Railroad News

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) reported steady rail ridership growth in the last several years, according to the agency’s 2019 Annual Report published yesterday.

In 2019, STM logged 283.5 million boardings, an increase of 4.5 percent compared to 2018. 

Port Freeport in Texas yesterday announced it has received its first rail shipment from Vulcan Materials Co. to the port's Parcel 14 multimodal industrial park.

Union Pacific Railroad, which has long served the port, delivered 95 gondola rail cars loaded with aggregate limestone rock from Medina County, Texas, port officials said in a press release.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) yesterday announced more than 200 transportation industry leaders — more than double the agency's goal — have answered Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s call to help fight human trafficking.

USDOT’s initial commitment in January was to obtain “100 Pledges in 100 Days” from transportation, labor and nongovernment organizations that would commit to raising public awareness about human trafficking and to training more than 1 million employees to help fight the crime.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) yesterday announced the agency has accelerated construction on a new passing siding track in Laguna Niguel and San Juan Capistrano, California.

A recent work window with no train traffic through the area allowed construction crews to relocate and move new rail into place adjacent to existing track. 

Texas Central officials yesterday hailed a Texas Appeals Court ruling yesterday that determined the bullet-train company is a both a railroad and an interurban electric railway.

The company is developing a high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas. Yesterday's court decision stems from a legal challenge from landowners along the route in Leon County who argued that Texas Central was not a railroad and therefore did not have the rights associated with a railroad, including eminent domain and access to property for surveyors.

Amtrak will restore Acela service on the Northeast Corridor on June 1. The service will run on a modified schedule in response to anticipated increased demand, the railroad announced today.

Modified service will include the restoration of three weekday Acela roundtrips. 

BYD Co. Ltd. entered into a contract with Sao Paulo Metro to provide integrated solutions for the Sao Paulo SkyRail 17 Line project. BYD will provide Line 17 with 14 five-vehicle trains, switches, conductive rails, a signal system, a central control system, engineering vehicles, vehicle washing machines and technical services. Line 17 is a 10-mile rail extension under construction to connect Sao Paulo-Congonhas Airport to central parts of the city and four other SkyRail lines, BYD officials said in a press release.

Ridgewood Infrastructure LLC and Savage Enterprises LLC have formed the Transportation Infrastructure Partners LLC joint venture to focus on acquiring and operating transportation and logistics infrastructure throughout the United States. Savage will operate investments made by the venture.

The Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp. (PATH) logged 126,409 weekday riders in March, down 55 percent. PATH provides rail service between New York City and northeastern New Jersey.

From March 30 to April 3, PATH ridership fell by 94 percent compared with the same period last year, PATH officials said in a press release.

Charleston Stevedoring Co. LLC (CSC), a new joint venture company to provide container terminal and stevedoring services at the Port of Charleston in South Carolina began operations earlier this week.

The three companies that formed the joint venture are Marine Terminals Corp.-East, Ceres Marine Terminals Inc. and SSA Atlantic LLC.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has prepared a list of facilities with additional storage capacity as part of a plan to mitigate container bottlenecks at its marine terminals once import volumes begin to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To address potential supply chain disruptions, a survey was conducted of warehouse operators to identify available warehousing in the region, port officials said on the PANYNJ blog Breaking Waves. The capacity ranges from traditional warehouse space and pallet positions to yard space and parking.

American Public Transportation Association (APTA) officials last week informed House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) members that federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding distributed to the nation's transit agencies will help keep them afloat only for a matter of months. 

In a virtual meeting hosted by APTA, President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas told committee members that transit agencies are using the majority of their CARES funding to maintain their workforce and avoid layoffs.

Metrolink yesterday released the results of a rider survey that will help inform the agency’s service recovery plan from the COVID-19 pandemic as California's stay-at-home orders are lifted.

The online survey sought to understand the motivations of current riders and those who stopped riding the train, as well as future service expectations.

U.S. freight-rail traffic plunged 21.2 percent in April to 2,075,958 carloads and intermodal units compared with April 2019, a reflection of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the economy, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

U.S. railroads hauled 980,535 carloads last month, down 25.2 percent, and 1,095,423 intermodal containers and trailers, down 17.2 percent, from the same month last year.

Wabtec Corp. reported total sales of $1.9 billion in first-quarter 2020 compared with $1.6 billion in the same quarter last year. The increase was primarily due to sales from acquisitions, Wabtec officials said in a press release. The company also reported earnings per diluted share of 58 cents and adjusted earnings per diluted share of 97 cents versus a loss per diluted share of 4 cents and adjusted earnings per diluted share of $1.21 a year ago. Wabtec withdrew its 2020 financial guidance due to uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Siemens Mobility recently announced it sold its 1,000th Vectron locomotive. The locomotive was ordered by Danish State Railways. To date, 1,003 Vectrons have been sold to 49 customers in 16 countries. The Vectron is used for both freight and passenger service.

New Jersey Transit on May 3 began closing Newark Penn Station overnight from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. to allow for a daily deep cleaning and disinfection.

The Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp. (PATH) today also began daily closures at the 9th Street and 23rd Street stations from midnight to 5 a.m. 

Northeast Maglev yesterday announced it has hired Zachary Radford as vice president of government relations to advocate for the Superconducting Maglev train in the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Washington D.C.

Radford is a policy and government relations professional with more than 15 years of experience, Northeast Maglev officials said in a press release. 

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell earlier this week called on Congress to include transportation infrastructure investment in the next federal COVID-19 stimulus legislation.

On May 4, LaHood and Rendell — as co-chairs of Building America’s Future — wrote to congressional leaders to urge the creation of a federal capital budget as a way to fund infrastructure investments in the next COVID-19 response package.