Railroad News

Virgin Hyperloop last week tested passenger travel in a hyperloop pod for the first time.

The test took place at Virgin Hyperloop’s nearly 547-yard DevLoop test site near Las Vegas, where the company has previously run over 400 tests with no passengers.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) earlier this month completed accessibility improvement projects at the 59th Street and 191st Street New York City Transit (NYCT) subway stations in Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan.

NYCT crews replaced three elevators at 59th Street Station to make them fully accessible under Americans with Disabilities Act standards, expanded the station's northside mezzanine and build new stairs.

The U.S. intermodal-rail traffic growth trend continued during the week ending Nov. 7, with trailer and container volume increasing 10.3% to 293,746 units compared with the same week in 2019, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

The carload volume trend continued its downward slide, however. U.S. railroads logged 228,282 carloads during the week, down 8.4%. Carload and intermodal volumes combined, U.S. rail traffic climbed 1.3% to 522,028 units, AAR officials said in a press release.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have named Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) Chief Executive Officer Phil Washington as the transportation transition team leader for the Biden-Harris administration.

The team will be responsible for evaluating the U.S. Department of Transportation's operations so that the administration is prepared when Biden and Harris take office on Jan. 20, 2021. In addition, the team will review the National Transportation Safety Board, Amtrak and the Federal Maritime Commission, Biden-Harris team officials said in a press release.

The Toronto Transit Commission named WSP Canada Inc. the prime consultant for the agency’s CA$30 million project to enhance capacity of the Line 1 subway in Toronto over 11 years. The consulting work also will support capacity enhancements on Line 2, including condition assessment, design, studies, analysis, engineering and program consultant services.

Digital freight broker company Loadsmart Inc. expanded its multimodal services to include rail and less than truckload. Loadsmart now enables customers to book shipments in North America across all major transportation modes, company officials said in a press release.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (SCVTA) will advance its draft transit service plan for 2021 to the agency’s board following closure of public comments earlier this fall. 

The plan calls for gradual service increases during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing service from 74% to 80% starting in February 2021.

Sound Transit is seeking input on its proposed 2021 budget, which projects revenue and other funding sources of $3 billion and expenditures of $3.1 billion.

Capital and infrastructure projects would total $2.5 billion, an increase of $105.8 million or 4.4%, compared to the 2020 budget. The funds will be primarily used for preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition, and construction for system expansion projects

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards yesterday announced that Gron Fuels LLC is studying the feasibility of opening a renewable fuel complex at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.

With expansions and associated projects, the complex could involve up to $9.2 billion of total investment over several phases. A final decision is expected in 2021, which will determine the final cost of the project's first phase, state officials said in a press release.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will hold virtual meetings Nov. 16 and 17 to receive public opinion on a draft of the state's rail plan.

The plan identifies a vision for the future of rail transportation, sets goals and objectives for achieving the vision and documents and evaluates passenger- and freight-rail needs over the next 25 years to guide investments.

TransLink soon will test a new bacteria- and virus-killing copper-coating product on high-touch surfaces on SkyTrain cars and buses.

The agency will install copper-based products and a protective coating called organosilane to test how effectively the agents destroy viruses and bacteria, TransLink officials said in a press release. 

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) yesterday published a CA$1.5 billion 2021 budget and a 2021-2030 capital expenditures program, which calls for investing CA$18 billion across the system. 

The 2021 budget is CA$9.5 million less than the agency's 2020 budget, STM officials said in a press release.

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday announced agreement employees who worked at least 30 days during the pandemic will receive a one-time $1,000 gross bonus payment in December.

Pending union approval, all current agreement employees — including those furloughed — who worked at least 30 days between March 1 and Nov. 30 will be eligible to receive the bonus. The days worked do not need to be consecutive, UP officials said in a press release.

Transdev has launched an autonomous shuttle between the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Dunne Loring-Merrifield Station in Fairfax County, Virginia, and the Mosaic District in Washington, D.C.

Dubbed Relay, the connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) began operating last month as a pilot to test driverless technology in Virginia.

The Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) yesterday welcomed Debra Johnson as the agency's new chief executive and general manager. 

Johnson – the first woman to assume the role in the agency's 51-year history – takes the reins during a transitional year at RTD, with service changes and budget challenges brought about by the pandemic. She succeeds Paul Ballard, who led RTD on an interim basis since February. 

Major U.S. retail container ports logged record imports this summer and fall, recording their busiest peak season as retailers replenish inventories and stock up for the holiday season, according to a Global Port Tracker report released yesterday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled an estimated 8.1 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from July through October, the peak shipping season.