4/13/2017
Rail News: Supplier Spotlight
Tradepoint Rail interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.Photo – Tradepoint Atlantic By
Railroad News
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4/13/2017
Rail News: Supplier Spotlight
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Rail News Home BNSF Railway 4/13/2017 Rail News: BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway Co. this week recognized a group of employees for outstanding achievements in 2016.BNSF's annual Employees of the Year program identifies employees who've made exceptional contributions while demonstrating the company's "vision and values through commitment, leadership and focus on working safely and efficiently to meet customer expectations," according to a BNSF press release.Of more than 40,000 employees, 65 were recognized for individual and team achievements last year. Another 40 were acknowledged for safety leadership, all of whom led teams that worked throughout 2016 without a reportable injury."These employees are a reflection of our entire team's resolve to focus on safety, serve our customers, improve efficiency and performance, and deliver on the essential role we play in our global economy every day," said BNSF President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Ice.Examples of the employees' efforts include the efficient transition of the majority of BNSF's frac sand business to unit train service; the successful renewal of BNSF direct operations on the 130-mile rail line between Tenaha and Silsbee, Texas, previously operated by Timber Rock Railroad; and partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a safety integration plan for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations of unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States.Also recognized were five Safety Employees of the Year, who represent the engineering, intermodal business unit operations, mechanical, telecommunications and transportation teams. Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff. More News from 4/13/2017
BNSF Railway Co. this week recognized a group of employees for outstanding achievements in 2016.BNSF's annual Employees of the Year program identifies employees who've made exceptional contributions while demonstrating the company's "vision and values through commitment, leadership and focus on working safely and efficiently to meet customer expectations," according to a BNSF press release.Of more than 40,000 employees, 65 were recognized for individual and team achievements last year. Another 40 were acknowledged for safety leadership, all of whom led teams that worked throughout 2016 without a reportable injury."These employees are a reflection of our entire team's resolve to focus on safety, serve our customers, improve efficiency and performance, and deliver on the essential role we play in our global economy every day," said BNSF President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Ice.Examples of the employees' efforts include the efficient transition of the majority of BNSF's frac sand business to unit train service; the successful renewal of BNSF direct operations on the 130-mile rail line between Tenaha and Silsbee, Texas, previously operated by Timber Rock Railroad; and partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a safety integration plan for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations of unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States.Also recognized were five Safety Employees of the Year, who represent the engineering, intermodal business unit operations, mechanical, telecommunications and transportation teams. Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff. More News from 4/13/2017
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4/13/2017
Rail News: Safety
Apr
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Rail News Home Short Lines & Regionals April 2017 Rail News: Short Lines & Regionals
Tradepoint Rail interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.Photo – Tradepoint Atlantic ByThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Managing EditorTradepoint Atlantic had a few major announcements to share earlier this month regarding the firm’s ongoing efforts to develop a 3,100-acre logistics center on a former steel mill site near the Port of Baltimore.On April 6, company officials said they signed a 10-year contract with Host Terminals to oversee marine cargo operations, landed a collective bargaining agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers’ Local 37 covering bulk and breakbulk cargo workers, and had $30 million available for infrastructure improvements at the site.The news bodes well for a mission Tradepoint Atlantic began in 2014: to combine access to Class Is, deepwater berths, interstate highways, warehouses and distribution centers to establish the nation’s largest intermodal redevelopment complex. More than 40 percent of the U.S. population and more than half of Canada’s population live within a day’s drive of the site.The logistics center would encompass an area that at one time housed plants operated by the Pennsylvania Steel and Bethlehem Steel companies dating back to 1889, but had gone dormant in 2012. It also would be the first center of its kind in the United States to bring bulk cargo operations inland, Tradepoint Atlantic officials claim.It might take them as long as a decade to fully develop the center, but Tradepoint Atlantic leaders are counting on the rail aspect of their plan to play a major role. In November 2016, the company formed and branded Tradepoint Rail, a short line that manages and operates more than 100 miles of track at the logistics center, and interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway. The railroad evolved from two former short lines that operated at the site for nearly a century: the Patapsco and Back Rivers Railroad, and the Baltimore Industrial Railroad.The master plan for the intermodal redevelopment project includes a future container terminal (shown in lower lefthand portion of the map). (Click to view larger.)Source: Tradepoint Atlantic
Tradepoint Rail interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.Photo – Tradepoint Atlantic By
Tradepoint Rail operates the largest privately owned rail yard on the East Coast and can serve multiple on-site customers, Tradepoint Atlantic officials say. The short line also manages several other yards, owns five locomotives, and operates a locomotive shop that can perform heavy and minor repairs.
