Railroad News

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

Rail News Home BNSF Railway January 2017 Rail News: BNSF Railway

Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorFor Class Is, industrial development (id) is key to generating traffic. They continually work with shippers to explore a plant expansion or evaluate transportation options that might involve transloading, all with the intent of increasing volume.The large roads also constantly seek to add new customers and traffic sources by promoting sites along their mainlines for new facilities. The typical selling points: viable rail access, close proximity to interstates, and large tracts of land that can be quickly acquired and developed.BNSF Railway Co. has tried to accelerate ID efforts in recent years to gain as big a business boost as possible, especially of the intermodal variety. From 2011 through 2015, the Class I each year landed more than $1 billion worth of new or expanded facilities along its lines, including $1.2 billion in 2015 and nearly $1.5 billion in 2014. And as of late last month, BNSF was on pace to surpass the $1 billion mark for the sixth-straight year, with about 100 ID projects on the 2016 docket, including several at a fast-growing, footprint-swelling logistics park in Kansas.What by all counts appeared to be another successful year is a testament to the company’s ID approach in the face of 2016’s sluggish economy and murky political climate, says BNSF Assistant Vice President of Economic Development Colby Tanner.“We try to engage with customers and communities. It’s important to see [ID] as a partnership,” he says.By proactively partnering with customers, the railroad can develop transportation solutions that enhance and improve their supply chain, says BNSF Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steve Bobb.“We need to play the role of a trusted adviser that can help guide our customers from the initial identification of a potential development site to its design and its ultimate construction,” he says. “Customer investments — which are key to connecting all types of business supply chains to our rail network — are driven by the confidence our customers have in the transportation services we provide them.”BNSF aims to abide by three tenets to drive ID: collaboration, transparency and responsiveness, says Tanner. That calls for such efforts as assisting states and communities with infrastructure needs, providing detailed information on routing a domestic or international shipment, or quickly compiling a cost estimate on a new industrial siding.The railroad also strives to help potential customers identify optimal rail-served sites for a new facility — an effort boosted in March 2016 by the introduction of a site certification program — and resolve any zoning, permitting or other arising issues.“We want to have an openness with customers, and not dictate to them,” says Tanner. “We try to work through issues collaboratively.”A logistical approachAnother vital component of BNSF’s ID strategy: developing logistics centers and parks. Logistics centers offer direct rail service via manifest or unit trains in multi-customer, multi-commodity business parks that primarily target under-served and end-user markets. For example, BNSF in 2014 opened a $45 million logistics center in Sweetwater, Texas, that provides rail, truck and transload services for agricultural products, sand, pipe and aggregates transported in the crude-oil-rich Permian Basin.A map shows the location of the Class I's three logistics parks and three logistics centers. Source: BNSF Railway Co.

Rail News Home BNSF Railway January 2017 Rail News: BNSF Railway

Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorFor Class Is, industrial development (id) is key to generating traffic. They continually work with shippers to explore a plant expansion or evaluate transportation options that might involve transloading, all with the intent of increasing volume.The large roads also constantly seek to add new customers and traffic sources by promoting sites along their mainlines for new facilities. The typical selling points: viable rail access, close proximity to interstates, and large tracts of land that can be quickly acquired and developed.BNSF Railway Co. has tried to accelerate ID efforts in recent years to gain as big a business boost as possible, especially of the intermodal variety. From 2011 through 2015, the Class I each year landed more than $1 billion worth of new or expanded facilities along its lines, including $1.2 billion in 2015 and nearly $1.5 billion in 2014. And as of late last month, BNSF was on pace to surpass the $1 billion mark for the sixth-straight year, with about 100 ID projects on the 2016 docket, including several at a fast-growing, footprint-swelling logistics park in Kansas.What by all counts appeared to be another successful year is a testament to the company’s ID approach in the face of 2016’s sluggish economy and murky political climate, says BNSF Assistant Vice President of Economic Development Colby Tanner.“We try to engage with customers and communities. It’s important to see [ID] as a partnership,” he says.By proactively partnering with customers, the railroad can develop transportation solutions that enhance and improve their supply chain, says BNSF Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steve Bobb.“We need to play the role of a trusted adviser that can help guide our customers from the initial identification of a potential development site to its design and its ultimate construction,” he says. “Customer investments — which are key to connecting all types of business supply chains to our rail network — are driven by the confidence our customers have in the transportation services we provide them.”BNSF aims to abide by three tenets to drive ID: collaboration, transparency and responsiveness, says Tanner. That calls for such efforts as assisting states and communities with infrastructure needs, providing detailed information on routing a domestic or international shipment, or quickly compiling a cost estimate on a new industrial siding.The railroad also strives to help potential customers identify optimal rail-served sites for a new facility — an effort boosted in March 2016 by the introduction of a site certification program — and resolve any zoning, permitting or other arising issues.“We want to have an openness with customers, and not dictate to them,” says Tanner. “We try to work through issues collaboratively.”A logistical approachAnother vital component of BNSF’s ID strategy: developing logistics centers and parks. Logistics centers offer direct rail service via manifest or unit trains in multi-customer, multi-commodity business parks that primarily target under-served and end-user markets. For example, BNSF in 2014 opened a $45 million logistics center in Sweetwater, Texas, that provides rail, truck and transload services for agricultural products, sand, pipe and aggregates transported in the crude-oil-rich Permian Basin.A map shows the location of the Class I's three logistics parks and three logistics centers. Source: BNSF Railway Co.

1/9/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

1/9/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

1/9/2017    

Rail News: Rail Industry

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has received a commitment of approximately $1.07 billion in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to support phase one of its Red and Purple Modernization Project.

