Railroad News

3/13/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

3/13/2017    

Rail News: Safety

3/13/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

STV has named Tyler Bonstead, P.E., AICP, as vice president and Scott McIntyre, P.E., LEED AP, as senior vice president.

 

Amit Bose joined HNTB Corporation as mid-Atlantic district transit and rail director, and associate vice president, based in the firm's Arlington, Va., office. His responsibilities include delivering major transit and rail projects, supporting national transit and rail programs, and growing HNTB's mid-Atlantic rail practice.

Bose has 16 years of public-sector experience serving a variety of agencies, including the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), New Jersey Transit and New Jersey Department of Transportation. His tenure at FRA included serving as deputy administrator and chief counsel. He was involved in the Northeast Corridor Gateway Program, California High-Speed Rail Project, Northeast Corridor Future, Southeast Passenger Rail and Build America Bureau, in addition to engaging with all levels of government and industry on transit and rail matters.

The South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) broke ground March 10 on the Inland Port Dillon, which is slated to open in early 2018.

Inland Port Dillon will support growing intermodal cargo volumes between the Port of Charleston and markets throughout the Carolinas, Northeast and Midwest. This is the second inland port the SCPA has developed and follows the success of Inland Port Greer.

Orange and Durham counties in North Carolina have agreed to an accelerated schedule to update country transit plans and a cost sharing agreement for the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project.

 

3/13/2017    

Rail News: Intermodal

3/13/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

Rail News Home Short Lines & Regionals March 2017 Rail News: Short Lines & Regionals

Last month, Alaska Railroad Corp. eliminated 49 jobs — the regional's fourth round of layoffs since 2008.Photo – Alaska Railroad Corp. By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorA railroad certainly wouldn't choose to chart its annual volume totals over a nine-year period with lines going down and to the right. But that's what the Alaska Railroad Corp.'s (ARRC) freight tonnage chart looks like for the years 2008 through 2016.Annual volume has plummeted 44 percent in that timeframe, from 6.6 million tons in 2008 to 3.7 million tons in 2016. The primary causes: bulk petroleum traffic that's fallen from 1.9 million to 300,000 tons over the nine years, and export coal volume that's plunged from 1.2 million tons in 2011 to 67,000 in 2016.Low oil prices and the 2014 closure and 2016 scrapping of a North Pole refinery — which at one time generated half of ARRC's annual revenue — have cut crude/petroleum business by 84 percent.At the same time, an oversupply of coal in world markets caused Alaska's only mine to curtail production, significantly shrinking the railroad's export coal moves from Healy to the Port of Seward and prompting ARRC to temporarily close its coal export facility in Seward."We've really been suffering the last few years. About two-thirds to three-quarters of our revenue comes from the freight side," says ARRC President and Chief Executive Officer Bill O'Leary, adding that the railroad also generates revenue from passenger-rail services and real estate holdings.At what cost?The regional's finances have reflected that pain. Net income has tumbled from $12.5 million in 2008 to $4.5 million in 2016. In addition, ARRC has recorded a net loss from operations since 2015 and forecasts a $4.9 million loss in the 2017 budget, and has incurred higher operating costs associated with labor and benefits, positive train control implementation and other business demands.As a result, ARRC last month announced it eliminated 49 positions under a corporate restructuring plan. The reorganization represents an 8 percent reduction in the regional's year-round workforce — which totals 609 versus the seasonal workforce of 760 — equating to an estimated labor cost savings of $4.7 million.ARRC began to address the job cuts last year, leaving 18 of the 49 positions vacant. ARRC has eliminated more than 300 year-round jobs since 2008, a period that includes three other layoffs."The eliminated positions weren't our first choice. But it became evident that we had to go back to adjusting our staffing levels," says O'Leary.To shed costs, ARRC also reduced train operations between Fairbanks and Anchorage from two trains, seven days per week to one train, five days per week. In addition, the railroad plans to divest some assets that support export coal business, says O'Leary.Ridership growth a reliefDespite its freight-traffic woes, ARRC has grown passenger counts 22 percent since 2010. Ridership — which last year rose 4 percent from 2015's mark to 494,236 — is increasing both because of local demand and tourism, says O'Leary."Visitors see Alaska as an exotic but safe location," he says. "The cruise industry has brought more ships to Alaska."The railroad is projecting 5 percent ridership growth in 2017. As for freight traffic, it might at least stabilize this year, says O'Leary."We're optimistic that it will level out from where it was in 2016," he says.
Keywords Browse articles on Alaska Railroad short line passenger rail ARRC Bill O'Leary Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff.

