Railroad News

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) yesterday unveiled several preliminary concepts to improve reliability, meet future ridership demands and better serve riders on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines.

Starting next week, WMATA will host a series of open houses in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia to provide information about the draft concepts, answer questions and gather public input, authority officials said in a press release.

New Jersey Transit has issued a request for expressions of interest (RFEI) to identify qualified and experienced firms capable of introducing innovative solutions for transportation services between the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station in Secaucus Junction and the Meadowlands complex.



The Meadowlands area poses unique challenges to mass transit, including sporting events and concerts held at MetLife Stadium; the new American Dream retail and entertainment complex that will have 20,000 employees and attract 40 million visitors annually; highly sensitive environmental features such as the Hackensack River; busy roads; and an existing rail line to the stadium from Secaucus Junction, NJ Transit officials said in a press release.



CSX has designated the Henderson bypass rail site in Henderson, Kentucky, as a CSX Select Site.

Select Sites are development-ready properties along the CSX network where standard land use considerations and comprehensive due diligence issues have been addressed. The properties are able to meet the needs of a variety of manufacturers, reducing the time required to build facilities and ultimately bring products to market, CSX officials said in a press release.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) yesterday announced a statewide initiative to improve safety at grade crossings.

FDOT Secretary Kevin Thibault issued the directive calling for “unprecedented” rail safety measures and the launch of a statewide education initiative with the goal of preventing additional fatalities on or near crossings, and on state roads and state-owned land crossings, FDOT officials said in a press release.

New Jersey Transit last week launched a performance dashboard to display system data on on-time performance, mechanical reliability and the cause of delays and cancellations. 

Dubbed Progress by the Numbers, the dashboard displays commuter-rail, light-rail and bus data from January 2017 to October 2019. Each month it will be updated with the previous month’s service.

Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) crews are advancing construction on the 4.1-mile, 10-stop OC Streetcar route between the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center and a new transit stop in Garden Grove, California. 

Crews have begun pouring foundations for a maintenance and storage facility to be constructed along the former Pacific Electric Railway Co. right-of-way in Santa Ana throughout 2020.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Transit Tech Lab, an accelerator program for startups looking to solve public transit challenges, has expanded to five other New York City-area agencies to support a unified approach to transit innovation. 

The program enables selected startups to pitch and then pilot an innovation or technology solution for a transit agency in less than six months. 

TransLink riders and other local residents support transit expansion and improvement as a top priority in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to a public engagement report the agency released yesterday. 

Following a four-month outreach campaign, the report logged 4,000 submitted improvement ideas and 31,700 responses to the agency’s 30-year regional transportation strategy for metro Vancouver.

US Development Group LLC (USD) and Gibson Energy Inc. this week announced an agreement to build and operate a diluent recovery unit (DRU) near Hardisty, Alberta. ConocoPhillips Canada has contracted to process the 50,000 barrels per day of inlet bitumen blend through the DRU to be shipped by Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

USD and Gibson are in discussions with other potential producers and refiners to secure long-term, take-or-pay agreements for an additional 50,000 barrels per day at the proposed DRU, USD and Gibson officials said in a press release.

Rail traffic continued to struggle in November, with U.S. railroads reporting 1,975,345 carloads and intermodal units, a 7.4 percent decrease compared with November 2018's levels, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

U.S. railroads originated 955,579 carloads last month, down 7.5 percent, and 1,019,766 containers and trailers, down 7.4 percent versus last year's figures.

The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) today marks 20 years of operation of the TRAX light-rail service. 

In 1998, UTA opened its first rail station in Midvale, Utah, and received delivery of its first fleet of Siemens SD100 trains. By 1999, the first light-rail line opened to connect riders between Salt Lake City and Sandy.

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) is on track to exceed 4.6 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the first time in a calendar year, GPA officials announced this week.

That level of trade would represent a 14 percent increase over volume moved through Savannah three years ago, or an additional 550,000 TEUs. Over the same period, the GPA has increased the annual capacity at the Port of Savannah from 5 million to 5.5 million TEUs, GPA officials said in a press release.

The Regional Transportation District of Denver's (RTD) board will appoint an interim general manager by Jan. 20, 2020, to replace GM and Chief Executive Officer Dave Genova, who announced his retirement last month.

Genova will retain his position until the interim GM is appointed, completing a 60-day notice requirement that is outlined in his contract, RTD officials said yesterday in a press release.

Crews began dredging work at the Port of Virginia on Dec. 1, launching the first phase of a project to deepen the port to 55 feet to accommodate larger ships.

The digging began two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule, port officials said in a press release.

Sound Transit yesterday announced Mary Cummings' appointment as deputy chief executive officer and chief administrative officer.

Previously, Cummings held executive roles at Verizon during the company's startup and growth periods, including as vice president for Verizon Wireless Latin America. 

CN and mining company Teck Resources Ltd. today announced a long-term rail agreement for the shipping of steelmaking coal from Teck's four British of Columbia operations between Kamloops and Neptune Terminals, and other west coast ports.

The agreement, which runs from April 2021 to December 2026, will enable Teck to significantly increase shipment volumes through an expanded Neptune Terminals.