Railroad News

Metra’s board last week approved a $700 million operating budget and a $386.8 million capital spending plan for 2021. 

The operating budget assumes that the Chicago commuter railroad’s ridership will end 2020 at about 20% of its pre-COVID-19 levels and increase to 50% by the end of 2021. 

The San Angelo Development Corp. of San Angelo, Texas, has entered into a partnership with South Plains Lamesa Railroad Ltd. (SPLRR) for the development of a multicommodity rail port, through which bulk freight imports and exports will be delivered to the United States and Mexico.

The facility will be located on a 180-tract east of Schwertner Road between FM 2105 and 50th Street. It will connect to the Texas Pacifico Transportation Ltd. (TXPF) branch of the South Orient Rail Line, the portion of railroad that spans from Presidio, Mexico, up to San Angelo Junction in Texas' Coleman County.

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) honored the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) with its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 14th consecutive year.

GFOA established the awards program to encourage state and local governments to prepare high quality budget documents that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA's best practices on budgeting.

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) yesterday published an action plan for implementing rider recommendations into the agency’s Blue Line extension project, which would extend Montreal’s metro 3.6 miles northeast from Saint-Michel Station.

Following an analysis of recommendations and discussions earlier this year, STM prepared an action plan to address some of the main suggestions. They include plans for: 

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) on Nov. 15 will begin replacing its overnight weekend rail service on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines with bus service to enable staff time to clean rail stations.

During the switch from rail to buses, full weekend overnight service will still be provided. SEPTA also increased the frequency of its bus routes and make stops at all stations along both rail lines. 

The Short Line Safety Institute (SLSI) today launched is first online program for hazardous materials training with five educational videos that provide an overview of hazardous materials regulations.

Dubbed "Fast Class," the videos range in length from four to seven minutes of viewing. The video library is an extension of the SLSI's hazardous materials training program offered at no cost to short lines, institute officials said in a press release.

The North County Transit District (NCTD) yesterday released a study outlining its plan to expand passenger- and freight-rail services along the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) rail corridor in California.

The "San Diego Pathing Study" final report consolidates passenger- and freight-rail service needs into one operating plan. It helps identify and prioritize specific infrastructure improvements that would increase service capacity in the near-, mid- and long-term future, NCTD officials said in a press release. 

A&R Logistics Inc. yesterday officially opened its new export facility at the West Branch Commerce Park in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

Designated as a CSX Select Site, the 615,000-square-foot facility was developed in cooperation with the South Carolina Ports Authority and the state. A&R will use the facility to prepare for exporting and importing plastic resin and other products for large chemical companies.

Based on third-quarter reports, the commuter-rail industry is on track to complete full implementation of positive train control (PTC) by the federal government's Dec. 31 deadline, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced this week.

As of Sept. 30, 100 percent of commuter railroads are PTC certified by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) or are awaiting approval on submitted PTC safety plans, APTA officials said in a press release.

The Association Francaise de Normalisation certified Alstom’s training center in France with the Qualiopi certification, making Alstom the first in the rail sector to obtain the designation. The Qualiopi certification confirms the center is complying with professional training requirements, Alstom officials said in a press release. The center covers 40 training courses, including product training, special process training, and quality and safety training.

Huber+Suhner updated the range of its Sencity® Rail antennas to receive signals from the BeiDou, Galileo, GPS and GLONASS satellite systems. The update enables higher location accuracy for railway operators, offering improved safety and better operational, Huber+Suhner officials said in a press release.

The Ontario government earlier this week officially reopened the Cooksville GO Transit rail station in Mississauga after completing renovations earlier this fall.

The new GO Transit station building was redeveloped and now includes upgraded pedestrian tunnels to rail platforms, an east pavilion and an integrated six-level parking structure.

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.