Railroad News

Although freight-rail safety has improved in the five years since the Lac-Megantic rail disaster, more remains to be done, says the chair of Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB).

Today is the fifth anniversary of the tragic accident, in which a train carrying over 2 million gallons of crude oil derailed in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec. The resulting fire and explosions killed 47 people, forced another 2,000 from their homes and destroyed much of the town's downtown core.

NDYLTK Rail has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of LTK Engineering Services and has changed its name to LTK Australia Pty. Ltd. In 2011, LTK Engineering Services and Norman Disney & Young (NDY) established a partnership to offer rail engineering services for clients in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Africa. NDY was recently acquired by another firm, which gave LTK the opportunity to purchase NDYLTK outright, company officials said in a press release. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF has signed an agreement to acquire Polish bus and tram maker Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. The move is aimed at making the CAF Group a market leader in the bus segment and opening new opportunities for the company's urban rail business in Central and Eastern Europe. The acquisition also will provide an opportunity to enter and grow in "new mobility-related areas," CAF officials said in a press release. Solaris has an estimated enterprise value of more than $350 million.

Valley Metro's rail board has elected Thelda Williams as chair.

Since late May, she has served as interim mayor of Phoenix. Williams also has chaired the Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority's (RPTA) board.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) next week will kick off its fifth consecutive trolley tunnel "blitz" repairs.

SEPTA will shut down trolley service in the Center City tunnel from July 13 to 23 to allow crews to perform repair work.

The Canadian government has committed CA$7.5 million for an infrastructure project at the Port of Thunder Bay.

The project involves adding tracks and lay-down areas for cargo staging and trans-shipment to respond to increased demand, according to a press release issued by Transport Canada.

Alaska Railroad Corp. has promoted George Newman to senior director of the advanced train control systems (ATCS) department. Newman succeeds Eileen Reilly, who retired July 1.

ATCS is focused on developing and implementing the railroad's positive train control (PTC) system. Newman joined Alaska Railroad in November 2016 as director of ATCS, company officials said in a press release.

The $8 billion budget for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation's (HART) proposed 20-mile passenger-rail system remains $134 million short, news site Honolulu Civil Beat reported earlier this week.

A Jacobs Engineering report drafted for the Federal Transit Administration has recommended adding the shortfall amount to the budget to ensure the rail system's construction is completed, according to the news site.

Negotiations for the sale of Hudson Bay Railway, the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba and related assets have broken down, railroad officials announced yesterday.

Discussions between the railroad's owner and a consortium involving two First Nations groups and Fairfax Financial Holdings have been ongoing for the past few months. In late May, the parties announced a tentative agreement that would have transferred ownership of the port and restored rail service to northern Manitoba.

U.S. rail traffic trends last month were consistent with a healthy economy, but that trend could change if the country engages in a trade war, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

U.S. railroads originated 2,240,742 carloads and intermodal units last month, a 4.2 percent increase over rail traffic in June 2017, according to an AAR press release.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday launched a test version of its "MYmta" app, which provides real-time arrival information and trip planning for subways, buses and commuter-rail service.

The agency also unveiled a new mobile-optimized site, new.mta.info. The app and the website are designed to "bring wayfinding for all of MTA's mass transit properties under one roof," agency officials said in a press release.

Kyle Fortson has been named chairman of the National Mediation Board (NMB).

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her as a board member in November 2017. Before joining the NMB, Fortson served as labor policy director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has reached a settlement with the First Free Baptist Church of Bakersfield, which will result in California Environmental Quality Act litigation being dismissed for the project's Fresno-to-Bakersfield section.

The litigation involved the final environmental impact report and statement for that section of the project, authority officials said yesterday in a press release.

Federal government and California Polytechnic University Pomona officials will gather Thursday to mark the start of a new freight-rail diversion route that will end blocked crossings, collisions and train noise on a campus gateway.

Located on the transcontinental Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) Trade Corridor, the Union Pacific Railroad route is used daily by 20 freight trains and is projected to increase to 42 trains by 2025.

Jessica Mefford-Miller has been named interim executive director of Metro Transit-St. Louis.

She succeeds Ray Friem, who retired July 1. Mefford-Miller previously served as Metro Transit's assistant executive director of transit planning and system development, according to a press release issued by Bi-State Development, Metro-Transit's parent agency.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has released a request for proposals (RFP) to advance engineering work for its proposed King of Prussia Rail extension of the Norristown High Speed Line.

The RFP's scope covers preliminary design work, including utility and geotechnical investigations and surveying. The chosen bidder will advance the engineering and architectural design from the conceptual locally preferred alternative, which SEPTA chose in January.