Railroad News

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Metra this week released plans to welcome back more riders as their coronavirus restrictions are lifted in their regions. 

BART in San Francisco will implement a 15-step plan, which calls for enhanced cleaning and disinfection routines; running longer trains to allow social distancing among riders; increased train frequencies and requiring face coverings on trains.

Metro Transit yesterday suspended light-rail and commuter-rail service through the weekend out of concern for rider and operator safety as protests over the death of George Floyd while in police custody escalated in Minneapolis. 

Metro Transit’s Blue Line airport shuttle service will continue to operate as the only exception to the service suspension. 

ProRail awarded Fugro a three-year framework contract for geotechnical investigations to support renewal work of existing rail lines across the Netherlands. Under the contract, Fugro will work with ProRail to identify and develop geotechnical solutions, such as faster cone penetration test techniques, that will increase efficiencies and reduce line closures, Fugro officials said in a press release.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit's (DART) board approved a contract with Alstom Signaling Operations LLC to upgrade the agency's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. Alstom will replace software, servers, workstations, tunnel ventilation control systems, an overview display wall and a cyber security program, as well as provide data backup with remote-site archive sub-systems. Meanwhile, DART awarded Uber Technologies Inc. a three-year contract for rideshare services to supplement the agency’s GoLink on-demand shuttle service. 

The Orange County Transportation Authority's (OCTA) board last week awarded a $45 million to Herzog Transit Services Inc. to operate and maintain the planned OC Streetcar light-rail system in California. 

Herzog will provide operation and maintenance services over a 17-month pre-revenue service period, with an initial five-year revenue-operations term and two, two-year options.

Amtrak on June 1 will restore its Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago in response to anticipated increased demand, the national intercity passenger railroad announced yesterday.

Two Hiawatha trains and continued service by two Amtrak Empire Builder trains will together offer morning and afternoon departures daily on the route.

Paterson Grain announced earlier this month the shipment of Canadian Pacific's largest ever grain train moved from Paterson's terminal in Bowden, Alberta, to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The train, consisting of 167 new high-capacity hopper cars, was loaded at the company's Foothills Terminal and transported 16,313 metric tons of grain to the Alliance Grain Terminal in Vancouver, Paterson officials said in a press release.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) tomorrow will release the draft environmental impact report for its 14-mile high-speed rail project section between Burbank and Los Angeles for public review and comment.

The draft environmental impact report/environmental impact statement (EIR/EIS) evaluates the impacts and benefits of CHSRA’s plan to realign existing rail tracks in the corridor to allow for two additional tracks.

U.S. freight railroads logged 428,715 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending May 23, a 19.2 percent decrease compared with the same week last year, Association of American Railroads (AAR) data shows.

Total carloads for the week tumbled 27.5 percent to 190,649 units, while intermodal volume fell 11.2 percent to 238,076 containers and trailers.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday announced the recipients of more than $302 million in grant funds under the federal-state partnership for State of Good Repair Program to help repair railroad infrastructure. The grants will fund 12 projects in nine states.

The program funds capital projects to repair, replace or rehabilitate publicly or Amtrak-owned or controlled railroad assets to reduce the state-of-good-repair backlog and improve intercity passenger-rail performance. Eligible projects include upgrading track, switches, bridges, passenger stations and grade crossings; and equipment, including passenger cars, FRA officials said in a press release.

MTA Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) today increased capacity on some lines to accommodate increased ridership as some services in the Hudson Valley and Long Island, New York, reopen. 

Metro-North today added 18 trains to its schedule to increase train availability by 26 percent, MTA officials said in a press release.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) late last week temporarily laid off 450 employees as part of a cost-cutting measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The pandemic has resulted in an 80 percent drop in ridership and a loss of $90 million in monthly revenue — money that was essential to sustain operations, TTC officials said in a press release.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit's (SMART) board last week approved a California state-sponsored plan that calls for the agency to take ownership of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co.

The complex agreement was years in the making, with the sale's framework established in a 2018 bill that provided SMART with $4 million to buy the railroad, its equipment and exclusive rights to its track from Larkspur to north of Cloverdale, The Press Democrat reported last week.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) last week approved Kansas City Streetcar Authority’s (KCSA) Main Street extension project to enter the engineering phase of the federal Capital Investment Grants New Starts program.

The approval authorizes KCSA and the agency’s partners to execute engineering and construction contracts for a project to extend the streetcar route from Main Street to the University of Missouri-Kansas City. 

The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB) has upgraded its locomotive fleet with the arrival of eight Tier 1 Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives to replace aging engines and improve efficiency and overall emissions, the short line announced last week.

Now that the locomotives have arrived, NOPB will reduce its fleet size from 15 locomotives to eight. NOPB officials expect to reduce the railroad's annual fuel consumption by 25 percent and nitrous oxide emissions by 40 percent, they said in a press release.

Amtrak on Monday submitted a letter to Congress seeking an additional $1.475 billion in supplemental funding in fiscal-year 2021 to help the railroad operate minimum service levels and continue capital investments. 

The funds also would support Amtrak's 17 state partners on the national network and nine commuter and state partners on the Northeast Corridor.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded $91.5 million to Amtrak and New Jersey Transit for the project to replace the 110-year-old Portal North Bridge on the Northeast Corridor (NEC), U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced yesterday.

The award includes $55.1 million to Amtrak to fund construction of a new bridge span above the Hackensack River, and $36.4 million to NJ Transit to reconstruct an electrical substation in Kearny, New Jersey, that powers NEC main line services. The substation was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

New Jersey Transit last week resumed Hudson-Bergen light-rail service at the West Side Avenue Station following the completion of required utility work by the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority.

The action is the last step in reopening West Side Avenue Branch stations that were closed last year to accommodate work to replace sewer pipes that run directly under the light-rail tracks.