Railroad News

Amtrak's $22 million project to restore the Great Hall at Chicago Union Station has reaped recognition in the form of six awards from architectural, engineering, construction and real estate organizations or publications.

The awards are the:
• 2019 Interior Architecture Award – American Institute of Architects, Chicago Chapter
• 2019 Overall Transformation of the Year – GlobeSt Real Estate Forum Magazine
• 2019 Silver Reconstruction Award – Building Design & Construction Magazine
• 2019 Best Project, Government/Public Building – ENR Midwest Magazine
•2019 Best Renovation/Retrofit Project – Structural Engineers Association of Illinois
•2019 Metamorphosis Award, Whole Building – Retrofit Magazine

Association of American Railroads (AAR) President and Chief Executive Officer Ian Jefferies yesterday praised the announced deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that could clear the way for congressional approval in the near future.

Yesterday, House Democrats and President Trump announced they'd reached an agreement to revise a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada. If approved by Congress, the USMCA would replace the former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Compiled By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate Editor

As the United States enters its presidential election year and public transit agencies from coast to coast continue plans for expanding passenger-rail services in 2020, agency leaders remain hopeful that investment in the nation’s infrastructure will stand out as a top priority.

In November, Progressive Railroading asked each Class I chief executive officer to address questions pertaining to their 2020 outlook. CSX President and CEO James Foote in early December provided the following responses in an email.

What's your take on the potential for volume growth in 2020 after a difficult year for rail traffic in 2019? Are there certain commodities/business groups you feel pretty good about heading into next year? Which ones are you concerned about, and why? What, predominantly, do you believe will drive business growth in 2020?

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) late last week announced that wireless service now is available on the entire Green Line and most of the Yellow Line. Service is provided by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

WMATA activated wireless service on Green Line tunnel segments between the Gallery Place and Branch Avenue stations. Now, 80 of 100 miles of tunnel track and the Blue, Green and Orange lines are equipped for cellular and data service, WMATA officials said in a press release.

Container volume at the nation’s major ports bumped up significantly in November as retailers imported merchandise ahead of new tariffs set to take effect this month, according to the Global Port Tracker report released yesterday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

President Trump announced a tentative agreement on a partial trade deal with China in October, but the measure has yet to be finalized and a new round of tariffs on consumer goods is still scheduled to take effect Dec. 15.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) has elected Tim Tarrant vice president of headquarters, union officials announced last week.

Tarrant had served as BRS' VP East since October 2018. Prior to that, he was the organization's research director and a Grand Lodge representative. As VP of headquarters, Tarrant succeeds Kelly Haley, who retired, BRS officials said in a press release.

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 7000 and BC Rapid Transit Co. reached a tentative agreement early this morning, narrowly averting a planned SkyTrain strike that would have shut down the Expo and Millennium lines today.

Details of the tentative pact — which would cover about 900 SkyTrain workers — won’t be released until it's ratified, union officials said in a press release.

New Jersey Transit yesterday announced Amtrak crews have started early construction work on a major resilience project at County Yard in New Brunswick along the Northeast Corridor.

NJ Transit continues to advance efforts to make its rail system more resilient to extreme weather effects. The resilience program includes an expansion of the Amtrak-owned County Yard and the "Delco Lead" storage and service restoration project. Both projects will help reduce the risk of damage to rail equipment by extreme weather and create an inspection facility to bring rail equipment back into service shortly after weather-caused impacts, NJ Transit officials said in a press release.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and its Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) yesterday accepted a safety review panel report that cites 34 recommendations and 61 corrective actions aimed at improving safety.

Commissioned by the FMCB in June after a series of derailments and other safety incidents at the MBTA, the panel includes former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood; former Federal Transit Administration acting administrator Carolyn Flowers; and former New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco.

Last year around this time, freight-rail execs were pretty bullish about the 2019 they thought they saw coming. They told us they felt good — some felt really good — about what they saw. Some suggested a banner year could be in the offing. As 2019 unfolded, it became clear “banner” wouldn’t be a word used to describe this rail year.

Not surprisingly, rail leaders are a bit more circumspect about 2020’s prospects. Lagging economic indicators, trade tumult, murkiness surrounding the prospects of reauthorizing the surface transportation bill and the U.S. presidential election whirligig-ing to come are all contributing to their wariness, freight- and transit-rail leaders told us during the information gathering for our annual Outlook coverage. The cloudiness definitely is preventing many of them from making definitive predictions. And when uncertainty holds sway, railroads and their customers can put clamps on things. Capital spending. Long-term projects. Their best-laid innovation plans. Things that keep the dot-connecting rail world, in all its increasingly global glory, spinning ‘round.

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., senior associate editor

The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority recently re-elected Tim Sandoval as chair and Robin Carder as vice chair.

The authority is an independent transportation planning and construction agency created in 1998 to oversee the planning, design and construction of the Metro Gold light-rail line from Los Angeles Union Station to Montclair along the foothills of California's San Gabriel Valley.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) district plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Larkspur Station on Dec. 13, then launch service to the Larkspur and Novato stations in northern California on Dec. 14.

The new service targets commuters in the north San Francisco Bay area. Larkspur Station will offer a connection to the larger bay area via the Golden Gate Ferry and serve as a gateway for tourists visiting Marin and Sonoma counties, SMART officials said in a press release.

Leaders of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) last week called on Congress to mind the freight-rail industry's contribution to the U.S. economy when drafting major surface transportation legislation next year.

AAR President and Chief Executive Officer Ian Jefferies and ASLRRA President Chuck Baker were among freight industry leaders testifying last week at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing called to explore the impact of freight transportation on the nation’s economy, environment and society.