Railroad News

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) board yesterday chose a 9.2-mile light-rail line as its preferred alternative for the East San Fernando Valley transit corridor project.

The line would connect the Orange Line bus-rapid transit station on Van Nuys Boulevard to a Metrolink station in LA's Sylmar neighborhood. Metro's staff determined that light rail would be faster, provide more capacity and better serve the community than a bus rapid transit line, agency officials wrote in a blog post.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) yesterday announced a six-month pilot project aimed at increasing light-rail safety in downtown San Jose, California.

The project calls for installing railings along Second Street between San Fernando and San Carlos streets to help delineate the sidewalk from the trackway, VTA officials said in a press release.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has recommended that Transport Canada update railway employee qualification standards to address gaps in training and regulatory oversight for workers in critical safety positions.

The TSB's recommendation stems from its investigation into a June 2016 incident involving an uncontrolled movement of rolling stock at MacMillan Yard near Toronto.

[Editor's note: This story was updated at 11:02 a.m. CDT to include comments from KCS officials.]

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) National President Dennis Pierce and BLET Texas Mexican Railway (Tex-Mex) General Chairman Chris Heise yesterday rejected a plan by Kansas City Southern Railway to replace U.S. crews with Mexican crews in Laredo, Texas, setting the stage for a BLET strike on the Tex-Mex starting July 9.

Mississippi's Jackson County Board of Supervisors has approved $4.7 million in funding to support the Mississippi Export Railroad's rail upgrades.

The money will be used to build 3.2 miles of rail-car storage, passing and field repair space, railroad officials said in a press release.

North American rail volume for 12 U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 749,390 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending June 23, resulting in a 3.3 percent increase in traffic compared with the same week a year ago, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported this week.

U.S. carloads for the week rose 2.5 percent to 268,464 units, while intermodal volume jumped 4.9 percent to 288,876 containers and trailers compared with the same week in 2017.

Amtrak yesterday issued a request for information (RFI) for coach cars, trainsets and self-propelled units that could replace its current Amfleet I equipment.

The equipment includes single-level passenger cars used primarily on routes east of the Mississippi River, Amtrak officials said in a press release.

Getzner USA Inc. has opened its first North American production facility in Decatur, Illinois. The plant manufactures rail and construction products, including elastic bearings for rail traffic. The facility is expected to lead to new opportunities for the company in the rail industry, said Getzner USA President Andreas Denk in a press release. Austria-based Getzner Werkstoffe, the firm's parent company, has been active in North America for more than two decades, and established headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2013.

TRC has acquired Vali Cooper & Associates Inc., a California-based infrastructure firm that manages transportation, water, wastewater, utility and facilities projects. Vali Cooper's clients include the California Department of Transportation, Bay Area Rapid Transit and municipalities, private entities and utilities across California. With the acquisition, TRC now has almost 600 employees in California, company officials said in a press release. Terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy announced $1 million in state grants to fund projects that will return blighted areas to productive use.

The funds are being awarded by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development through the recently launched Brownfield Area-Wide Revitalization Grant program. This is the second round of grants being awarded under the program.

This fall, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter-rail riders will be able to pay fares onboard with a credit or debit card.

A new mobile point-of-sale system has been tested and refined. It will be expanded to include all conductors over the next two months, according to a press release issued by Keolis Commuter Services, the MBTA's commuter-rail operator.

The $320 million Virginia International Gateway (VIG) expansion project recently passed the halfway mark, the Port of Virginia announced last week.

To mark the occasion, Gov. Ralph Northam joined state and port officials for an up-close look at the project, which is expected to wrap up in late spring 2019, port officials said in a press release.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and San Francisco police departments are partnering  to boost safety and public health at the Civic Center Station.

Under the plan, the San Francisco Police Department will provide an extra 290 officer-hours each week to patrol the station area — a more than fourfold increase from existing levels, BART officials said in a press release.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would increase security at the nation's transportation facilities.

The Securing Public Areas of Transportation Facilities Act of 2018 would give the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the "critical tools it needs in order to develop public-private partnerships that strengthen protections of soft targets, such as public areas of airports and rail terminals," said U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.), the bill's sponsor, in a press release.

Canadian Pacific has awarded a contract to rebuild 30 EMD locomotives to Progress Rail, which will remanufacture the units at plants in Indiana and Kentucky.

Once fully remanufactured, the freight locomotives will primarily serve in heavy haul applications. The upgraded EMD SD70ACU locomotives are known as modernized versions of SD90MAC models, Progress Rail officials said in a press release.

Canadian Pacific has awarded a contract to rebuild 30 EMD locomotives to Progress Rail, which will remanufacture the units at plants in Indiana and Kentucky.

Once fully remanufactured, the freight locomotives will primarily serve in heavy haul applications. The upgraded EMD SD70ACU locomotives are known as modernized versions of SD90MAC models, Progress Rail officials said in a press release.

VIA Rail Canada Inc. late last week announced that it has modified its Canadian line schedules to address "significant and recurring delays in recent months."

The updated schedule is aimed at giving riders a more predictable departure and arrival times, VIA Rail officials said in a press release.