Railroad News

Metra and Canadian Pacific have begun a project to upgrade signals and add several crossover tracks in Franklin Park, Illinois. The effort is the 34th project to begin under the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE).

Crews will install five crossovers and associated signaling on Metra's track serving its Milwaukee District West Line and CP. The area is located between the grade crossings of Scott Street and Ruby Street.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that two Union Pacific Railroad trains collided in Texas in September 2015 because the crew of one train was likely asleep before the accident occurred, the agency announced this week.

Contributing to the incident near Texarkana, Texas, was the lack of a functioning positive train control system, according to the NTSB's accident brief.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and acting Federal Transit Administrator K. Jane Williams last week met with Protran Technology founder Peter Bartek for a demonstration of the company's safety technology for pedestrians and track workers. Chao visited company officials at the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) 2017 EXPO trade show, which ran Oct. 9-11. Protran provides track worker secondary warning systems to meet federal safety standards. The company has more than 13,000 warning systems in revenue service.

Amtrak has chosen dFuzion Inc.'s rMetrix®-A ride performance assessment systems for performing continuous vehicle/track interaction monitoring services on ACS-64 locomotives. The system enables operators to rapidly identify and prioritize locations for corrective and preventive maintenance, dFuzion officials said in a press release. The technology also helps detect vehicle and track abnormalities that may impact passenger comfort, equipment reliability and operational safety.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) yesterday marked the completion of a $1.7 million upgrade to its Lee-Shaker Station on the Green Line.

Schirmer Construction demolished the original platform and built a new one one with new waiting shelters. Crews also installed new lighting, signage, railings and a safety security system with cameras and emergency call boxes.

The Port of Savannah moved more than 1 million 20-foot-equivalent container units (TEUs) across the Garden City Terminal in first-quarter fiscal-year 2018, a 5.8 percent increase from the number of TEUs moved during first-quarter FY2017.

Container tons rose 8.1 percent to 7.23 million tons for the quarter ending Sept. 30 compared with the year-ago period, according to a press release issued by the Georgia Ports Authority.

GO Transit's new rail maintenance facility in Whitby, Ontario, is slated to be completed by the end of 2017, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation announced late last week.

The 500,000-square-foot facility will provide maintenance, repair, cleaning and storage  for 13 trains. The CA$859.2 million shop is being constructed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certification, officials from the ministry said in a press release.

Preferred Proppants LLC has reached a definitive agreement to sell a Wisconsin sand mine to Source Energy Services Ltd.

Also known as Preferred Sands, the company entered into a definitive agreement to sell the sand mine in Blair, Wisconsin, to Source Energy for $80 million, and entered into a production payment agreement with respect to certain exploration rights on more than 3,600 acres in the Peace River Valley of Alberta.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has chosen an STV-WSP USA joint venture to serve as its consultant on an acquisition of new heavy-rail vehicles and associated equipment.

MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) yesterday began an accelerated maintenance, cleaning and repair project along its Seventh Avenue Line, which is used by 1, 2, and 3 line trains.

The work is being carried out between 34th Street-Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan and the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Crews are working on weeknights between Oct. 16-19 and Oct. 23-26.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) will host a public meeting on Nov. 8 to discuss transit-oriented development plans near the Red Line.

The agency is working on redevelopment concepts for properties near the line after the first phase of the Red and Purple Line modernization program wraps up.

USD Partners LP on Oct. 1 began operations of its heavier-grade crude-oil destination terminal in Stroud, Oklahoma, the company announced yesterday.

Retrofit work necessary to handle heavier grades of crude oil at the terminal was completed on time and under budget, company officials said in a press release. The terminal now provides a destination point for rail-to-pipeline shipments of heavy crude oil from the company's Hardisty terminal in western Canada.

China Railway Rolling Stock Corp.'s (CRRC) new rail-car plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, is expected to be completed by winter, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) announced late last week.

New rail-cars for the MBTA's Orange and Red lines will be manufactured at the 204,000-square-foot plant. Full rail-car production is slated to begin in April 2018, with the first units built in January 2019.

Amtrak has hired Timothy Griffin as executive vice president and chief marketing officer, the national passenger railroad announced yesterday.

Griffin will be responsible for marketing, passenger experience, product support and management, and business development for the Northeast Corridor, state-supported routes and long-distance services, Amtrak officials said in a press release.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) last week issued a finding of no significant impact for New Jersey Transit's project to replace the Raritan River rail drawbridge.

NJ Transit this month will begin the final design plans, which are slated to be completed by the end of 2018.

CSX Corp. today reported third-quarter net income increased 1 percent to $459 million, or 51 cents per share, compared with $455 million, or 48 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.

Excluding a $1 million restructuring charge in this year's Q3 results, adjusted earnings per share remained at 51 cents.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal joined Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) officials late last week in announcing record cargo volumes for fiscal-year 2017 and new infrastructure development plans.
 
In a review of the ports' work in FY2017, Deal announced growth of 8.3 percent in total tonnage across all terminals. Savannah handled 3.85 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), while Brunswick moved 607,000 auto and machinery units. No other Southeast port recorded greater volumes for those commodities, Deal said in a press release. FY2017 covers the period from July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017.
 
In his state-of-the-ports speech, GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch announced two significant e-commerce developments: National furniture supplier Noble House will build a 630,000 square-foot facility that will serve the eastern United States, while home accessory company Best Choice will build 345,000 square feet.
 
Those plans are in addition to 3 million square feet of distribution center space completed within the last year and 5.2 million square feet now under construction, GPA officials said.
 
Lynch also outlined plans to accommodate record growth and expand new markets. Those plans include:
• a $128 million mega-rail project that will add track on terminal to better handle 10,000-foot-long trains. To start in the first quarter of FY2018 and conclude at 2020’s end, the project calls for adding 97,000 feet of new track, including 18 new working tracks, and bringing all switching operations to the Garden City Terminal;
• ground-breaking in FY2017 of the Appalachian Regional Port, an inland rail yard in Chatsworth. To be completed in fall 2018, the CSX-served inland port is designed to expand the GPA’s reach into Tennessee, northeast Alabama and portions of Kentucky; and
• the Savannah Harbor expansion project, which will deepen the outer harbor to 49 feet at low tide and 56 feet at high tide. The project also will deepen the inner harbor to 47 feet.