“We see this as a multimodal global logistics park, and rail is a huge asset there,” says Tradepoint Atlantic Vice President of Corporate Affairs Aaron Tomarchio. “We are marketing that upfront. There is a uniqueness about the property.”
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4/13/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
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4/13/2017
Rail News: Rail Industry Trends
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The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for a proposed Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) expansion project has been issued following more than a year of data collection, analysis and public outreach.
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Union Pacific (UP) is boosting safety and efficiency with an approximately $135 million infrastructure investment in Arkansas this year. The company is also consolidating its Wichita Service Unit management with its Kansas City, Fort Worth and North Little Rock service units.
UP's investment plan funds a range of initiatives in Arkansas: $119 million to maintain track and $7 million to maintain bridges in the state. Key projects planned this year include a $20-million investment in the rail line between Rison and Camden to replace 47 miles of rail and a $14-million investment in the rail line between Little Rock and Benton to replace 61,005 crossties and install 16,838 tons of ballast.
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Veteran railroad signal engineer Keith Holt has left Amtrak, where he was deputy chief engineer, Communications and Signals, to become director of engineering for Railroad Systems at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Holt will be responsible for leadership, direction and management of engineering services for railroad and rail transit projects and will support WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff's related business initiatives across the U.S.
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Rail News Home Short Lines & Regionals April 2017 Rail News: Short Lines & Regionals
The transformation of the New Jersey hub from a hump to a flat yard included the installation of electric, remote-control switch machines (as shown in foreground).Photo – Conrail ByThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Managing EditorTake a tour of Conrail’s Pavonia Yard and to the naked eye, there isn’t much that appears different compared with other switching yards. But there are certain aspects — some not-that-noticeable yet noteworthy ones — that separate the Camden, N.J., facility from the rest.Pavonia is the only flat switching yard in North America that employs true one-person remote-control operations, without any assistance from utility field personnel, Conrail leaders claim. Moreover, the 1.5-mile-long facility is the only yard that employs wireless GPS devices to monitor all static and mobile assets in real time, they say.Just five years ago, there wasn’t anything unique about Pavonia, which at the time operated as a hump yard. Built in 1883 by the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Camden & Amboy Railroad, Pavonia since has undergone a transformation into a highly automated flat switching facility that employs a host of technologies, with the aim of enhancing efficiency and boosting safety.The metamorphosis included a thorough physical redesign of the traditional electro-pneumatic gravity hump and re-engineering of the yard’s processes. Now, with the project nearly complete, Pavonia operates with significantly higher productivity, lower safety risks and fewer assets, and meets service requirements with less variability, says longtime Conrail leader Ron Batory.“We realized we would not see more volume growth at the yard with single-car switching,” says Batory, who retired March 31 as the railroad’s president and chief executive officer. “So, we began to look at one-man crew operations and what we needed to do to get rid of the hump.”Prior to launching the $5.3 million makeover project in 2012, Conrail officials also started to explore the possibilities of leveraging the railroad’s information technology (IT) systems. A service-provider subsidiary of CSX and Norfolk Southern Corp., Conrail since the late 1990s has developed and employed IT systems that operate independently from the Class Is’ IT systems.Conductor Rich Haynes switches cars at Pavonia Yard as a one-person crew using a remote-control locomotive device, and control systems and TV monitors housed in a nearby kiosk.
The transformation of the New Jersey hub from a hump to a flat yard included the installation of electric, remote-control switch machines (as shown in foreground).Photo – Conrail By
In-house data warehouses create fact-based information streams on human and physical assets — a data repository approach that opened the door for Conrail to measure the time and motion of all static and mobile assets at Pavonia Yard from both an operating and maintenance perspective, says Batory. Real-time monitoring at the yard is a unique management tool that supports more sound business decisions, he says.
“Without fact-based data, it’s just an opinion,” says Batory.
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4/12/2017
Rail News: Safety
Apr
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4/12/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
Apr
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4/12/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
Apr
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The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending April 8, 2017.
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