Rail News Home People March 2017 Rail News: People

Millie Dresselhaus, the late professor emeritus of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was recently featured in a GE commercial promoting women in science. Dresselhaus died last month at 86.Photo – GE By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., senior associate editorLast month, GE announced a goal to employ 20,000 women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) roles — with 50-50 male-female representation in all of its entry-level technical programs — by 2020.The company set the goal to "inject urgency" into ending the gender imbalance in technical fields. That imbalance must be addressed to "fully transform GE into a digital industrial company," GE officials say. "We believe a company that changes the world should reflect the world — that's why we set this aggressive goal," says Athena Kaviris, senior human resources leader at GE Transportation. "Just hiring talented women isn’t enough. We have to recruit the best, retain them and spread the word to make sure people really view GE as a destination for high-tech jobs." The initiative will apply to all the company's divisions including GE Transportation, which serves the rail industry.Along with its announcement, GE released a white paper titled "Engineering the Future: The Socio-Economic Case for Gender Equality," which highlights the lower rate of women serving in technology and engineering and makes the economic case for closing the gender gap.Women account for 47 percent of total U.S. employment, but only 14 percent of all engineers and 25 percent of IT professionals. That gender gap is preventing the technology and engineering sectors from contributing as much as possible to the U.S. economy, according to the report's authors, GE Chief Economist Marco Annunziata and GE Global Economist Kimberly Chase.The stakes of filling high-tech jobs will become greater as technology evolves, affecting more jobs that require advanced skills, Annunziata and Chase wrote. Over the next decade, the U.S. alone will need to fill about 2 million engineering and computing jobs, they said."As new technologies require new abilities, the risk of the skills gap widening will only become greater," the authors wrote. "We need to close the gender gap and leverage our entire talent pool."Over the years, GE has implemented a number of strategies to draw more women into high-tech jobs, says Kaviris. Today, 18 percent to 20 percent of jobs in GE’s overall professional workforce fall under the STEM categories. And, GE employs about 15,000 women in its technical entry-level positions.While the company has made progress, more needs to be done to recruit and retain more female engineers and IT employees. GE intends to meet its new goal in part by building on established career-development efforts such as its Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP), an intensive early-career plan for engineers. EEDP already has achieved a 50-50 gender ratio among its participants, "and that is one area where we feel great about the progress," says Kaviris. Female employees also are being encouraged to tap into GE's Women's Network, a career advancement effort that builds leadership skills. Additionally, the company is expanding "GE Girls," a program designed to encourage school-age girls to explore STEM education and careers. Launched in 2011, GE Girls has hosted events for female high-schoolers at nine U.S. universities. Last year, GE Girls launched the "GE Girls Club" to encourage participants to stay connected to STEM education during their high-school years."But, we obviously can do more," says Kaviris. "The technical and engineering sectors are still very male dominated, and the pipeline for future talent is probably not transitioning as fast as we need it to. That’s all the more reason for us to spread the STEM message."Another way GE hopes to achieve its goal: make sure employee recruitment activities include colleges and universities that enroll a higher percentage of female students."We've had a great tradition of building relationships through existing alumni and penetrating those schools in a positive way," says Kaviris. "As we examine those programs further, it's important to make sure they're representative of the 50-50 percentage we're looking for."Besides publishing the white paper, GE has promoted its gender-parity goal and spread the STEM word via television commercials that ask, "What if female scientists were treated like celebrities?" One commercial features the late Mllie Dresselhaus, a professor emeritus of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dresselhaus, who died last month, was known as the "queen of carbon" because of her research of carbon nanotubes.A goal that helps other companies, too
Although GE's goal is specific to its own workforce, its effort serves as a beacon to highlight the transportation industry’s need to recruit and retain more women into STEM and other jobs, according to the leader of WTS International, a U.S.-based global organization that promotes advancement of women in transportation."I think it is a huge benefit to have large corporations like GE get behind the goal of closing the gender gap in STEM," says WTS Chairwoman Diane Woodend Jones. "I applaud them for doing this."WTS has chapters worldwide — including 74 in the United States — that offer networking, professional development, education and mentoring for women who work in transportation or are studying to get there.Last year, women made up 10 percent of the rail-industry workforce and nearly 24 percent of the transportation and warehousing sectors, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This year, WTS has set a new goal toward narrowing the gender gap by doubling the number of WTS chapters on college and university campuses to help connect female students with transportation employers. Currently, there are 14 WTS campus chapters.However, exposing young women to transportation career opportunities should really start when they're still in middle and high school, Jones says. To that end, WTS began working with the U.S. Department of Transportation several years ago to launch Transportation YOU, an interactive mentoring program that introduces girls ages 13-18 to jobs in the industry.WTS chapters offer Transportation YOU activities and events to encourage girls to take courses in math, science, and technology as a springboard to further study in STEM and transportation.Making gender equality a goal and promoting more women to leadership roles in business not only fills job openings, it benefits the bottom line, says Jones. "Many studies show that companies do better [economically] when they have more diversity in their workforce at all levels," she says. GE's white paper makes the same point. "Addressing the gender gap will create a more diverse workforce, and research shows that diverse teams are better at problem-solving and think more creatively," Annunziata and Chase wrote. "Unless they become more diverse, companies will not be able to cope with today’s more disruptive innovation environment."
Keywords Browse articles on GE STEM gender gap Athena Kaviris GE Transportation GE Women's Network GE Girls WTS International Diane Woodend Jones Transportation YOU Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff.

Companies whose employees depend on Caltrain to get to and from work in the Bay Area joined agency representatives in Washington, D.C., this past week to advocate for approval of a grant that would fund a modernization project.

 

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) began the final phase of the $203-million Wilson Red Line Station Reconstruction Project.

 

3/10/2017    

Rail News: Supplier Spotlight

A group of Portland area public works entities have joined forces to coordinate construction and maintenance projects to lessen potential negative impacts to the community.

The Get Portland Moving initiative is an effort by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, the Bureau of Environmental Services, the Portland Water Bureau, Portland Parks & Recreation, Multnomah County, the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet and Portland Streetcar to coordinate required project work in the Central Business District and Cully neighborhood of Portland, Ore.

3/10/2017    

Rail News: People

American railroads earned a grade of B for infrastructure while the rest of the U.S. sectors got a barely-passing D+ in the latest report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The quadrennial report depicts the condition and performance of American infrastructure across 16 sectors, assigning letter grades based on the physical condition and needed investments for improvement.

British Columbia Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone announced on March 9 that the Canadian province will study options for establishing commuter rail services on Vancouver Island.

 

3/10/2017    

Rail News: Rail Industry Trends

3/10/2017    

Rail News: Rail Industry Trends