 

Rail News Home Safety January 2017 Rail News: Safety

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Class Is continually search for new ways to improve and promote safety at grade crossings. They also depend on the attention and assistance of others — state and local departments of transportation, law enforcement agencies, Operation Lifesaver chapters and conscientious motorists and pedestrians, for example — to ensure their safety improvements will make a positive difference.Recently, Progressive Railroading asked Class I representatives to talk about some of their latest efforts to improve crossing safety. Although the number of incidents and fatalities at crossings have declined steadily over the past several years, crossing safety remains a high priority for all U.S. railroads, said Laura Phelps, manager of media relations at CSX.CSX's crossing safety includes education, public outreach, reduction of redundant crossings, installation and maintenance of signals, resurfacing and vegetation control. The railroad works closely with transportation officials and roadway authorities to participate in diagnostic evaluations at crossings. In many cases, CSX offers financial incentives to communities to offset the costs associated with crossing closures or other safety improvements, Phelps said in an email."Once a crossing upgrade project is approved and funded, CSX designs, builds, installs and maintains the warning devices at the crossing," she said.Also, CSX — like other Class Is — encourages communities to close crossings. When a city or town requests a new highway-rail grade crossing, CSX requires the municipality to identify three comparable active crossings to be closed.Some states within the CSX network have "progressive policies" that allow them to maximize a source of federal funding for public safety known as Section 130 Railway-Highway Crossings Program, Phelps said. Offered through the Federal Highway Administration, Section 130 funds are allocated to states for installing new active warning devices, upgrading existing devices and improving grade crossing surfaces.In 2015, CSX partnered with the North Carolina Department of Transportation's (NCDOT) Rail Division to close two crossings in Fremont, N.C. The grade was so steep that large trucks would get caught on the track, creating a potential danger for truck drivers and trains, Phelps said. The NCDOT Rail Division was able to match CSX-supplied private incentive funds, which helped cover the cost to close the crossings.In 2016, the division evaluated all public crossings along the CSX corridor in Fayetteville, N.C. Division staff identified 20 crossings to be upgraded and nine that are "ideal candidates" for closure, Phelps said."Working together with our partners, CSX has successfully executed a program that reaches a variety of audiences and helps to fund safer communities," she said.Norfolk Southern's pilot project in Missouri
Norfolk Southern Railway also is trying to encourage officials in states along its network to be more aware of using Section 130 and other available funding."We are trying to increase our engagement with those states to show them how we can do a corridor project, how we can close a crossing and how we can use those federal monies to close other crossings," said Cayela Wimberly, NS' grade-crossing safety manager.One state NS has worked with recently is Missouri, where the Class I launched a pilot project to evaluate private crossings and close as many as possible. NS officials analyzed 150 crossings, and were successful in closing 8 percent of those, Wimberly said."We negotiated with the landowners and got agreements to create alternate access points and close private crossings," she said. In 2017, the railroad plans to expand the project to include the states of Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and Florida. On a national scale, there are 10,000 private crossings and 20,000 public crossings in the NS network.Kansas City Southern, too, "works diligently" with state departments of transportation to implement safety programs, special corridor projects, grant acquisitions and other efforts to improve or upgrade crossings, said KCS spokeswoman Doniele Carlson in an email. For example, when Louisiana received a $1.1 million grant last year from the Federal Railroad Administration's Safe Transportation of Energy Products (STEP) program to upgrade nine crossings and close six, KCS pledged to contribute 20 percent of the project's total cost. The Class I also will contribute incentive funds to the city of Baton Rouge for the permanent road closures and entirely fund the barricades and removal of roads to be closed, Carlson said.Last year, KCS worked with states to close six public crossings and with private property owners to close 10 crossings. One project that was particularly important to KCS was in Ashdown, Ark., where KCS — per an agreement with the state — installed flashers and gates at the busy Front Street crossing, Carlson added.UP takes to social media with safety message
Besides working with states and property owners to close or upgrade crossings, Class Is have created public service announcement campaigns in recent years to promote the crossing-safety message. Last year, Union Pacific Railroad launched a new campaign — titled "Your Life is Worth the Wait" — on social media sites to warn drivers and pedestrians to use caution when approaching crossings and tracks. The campaign also warns people not to take "selfies" or photos of themselves on or around tracks. UP’s message has spread on sites such such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.UP also has distributed the video messages to community organizations, schools and military bases. One message in particular — known as the "duck-face selfie" video — has been broadcast regularly at the San Antonio Spurs' homes games under a partnership with the NBA team, said Buck Russel, UP’s manager of public safety in Texas. That video particularly resonates with teens, he added."We're trying to get the public's attention," Russel said. "We are asking people to make better choices."
Keywords Browse articles on grade crossings safety CSX Norfolk Southern Railway Kansas City Southern Union Pacific Railroad Section 130 North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division Federal Railroad Administration Operation Lifesaver duck-face selfie Your Life is Worth the Wait Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff.

1/9/2017    

Rail News: Mechanical

1/9/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

1/9/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

Kansas City Southern (KCS) announced Jan. 9 that its subsidiary, KCSM Servicios S.A. de C.V. (KCSMS), has appointed Kurt Jacobs as vice president transportation. 

 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) released its draft 10-year capital plan, which addresses $32 billion worth of projects in New York and New Jersey.

 

1/6/2017    

Rail News: People

Transdev has named Luke McCaul as general manager of Cincinnati Bell Connector operations. He began in his new role Jan. 4, replacing Interim General Manager Mark Young.

 

1/6/2017    

Rail News: People

The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association (NRC) has announced the selection of Ronald Brown, Rick Ebersold and John Zuspan by the association’s executive committee as this year’s additions to the NRC Hall of Fame.

 

1/6/2017    

Rail News: C&S

1/6/2017    

Rail News: Security