Railroad News

The Toronto Transit Commission named WSP Canada Inc. the prime consultant for the agency’s CA$30 million project to enhance capacity of the Line 1 subway in Toronto over 11 years. The consulting work also will support capacity enhancements on Line 2, including condition assessment, design, studies, analysis, engineering and program consultant services.

Digital freight broker company Loadsmart Inc. expanded its multimodal services to include rail and less than truckload. Loadsmart now enables customers to book shipments in North America across all major transportation modes, company officials said in a press release.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (SCVTA) will advance its draft transit service plan for 2021 to the agency’s board following closure of public comments earlier this fall. 

The plan calls for gradual service increases during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing service from 74% to 80% starting in February 2021.

Sound Transit is seeking input on its proposed 2021 budget, which projects revenue and other funding sources of $3 billion and expenditures of $3.1 billion.

Capital and infrastructure projects would total $2.5 billion, an increase of $105.8 million or 4.4%, compared to the 2020 budget. The funds will be primarily used for preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition, and construction for system expansion projects

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards yesterday announced that Gron Fuels LLC is studying the feasibility of opening a renewable fuel complex at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.

With expansions and associated projects, the complex could involve up to $9.2 billion of total investment over several phases. A final decision is expected in 2021, which will determine the final cost of the project's first phase, state officials said in a press release.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will hold virtual meetings Nov. 16 and 17 to receive public opinion on a draft of the state's rail plan.

The plan identifies a vision for the future of rail transportation, sets goals and objectives for achieving the vision and documents and evaluates passenger- and freight-rail needs over the next 25 years to guide investments.

TransLink soon will test a new bacteria- and virus-killing copper-coating product on high-touch surfaces on SkyTrain cars and buses.

The agency will install copper-based products and a protective coating called organosilane to test how effectively the agents destroy viruses and bacteria, TransLink officials said in a press release. 

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) yesterday published a CA$1.5 billion 2021 budget and a 2021-2030 capital expenditures program, which calls for investing CA$18 billion across the system. 

The 2021 budget is CA$9.5 million less than the agency's 2020 budget, STM officials said in a press release.

Union Pacific Railroad yesterday announced agreement employees who worked at least 30 days during the pandemic will receive a one-time $1,000 gross bonus payment in December.

Pending union approval, all current agreement employees — including those furloughed — who worked at least 30 days between March 1 and Nov. 30 will be eligible to receive the bonus. The days worked do not need to be consecutive, UP officials said in a press release.

Transdev has launched an autonomous shuttle between the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Dunne Loring-Merrifield Station in Fairfax County, Virginia, and the Mosaic District in Washington, D.C.

Dubbed Relay, the connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) began operating last month as a pilot to test driverless technology in Virginia.

The Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) yesterday welcomed Debra Johnson as the agency's new chief executive and general manager. 

Johnson – the first woman to assume the role in the agency's 51-year history – takes the reins during a transitional year at RTD, with service changes and budget challenges brought about by the pandemic. She succeeds Paul Ballard, who led RTD on an interim basis since February. 

Major U.S. retail container ports logged record imports this summer and fall, recording their busiest peak season as retailers replenish inventories and stock up for the holiday season, according to a Global Port Tracker report released yesterday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled an estimated 8.1 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from July through October, the peak shipping season.

Norfolk Southern Railway is expressing concerns to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) about CSX's potential acquisition of Pan Am Railways Inc., the 1,700-mile New England regional.

Since 2009, NS has been a partner in a joint venture with Pan Am to control Pan Am Southern LLC (PAS), which provides NS access to New England via trackage rights.

We won’t be gathering in New York City on Nov. 19-20, and we’ll miss the meals, coffee and cocktail chatter that is always such a big part of RailTrends. And what we’ll really miss is you, the audience, which I have always thought is the best in the industry. We knew we were doing something right when top leaders stayed after they themselves spoke to listen to others, or when they dropped in from other duties to hear and see what was going on. We’ll get that back in 2021. 

Metra in Chicago last week deployed a new rail-car with additional bicycle storage on the Milwaukee District North Line as part of a pilot program that will last until spring 2021. 

The bike car will have room to store 16 bicycles instead of the usual five allowed on Metra rail cars. The car will operate on four inbound and four outbound trains during the week and two inbound and two outbound trains on Saturdays. 

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) last week adopted an American Public Transportation Association (APTA)  safety program aimed at encouraging riders to use public transit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the program, STM committed to:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday announced that major construction has been completed on Amtrak’s Exchange Street Station in downtown Buffalo. 

The station was designed to accommodate additional train routes and future expansion of intercity bus service, Cuomo said in a press release.