Railroad News

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has unveiled a new program that provides refunds for late trains and buses.

Known as the Rush Hour Promise, the program will credit riders' SmarTrip cards for future travel if a trains or buses are more than 15 minutes late.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's (SEPTA) board late last week adopted the recommended locally preferred alternative from the King of Prussia rail project's draft environmental impact statement.

The board made the selection after evaluating more than 30 alternatives for a new rail connection between the existing Norristown High Speed Line and destinations in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (CSS) aims to expand business opportunities under a lease of 5 miles of track from CN in Gary, Indiana.

Effective last week, the lease of track is designed to improve the interchange between CSS and CN, as well as provide shipping options for customers through a higher frequency of service, CSS owner Anacostia Rail Holdings announced in a press release.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) last week announced its preferred alignment for the proposed Red Line rail extension, which calls for extending the route from 95th Street to 130th Street.

The chosen route would begin at 95th Street and run along the west side of Union Pacific Railroad tracks from Interstate 57 to 109th Street. Then, the route would cross UP tracks and run along their east side until crossing the Metra Electric tracks near 119th Street.

Union Pacific Railroad has hired former CSX executive Cindy Sanborn as UP's regional vice president of transportation for the West.

Sanborn, who will begin her new job on Feb. 16, will succeed Richard Castagna, who will retire after nearly 25 years of service, UP officials said in a press release.

Trade Press Media Group Inc., a 100-plus-year-old Milwaukee-based business media company, has been acquired by Forum Media Group, headquartered in Merching, Germany.

Founded in 1915, Trade Press Media Group is a business-to-business media company serving the rail industry with Progressive Railroading magazine, Progressive Railroading.com, the Car & Locomotive Yearbook, the Track Yearbooks, RailTrends Conference and the Secure Rail Conference.

The Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA) will again host the USA Pavilion at the upcoming InnoTrans 2018 show in Berlin, Germany. The pavilion offers a "turnkey service" to help exhibitors simplify exhibiting at the international trade show, which will be held Sept. 18-21. The layout includes a common exhibit area with internet, refreshments, seating and meeting space, as well as booth space for each exhibition company. The pavilion also will include translators. Held biennially, InnoTrans attracts more than 120,000 visitors from more than 100 countries, REMSA officials said in a press release.

Drapeau Rail and Neotec last month delivered a hi-rail truck to contractors working on Ottawa's Confederation Line. The truck is designed to maintain overhead catenary systems. Equipped with a scissor lift deck, the unit features a 180-degree turret module, Drapeau officials said in a press release.

Keolis Commuter Services earlier this week graduated 27 new assistant conductors for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA) commuter-rail network.

The group, which completed the training program in Somerville, Massachusetts, was the largest class to graduate in the commuter-rail system's history, Keolis officials said in a press release.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) board yesterday approved a new policy to incentivize companies bidding on contracts to create and retain U.S. jobs.

Under the policy, the agency will apply a "U.S. Employment Plan" to all train, bus and equipment purchases above $100 million. The plan was developed by advocacy group Jobs to Move America, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the Brookings Institution, the University of Southern California and the University of Massachusetts.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Jan. 29 will begin a series of 10 public hearings on its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed bullet train project in Texas.

The first public hearing will be held in Dallas County. Others will be held in locations along the proposed route, which would extend from North Texas to Houston.

Last year, Metro Transit served a record number of riders across all three of its rail lines in and around the Twin Cities.

The agency logged a record 13.1 million rides on the Green Line light-rail route, along with a record 10.7 million rides on Blue Line light-rail trains. Ridership on the latter line topped the previous high-water mark set in 2015.

Union Pacific Railroad began construction this month on the Brazos Yard in Robertson County, Texas.

The $550 million rail yard project represents the largest capital investment in a single facility in the railroad's 155-year history, UP officials said in a press release.

The engineer of the Amtrak Cascades train missed seeing a speed-limit sign before the train derailed from an overpass in Washington state last month, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced yesterday.

NTSB investigators interviewed the train's engineer and a conductor the week of Jan. 15, about a month after the fatal derailment killed three passengers and injured dozens of others. The engineer and conductor, who were in the lead locomotive during the Dec. 16 accident, were unable to be interviewed until recently because of their injuries.

Rail-car orders in fourth-quarter 2017 totaled 8,501 units compared with 8,671 units in the third quarter and 4,866 units in fourth-quarter 2016, according to quarterly statistics released this week by the Railway Supply Institute's American Railway Car Institute Committee (ARCI).

Car deliveries in Q4 2017 rose to 13,404 units from 11,015 units in Q3. Deliveries for Q2 and Q1 came in at 10,625 and 10,042 units, respectively.

Total U.S. railroad traffic declined 2.9 percent to 508,239 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Jan. 20 compared with the same week a year ago, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Total carloads for the week fell 7.6 percent to 241,258 units, but intermodal volume ticked up 1.8 percent to 266,981 containers and trailers compared with the third week of 2017, AAR reported in a press release.

By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Associate Editor

The Ontario government on Tuesday confirmed that Metrolinx was the victim of a cyberattack by North Korea.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) received approval from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to extend the New Starts project development phase for the 6-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit extension to Silicon Valley.

The deadline to complete the phase has been moved from March to June. VTA made the request so it could refine design considerations for two tunneling methods for the 5-mile segment into downtown San Jose, California, agency officials said in a press release.

[Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:10 p.m. CST.]