Railroad News

Six Southern California counties have logged a significant decline in transit use since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Southern California Association of Governments’ (SCAG) first analysis of the coronavirus’ impact on travel.

Transit ridership in Southern California began dropping in March and then fell sharply between 65 percent and 85 percent in April compared with the same month last year. For example, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority logged a 68 percent ridership decline in April, and the Metrolink commuter railroad recorded a 90 percent decline during the month.

The track and infrastructure design for the Connell rail interchange project in eastern Washington is completed, the Connell Rail Interchange Coalition announced yesterday.

In 2015, the Washington State Legislature awarded the project $10 million in funding to partially complete the project. Now that the track and infrastructure design is completed, the project has become eligible for other sources of federal and state funding, coalition officials said in a press release.

Katrina Kalafatis, 33
Project engineer
HNTB Corp. 

Nominator’s quote: “Katrina has been consistently praised by the managers she performs work for as having a strong technical background, taking responsibility for her work, and being a very well-organized engineer. She takes a lot of initiative and her excellence in abilities to coordinate and communicate are key to successfully executing projects locally and remotely.” — E. Gregory Thorpe, HNTB

Officials from Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and Crystal Lake, Illinois, last week began creating the Crystal Lake and Pingree Road Stations Strategic Action Plan. 

The plan will identify strategies to enhance development and accessibility around two Metra stations on the Union Pacific/Northwest line over the next decade.

Caltrain’s board last week voted to place an eighth-cent sales tax on the November ballot, a measure that would provide the San Francisco commuter railroad with a dedicated revenue source. 

The revenue measure would be used to preserve service, maintain and expand operations following the launch of electrified service in 2022 and invest in equity polices to make the system more affordable and accessible, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

Twelve rail unions, whose members and their families are covered by the NRC/UTU Health and Welfare Plan and the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan, last week filed a lawsuit against the Class Is in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The suit asks the court to force the railroads to bargain in good faith with the unions over mandatory subjects of bargaining. The issues involved have been the subject of collective bargaining for decades and are part of the Class Is' bargaining notices served Nov. 1, 2019, under the Railway Labor Act, according to a press release issued by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), one of the 12 unions involved in the case.

The Regional Transportation District of Denver's (RTD) board last week identified three candidates as finalists in the agency's search for its next chief executive officer and general manager. 

The finalists being considered out of more than 58 applicants are:

Daniela Jaramillo, 31
Director of asset management
Florida East Coast Railway

Nominator’s quote: “She's not afraid to push back when she knows something needs resolve, so she can keep moving the team forward.” — Steve Wicker, Florida East Coast Railway

Alstom launched a validation test campaign for the Prima T8 AZ8A freight locomotive on the main freight line in Azerbaijan. The validation ultimately will allow Alstom’s locomotives to enter commercial service in the country, Alstom officials said in a press release. In 2014, Azerbaijan Railways awarded EKZ, a joint venture comprised of Alston and Transmashholding, a contract to supply 40 Prima T8 AZ8A locomotives to the railway. Meanwhile, Alstom officials last month celebrated the groundbreaking of a hydrogen filling station for passenger trains in Lower Saxony, Germany. The station will be the first of its kind in the world, Alstom officials said in a press release. Alstom is a project partner.

Kronos Inc. announced that Greater Anglia, a train operator in the United Kingdom, has selected Workforce Dimensions to modernize its information technology infrastructure. The new system will allow employees to access work schedules, request time off and pick up open shifts, and allows managers to see the impact of unplanned absences and alerts them to potential compliance risks, Kronos officials said in a press release. 

Valley Metro earlier this week launched a new website and mobile application to help commuters in the Phoenix area plan trips using multimodal transportation options, including light rail.

The platform — developed by RideAmigos — enables riders to log the time savings and distance they travel using alternative modes of transit and plan trips that incorporate real-time travel information.

Construction of the Hugh K. Leartherman Terminal at the Port of Charleston is on schedule for a March 2021 opening, South Carolina Ports Authority officials said yesterday.

The project's first phase will add 700,000 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) of annual throughput capacity to the port. At full buildout, the three-berth terminal will double S.C. Ports current capacity by 2.4 million TEUs of throughput capacity, port officials said in a press release.

Port Authority Transit Corp. (PATCO) and Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) officials earlier this week unveiled plans for a 22-megawatt solar energy project in the Philadelphia region. 

Under the plan, SunPower Corp. will install more than 50,000 solar panels along with 133 high-efficiency solar photovoltaic parking canopies at seven sites, including PATCO’s Ashland, Lindenwold, Woodcrest and Ferry Avenue rail stations.

Canadian Pacific officials reaffirmed the railroad's commitment to grow traffic at the Port of Saint John and stimulate economic growth and investment in New Brunswick at a meeting yesterday with Premier Blaine Higgs.

With its recent purchase of the Central Maine & Quebec Railway (CMQ), CP makes its return to Atlantic Canada. Its rail network now more directly connects Atlantic Canada to Montreal, Toronto and the U.S. Midwest to create a competitive transportation service that will support economic growth in New Brunswick and throughout Atlantic Canada, CP officials said in a press release.