Railroad News

The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) yesterday hosted the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for a canine training at the Broad Run train yard in Prince William County, Virginia.

During the event, explosive-detecting canines swept train equipment and a nearby station to help familiarize the dogs and their handlers with railroad environments, VRE officials said in a press release.

CSX posted a boost in profit, revenue and a record quarterly operating ratio for second-quarter 2018 — indications that the Class I's scheduled railroading operations model has begun to pay off, company officials say.

CSX reported yesterday second-quarter net earnings of $877 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with $510 million, or 55 cents per share for the same period a year ago.

CSX posted a boost in profit, revenue and a record quarterly operating ratio for second-quarter 2018 — indications that the Class I's scheduled railroading operations model has begun to pay off, company officials say.

CSX reported yesterday second-quarter net earnings of $877 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with $510 million, or 55 cents per share for the same period a year ago.

STV is providing engineering and design services for the second section of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) Purple Line subway extension. Two boring machines will soon begin work on the project, STV officials said in a press release. Working as part of the design-build team led by Tutor Perini and O&G Industries, STV is serving as the engineer of record and principal design firm for the 2.6-mile segment. The firm's services include designing the Beverly Hills and Century City stations, along with the running tunnels. The entire $6.3 billion Purple Line extension will run 9.1 miles from LA's Koreatown to Westwood.

Cad Railway Industries has hired Michael Obertop as senior vice president of sales, marketing and business development. He most recently served as senior VP of sales and marketing for GBW Railcar Services LLC. Before that, Obertop spent nine years with American Railcar Industries in a variety of roles, including corporate counsel, assistant treasurer and corporate secretary. In total, he has more than 12 years of experience in the rail-car industry, Cad Railway officials said in a press release.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) recently approved the appointment of Teresa Morales to its board. She was nominated for the board appointment by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.

Morales replaces Christof Spieler, whose term expired earlier this year. He played an instrumental role in the development of the agency's redesigned local bus network and other transit improvements, METRO officials said in a press release.

Caltrain late last week began testing a new fare enforcement policy that calls for issuing administrative citations to fare evaders instead of criminal citations that require court visits.

The policy also slashes fines and speeds up the overall process, Caltrain officials said in a press release. Previously, fines were set at $250 plus court administrative fees, but the new ordinance reduces the fines to a $75 administrative penalty for a first offense.

Yesterday, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published a notice in the Federal Register about its fiscal-year 2018 apportionments, which include policies, procedures, streamlining activities, authorized funding levels, program details and funding availability.

The notice details $13.4 billion in formula and competitive funding for the FTA's 2,000 public transportation grant recipients through Sept. 30, 2018.

In June, the Port of Long Beach, California, handled 752,188 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the highest monthly volume in its 107-year history.

The new high-water mark was 4.4 percent greater than the previous monthly record of 720,312 TEUs set in July 2017 and 14.2 percent higher than the 658,727 TEUs registered in June 2017.

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 members on Sunday voted to authorize a strike against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

The union hasn't released a timeline for the potential strike, but will "share developments at the appropriate time," ATU officials said in a press release.

The Metropolitan Council and the Twin Cities & Western Railroad (TC&W) have reached a tentative agreement that will help clear the way for construction of the Southwest light-rail project.

The pact resolves "remaining issues resulting from the colocation of freight rail and light rail in the Kenilworth Corridor and Bass Lake Spur," said Met Council Chair Alene Tchourumoff and TC&W President Mark Wegner in a joint statement.

Yesterday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined federal, state and local officials to unveil Freight NYC, a $100 million plan designed to overhaul the city's aging freight distribution systems through strategic investments aimed at modernizing rail and maritime infrastructure and creating new distribution facilities.

The city of New York plans to work with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to improve marine terminals and barging operations, and modernize and expand rail lines and freight facilities. Projects would include reactivating underutilized rail lines by constructing new transload facilities within the existing rights of way and new passing lanes to alleviate train congestion; developing a barge terminal to serve the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center in the Bronx so produce and other food products can reach the area by water instead of by truck; and constructing a barge terminal at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park.

While it doesn’t seem that long ago, July 6 marked five years since the tragic derailment of a crude-by-rail train in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. That event had a profound impact on the rail industry. If we could go back and change just one thing, that event may have never occurred. But we can’t, and that is sad.

The Kansas City Streetcar earlier this month logged its highest weekly ridership to date.

During the week of July 2-8, the streetcar served 78,998 riders, a new high-water mark for the 2-mile system. In addition, the KC Streetcar on July 6 provided 19,181 rides, marking the system's highest daily ridership.

Sound Transit on July 20 will begin post-tensioning work on its floating light-rail bridge across Lake Washington in Seattle.

Crews will tighten high-strength steel strands to strengthen the bridge, which runs along Interstate 90 as part of the $3.7 billion East Link light-rail project.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) last week convened a forum of 240 transit agency officials, business executives, government representatives and public transportation advocates for a meeting on the "future of mobility."

The July 12 gathering in Washington, D.C., focused on topics such as how public transit agencies can foster a "culture of innovation;" the imperative of discovering new mobility service models and how to link them into integrated transit systems; incorporating private mobility networks; and policies to ensure equity, access, inclusion and sustainability, according to Passenger Transport Express, APTA's e-newsletter.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today is holding the second of three symposiums for the 41 railroads required to implement positive train control (PTC) systems.

Attending the symposium are railroad safety officials and the FRA's PTC experts. Today's event will focus on best practices for PTC system field and interoperability testing, FRA officials said in a press release.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has issued requests for proposals (RFP) for transit-oriented development projects near three of its light-rail stations.

Two proposals call for the creation of a mixed-use, mixed-income development on land near VTA's Curtner and Blossom Hill stations.