APTA) peer review.

Vista Proppants and Logistics LLC has entered into a definitive agreement with JupiterMLP LLC for transloading crude oil from truck to rail at its facility in Pecos, Texas.

Vista and Jupiter plan to ship crude oil via Union Pacific Railroad through 2019 and potentially into 2020, depending on pipeline construction timelines and capacity availability, the companies announced earlier this week in a press release.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) on Tuesday introduced new "stopped-train" messaging on its countdown clocks along the Red, Orange and Blue heavy-rail lines, as well as at Mattapan Trolley stops.

When a train has spent two minutes or longer than predicted in an area of track, the clocks will notify passengers how many stations away it stopped. Previously, the countdown clocks became "stuck" and simply displayed the last estimated time of arrival for a train, according to an agency press release.

MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) A and S rail service on Queens' Rockaway Peninsula will resume service Sept. 4 after completing the first two phases of a major flood protection project.

Crews installed foundations for a 20-foot-tall perimeter flood wall to surround the 3-acre site. Workers also installed steel sheet piles, extended a concrete retaining wall and began construction on a new building for compressor equipment, which provides compressed air to elevated tracks for signals.