Railroad News

The Sacramento Regional Transit District’s (SacRT) General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Henry Li received the 2019 Outstanding Public Transportation Manager Award from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). 

APTA presents the award to a transit agency manager who has made outstanding contributions to advancing public transportation in North America.

Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) has awarded $175,000 in grant funds to 10 transit-rail agencies in eight states to increase public awareness of rail safety, the nonprofit education organization announced yesterday.

The 10 agencies to receive grants are Charlotte Area Transit System in North Carolina; Hampton Roads Transit, Virginia; Metro Transit, Minneapolis; Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas; MTA Metro-North Railroad, New York City; Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain), San Carlos, California; Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia; Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink), Los Angeles; SunRail, Sanford, Florida; and Trinity Metro, Fort Worth, Texas.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet yesterday announced nearly $1.3 million in grant awards issued to help fund improvements to multimodal freight transportation through the Kentucky Rail Crossing Improvement Program.

Awards were granted to Paducah & Louisville Railroad, R. J. Corman Railroad Group, Fredonia Valley Railroad and Louisville Metro Government. The grants will fund 20 safety improvement projects, including the reconstruction of 16 crossings, three signal upgrades and one crossing replacement, cabinet officials said in a press release.

U.S. railroads started July the same way they ended June: a year-over-year decline in carload and intermodal volume.

The railroads logged 448,459 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending July 6, a 7.5 percent decrease compared with the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

By Pat Foran, Editor

On July 1, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) announced it had reached an agreement to be acquired by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP, GIC and Brookfield Infrastructure’s institutional partners. The transaction is valued at about $8.4 billion, including outstanding debt. Brookfield Infrastructure’s investment will be about $500 million of equity, funded from existing liquidity that totaled about $1.9 billion as of June 30. The remainder of the business would be owned by Brookfield Infrastructure’s institutional partners and GIC.

Wabtec Corp. was selected to provide fully integrated positive train control (PTC), digital imaging, and data transfer and analytics capabilities for Iowa Northern Railway Co., as it prepares to deliver PTC operations for two Class I railroads. Wabtec will implement its interoperable electronic train management system PTC safety overlay solution, LDRS-V video recorder, training and system integration services across Iowa Northern’s entire locomotive fleet by late 2020, Wabtec officials said in a press release.

Ondas Networks Inc. has released its next-generation wireless data platform. The platform was developed to handle the higher data throughput needs of advanced Class I train operations as the railroads implement positive train control, rear-end protection and roadway worker protection, Ondas officials said in a press release. 

Kenneth Lawson, a former engineer with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), died last month at his home in Virginia. He was 90.

Originally from Chicago, Lawson graduated from Northwestern University in 1951 with a degree in electrical engineering. He served as a gunnery officer on the USS Healy during the Korean War.

The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) has received its 12th consecutive Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

The certificate is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting, VRE officials said in a press release. 

More than 1,200 train and bus tickets in the Denver area have been sold through the Uber Transit ticketing app since the option became available in May, Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) officials announced yesterday.

Uber Transit ticketing was launched to a small group of users in May and became available to all Uber users in Denver on June 25. Riders use the app to plan and book their transportation from home to work, appointments and the airport, RTD and Uber officials said in a press release.

The Societe de transport de Montreal's (STM) board last week announced that Luc Tremblay will remain its chief executive officer until Dec. 31, 2022, following approval of a contract extension.

During his time at STM, Tremblay has overseen the agency’s extended service hours, the Montreal Metro Blue Line extension and an increase in universally accessible stations, STM officials said in a press release.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has named Gregory Elsborg vice president and chief innovation officer, the first person to hold that title at the agency.

Elsborg will be tasked with driving new business partnerships, growing DART's mobility-as-a-service options and leveraging technology to aid innovation, DART officials said in a press release.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has named Gregory Elsborg vice president and chief information officer, the first person to hold that title at the agency.

Elsborg will be tasked with driving new business partnerships, growing DART's mobility-as-a-service options and leveraging technology to aid innovation, DART officials said in a press release.

South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) handled nearly 2.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) in fiscal-year 2019, which represents an 8.8 percent increase over FY2018 container volume, port officials announced yesterday.

In its first full year of business, Inland Port Dillon handled 29,580 rail moves in FY2019, which ended June 30, SCPA officials said in a press release.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) yesterday announced a total of $300 million in federal funding allocations to three transit-rail projects in California, Washington and Arizona. 

Through tje FTA’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program, which provides funding for major transit infrastructure capital investments, each of the following projects with be allocated $100 million: 

By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor

By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor

The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) has hired Ashley Wieland to serve as the organization's president.

Wieland previously worked for the NRC in roles that covered operations, conference planning, government affairs and grassroots events.

The Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp. (PATH) last week finalized an agreement with bike parking facility maintainer Oonee for placement of a 20-bike parking facility at the Journal Square Station in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Aug. 1.

The agreement is part of an effort to expand biking options for employees, riders and other patrons of the railroad's facilities. It will also generate revenue through a small subscription fee for users and paid advertisements on the facility exterior, PATH officials said in a press release.

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) announced that later this month it will begin track improvements on the MAX light-rail near the Lloyd Center/NE 11th Avenue Station in Portland, Oregon. 

TriMet crews will replace some sections of curved track and switches, as well as upgrade signal components in the Rose Quarter area, located east of downtown Portland, TriMet officials said in a press release.