Railroad News

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) announced in an interview yesterday that he will not run for another term in Congress.

Shuster, whose term as chairman of the committee would expire at the end of this year, told the Washington Examiner that he wants to work with the Trump administration on getting an infrastructure bill passed in Congress this year.

Brightline next week will launch introductory passenger-rail service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The company is working toward operational readiness by training staff and testing equipment, Brightline officials said in a press release late last week.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is urging Class Is, intercity passenger railroads and state and local transit agencies to implement positive train control (PTC) by the congressional deadline of Dec. 31.

In letters to railroad executives, Chao said the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is concerned that many of the nation's railroads are behind in implementing the federally mandated PTC technology by the Dec. 31 deadline.

Metro Transit has rolled out a new feature for its mobile app that enables customers to text the agency about suspicious or unwanted behavior on trains and buses.

Using the "Text for Safety" function, riders can directly contact Metro Transit staff, who can respond by text and send police if needed, agency officials said in a press release.

Calgary Transit this month completed renovations to the interior of the Rundle and Marlborough light-rail stations.

The agency modified the stations' layout to improve the flow of pedestrian traffic and installed new floor tiles, benches and wall panels. In addition, Calgary Transit improved station lighting, upgraded communication systems and installed more closed-circuit television cameras.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) on Wednesday announced it awarded an $8.6 million contract to LoDuca Associates Inc. to build two new elevators at the Murray Hill Station in Queens, New York.

The hydraulic elevators will comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, LIRR officials said in a press release.

Canadian government officials have announced funding for the Peterborough-Toronto Freight-Rail Analysis project.

The Canadian and Ontario governments each will contribute up to CA$65,000 toward the project, according to an Infrastructure Canada press release.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy earlier this week announced that 11 projects in towns and cities across the state will receive $15 million to support transit-oriented development (TOD) projects.

The funding package includes $1,847,000 for the construction of a retaining wall and surface parking lot across from an Amtrak station in Windsor Locks.

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CN and Canadian Pacific have exceeded their maximum grain revenue entitlements for crop year 2016-2017, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) ruled last week.

CN's grain revenue of CA$808,213,784 was $5,773,741 above its entitlement of $802,440,043; and CP's grain revenue of CA$725,457,448 was $1,078,947 above its entitlement of $724,378,501, CTA officials said in a press release.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) late last week released preliminary details gathered from the locomotive event data recorder and inward- and outward-facing cameras from the Amtrak Cascades train that derailed Dec. 18 in Dupont, Washington.

The lead locomotive's event data and video recorders were downloaded and processed at the NTSB's lab in Washington, D.C. Among the details of the initial review of the final portion of the accident sequence:

On Dec. 20, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the Tax Extender Act of 2017 (S. 2256), which proposes to extend several tax credits — including the Section 45G short-line tax credit — that either expired at 2016's end or are set to expire on Dec. 31.

Expired since Dec. 31, 2016, the short-line tax credit would be extended to Dec. 31, 2018. The Section 45G provision allows regionals and short lines to claim a 50 cent tax credit for each dollar they spend on track rehabilitation and maintenance projects, up to a cap of $3,500 per mile of owned or leased track.

Stone Canyon Industries LLC has acquired Magnus LLC, a producer and global supplier of bronze locomotive traction support bearings. Stone Canyon, which acquired A. Stucki Co. in September 2015, is a global manufacturer and supplier of rail-car locomotive and industrial parts. Magnus will continue to operate out of its facility in Fremont, Nebraska, and Magnus President John Macklin will report directly to A. Stucki Chief Executive Officer Bill Kiefer, A. Stucki officials said in a press release. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has completed its acquisition of CH2M for $2.85 billion in cash and stock, according to a Jacobs press release. The combined firm will continue to make talent retention and hiring a priority. Additionally, the transaction is expected to make the combined company an "employer of choice" in the $300 billion-a-year transportation sector, Jacobs officials said. In August, Jacobs announced it had reached an agreement to acquire CH2M.

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) late last week announced that it completed a $2.1 million renovation of the Washington Park MAX light-rail station in Portland.

The station now features graffiti-resistant wall coatings, LED lighting and elevator lobby upgrades. The new LEDs, which are engineered to last up to 20 years, use one-sixth of the electricity as metal halide bulbs, TriMet officials said in a press release.

The Raritan Central Railway LLC has named Ronald Klein and Susan Walsh-Enloe to its marketing team.

Klein will serve as vice president of marketing, while Walsh-Enloe will serve as West Coast marketing specialist, according to an announcement published in the Raritan Central and Pennsylvania & Southern Railways newsletter.

Crews have installed 90 percent of the track for the Milwaukee Streetcar's initial route, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced late last week.

Workers were able to complete the installation in one construction season thanks in part to "favorable fall weather," Barrett wrote in a year-end report on the project.

After New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo complained about rail cars being stored on track in the state's Adirondack Forest, Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Union Tank Car Co. announced this week that it would remove the 65 cars it has stored there.

Last week, Cuomo announced that the state would pursue legal action to try to stop Iowa Pacific Holdings from storing thousands of tank cars in Adirondack Park.
Iowa Pacific owns the Saratoga & North Creek Railway that operates the rail line that runs through the park, where tank cars that carry crude oil are being stored.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) last week launched a new recruitment initiative aimed at attracting military veterans.

Under the initiative, PANYNJ and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) rail system will consider active military duty in lieu of certain education requirements when assessing qualifications for positions. In addition, the agency will waive all test application fees for veterans.

U.S. railroads logged an 11 percent increase in combined carload and intermodal traffic for the week ending Dec. 23 compared with the same week a year ago, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Total carloads for the week climbed 10.8 percent to 270,356 units, while intermodal volume soared 11.3 percent to 281,210 containers and trailers compared with the same week in 2016, AAR officials said in a press release.