Railroad News

Amtrak tomorrow will kick off the next round of track renewal projects at New York Penn Station.

The bulk of the infrastructure renewal work in 2018 will occur on weekends, with the entire project slated to wrap up on May 28, Amtrak officials said in a press release.

U.S. rail traffic for all of 2017 rose 3.4 percent to 27,489,960 carloads and intermodal units compared with traffic in 2016, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Carload traffic for the year climbed 2.9 percent to 13,478,126 units in 2017, while intermodal traffic increased 3.9 percent to 14,011,834 units for the year compared with 2016, according to an AAR press release.

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Cap Metro) in Austin, Texas, on Jan. 7 will add six train trips along the Red Line to help alleviate crowding on trains.

The agency will add three morning trips and another three in the evening, Cap Metro officials said in a press release. The agency also will adjust the schedules for the five bus routes that serve the Leander and Downtown train stations.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) in 2017 "nearly completed" mining twin tunnels for the Regional Connector light-rail project, agency officials announced in a blog post.

The tunnels run from the city's Little Tokyo neighborhood to the financial district, according to the post summarizing progress on the project. Each tunnel measures about 5,700 feet in length and is made of 1,140 pre-cast concrete rings.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) in 2017 "nearly completed" mining twin tunnels for the Regional Connector light-rail project, agency officials announced in a blog post.

The tunnels run from the city's Little Tokyo neighborhood to the financial district, according to the post summarizing progress on the project. Each tunnel measures about 5,700 feet in length and is made of 1,140 pre-cast concrete rings.

The Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) yesterday resumed full testing along the forthcoming G Line commuter-rail route.

This phase of the testing process focuses on communication and signaling systems, as well as the communication of traffic and rail signals at crossings, RTD officials said in a press release.

President Trump's administration has cast doubt on the amount of federal funding available for the proposed construction of a new Hudson River railroad tunnel that connects New York and New Jersey.

In a letter obtained by Crain's New York Business, Federal Transit Administration Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams informed New York and New Jersey officials late last week that a "50/50" agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the two states to share the cost for the proposed "Gateway" tunnel project is "non-existent."

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) announced in an interview yesterday that he will not run for another term in Congress.

Shuster, whose term as chairman of the committee would expire at the end of this year, told the Washington Examiner that he wants to work with the Trump administration on getting an infrastructure bill passed in Congress this year.

Brightline next week will launch introductory passenger-rail service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The company is working toward operational readiness by training staff and testing equipment, Brightline officials said in a press release late last week.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is urging Class Is, intercity passenger railroads and state and local transit agencies to implement positive train control (PTC) by the congressional deadline of Dec. 31.

In letters to railroad executives, Chao said the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is concerned that many of the nation's railroads are behind in implementing the federally mandated PTC technology by the Dec. 31 deadline.

Metro Transit has rolled out a new feature for its mobile app that enables customers to text the agency about suspicious or unwanted behavior on trains and buses.

Using the "Text for Safety" function, riders can directly contact Metro Transit staff, who can respond by text and send police if needed, agency officials said in a press release.

Calgary Transit this month completed renovations to the interior of the Rundle and Marlborough light-rail stations.

The agency modified the stations' layout to improve the flow of pedestrian traffic and installed new floor tiles, benches and wall panels. In addition, Calgary Transit improved station lighting, upgraded communication systems and installed more closed-circuit television cameras.

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) on Wednesday announced it awarded an $8.6 million contract to LoDuca Associates Inc. to build two new elevators at the Murray Hill Station in Queens, New York.

The hydraulic elevators will comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, LIRR officials said in a press release.

Canadian government officials have announced funding for the Peterborough-Toronto Freight-Rail Analysis project.

The Canadian and Ontario governments each will contribute up to CA$65,000 toward the project, according to an Infrastructure Canada press release.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy earlier this week announced that 11 projects in towns and cities across the state will receive $15 million to support transit-oriented development (TOD) projects.

The funding package includes $1,847,000 for the construction of a retaining wall and surface parking lot across from an Amtrak station in Windsor Locks.

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CN and Canadian Pacific have exceeded their maximum grain revenue entitlements for crop year 2016-2017, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) ruled last week.

CN's grain revenue of CA$808,213,784 was $5,773,741 above its entitlement of $802,440,043; and CP's grain revenue of CA$725,457,448 was $1,078,947 above its entitlement of $724,378,501, CTA officials said in a press release.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) late last week released preliminary details gathered from the locomotive event data recorder and inward- and outward-facing cameras from the Amtrak Cascades train that derailed Dec. 18 in Dupont, Washington.

The lead locomotive's event data and video recorders were downloaded and processed at the NTSB's lab in Washington, D.C. Among the details of the initial review of the final portion of the accident sequence:

On Dec. 20, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the Tax Extender Act of 2017 (S. 2256), which proposes to extend several tax credits — including the Section 45G short-line tax credit — that either expired at 2016's end or are set to expire on Dec. 31.

Expired since Dec. 31, 2016, the short-line tax credit would be extended to Dec. 31, 2018. The Section 45G provision allows regionals and short lines to claim a 50 cent tax credit for each dollar they spend on track rehabilitation and maintenance projects, up to a cap of $3,500 per mile of owned or leased track.