Railroad News

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has partnered with the city of Selma to open a workforce development center that will offer pre-apprenticeship classes and hands-on construction training for Central Valley residents interested in working on the state's high-speed rail project.

Scheduled to open this summer, the center and its programs are aimed at serving military veterans, at-risk young adults, minority and low-income populations in the California counties of Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern, Madera and Merced, CHSRA officials said in a press release.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's (VTA) board earlier this month announced it will evaluate a new rail tunnel design for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Phase II Project that will extend rail 6 miles into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, California.

VTA will no longer pursue its original single-bore tunnel design with side-by-side tracks because the engineering team — which reached a 10 percent design level — indicated higher projected risks and costs beyond the funding available, agency officials said in a press release.

Norfolk Southern Corp. today reported first-quarter 2020 railway operating revenue fell 8 percent to $2.6 billion compared to first-quarter last year, driven by an 11 percent decline in total volume.

Operating expenses during the quarter were $2.1 billion, which included a $385 million non-cash charge related to locomotives marketed for sale and/or disposed of as part of the Class I's introduction of a precision scheduled railroading operating model.

Hainesport Holdings formed Technical Rail Services (TRS), a new waste-by-rail company for the transportation of construction and demolition debris, municipal solid waste, contaminated soil and wastewater residuals. Neil Rogers joined TRS as president. Rogers has 20 years of experience in the rail industry, most recently as rail operations director for Epic.

Cisco announced its intent to acquire Fluidmesh Networks. Fluidmesh delivers wireless backhaul solutions for mission critical applications, including for high-speed rail and mass transit. The acquisition will accelerate Cisco’s industrial Internet of Things business and broaden reach to key customer segments, company officials said in a press release. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal-year 2020.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) announced earlier this month it will hold its 25th Annual AAR Research Review online June 22-23.

Transportation Technology Center Inc. (TTCI) teams will deliver the industry's key research from the past year. A webinar format is being used for the event so that social distancing requirements will not be an obstacle to sharing industry research, AAR officials said in an email.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) last week added 70 locations where employee temperatures are being tested daily, up from seven locations when the program began in March.

More than 3,500 employee temperatures are being checked each day as part of efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. 

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Fiscal and Management Control Board yesterday amended its contract with the Cubic | John Laing consortium for a new fare collection system. 

The amended $935.4 million contract — an increase  of $212.1 million in project costs compared to the contract approved in 2018 — includes both the full capital cost of an upgraded fare system and a 10-year stream of operations and maintenance payments.

Michael Leue has begun his tenure as chief executive officer of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA).

The ACTA's board in March chose Leue to lead the authority, which oversees the dedicated section of railway from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. Leue has more than three decades of experience in leadership, management and design for ports, railroads and transportation agencies throughout the United States and internationally, ACTA officials said in a press release.

Class Is employed 127,867 workers as of mid-March, up 0.18 percent since mid-February, but down 11.78 percent compared with March 2019's employment level, Surface Transportation Board data shows.

Four of six employment categories logged month-to-month decreases. They were: professional and administrative, down 0.66 percent to 10,746 employees; transportation maintenance of equipment and stores, down 0.49 percent to 22,062; transportation (other than train and engine), down 0.19 percent to 5,306; and executives, officials and staff assistants, down 0.11 percent to 7,568.

CN yesterday posted "solid" first-quarter 2020 financial and operating results, despite experiencing rail blockades and the start of a global pandemic and recession during the period.

The Class I reported revenue remained flat at CA$3.5 billion during the quarter compared with the year-ago period. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose 31 percent to CA$1.42, while adjusted diluted EPS increased 4 percent to CA$1.22, compared with Q1 2019.

Pacific Ethanol Inc., a producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and high-quality alcohol products in the United States, earlier this month closed on its agreement to sell its 74 percent ownership interest in Pacific Aurora LLC to Aurora Cooperative Elevator Co. for a total valuation of $52.8 million.

"Aurora Cooperative is pleased to protect these local destination and rail markets for our farmer owners by gaining full ownership of these ethanol plants, elevator and rail assets," said Chris Vincent, Aurora Cooperative's president and chief executive officer, in a press release.

Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) board last week amended the agency’s transit-oriented development (TOD) policy to support affordable housing. 

The policy amendments allow for a land discount of up to 60 percent from fair market value for projects on BART property with affordable housing. 

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) last week announced plans to expand two major projects this summer as the agency logs historically low ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic.    

Under the expanded plan, WMATA will combine work to demolish and reconstruct platforms at four Orange Line stations with a separate project on the Silver Line to connect Metrorail to new "phase II" stations, which are being constructed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. 

The California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) awarded Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) two grants to help fund light-rail system improvements. 

The Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) grants include $23.6 million to purchase eight light-rail vehicles, and $3.9 million to construct a new light-rail access tunnel on the north side of the multimodal Sacramento Valley Station (SVS) Transit Center.