Railroad News

The Federal Railroad Administration has selected five projects in South Dakota and Alaska to receive more than $6.9 million in Special Transportation Circumstances (STC) Grants for state-specific rail capital projects.

More than $5.6 million in grant funds will be used to upgrade rail infrastructure and enhance rail safety in communities across South Dakota, and another $1.2 million in grant funds will go toward projects in Alaska, FRA and U.S. Department of Transportation officials said in press releases.

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) next month will host virtual information sessions to gather input on the agency’s plan to build a new underground workshop to store rail vehicles, receive and transport construction materials and remove construction debris from work sites.

The workshop — dubbed the Northwest Attachment Centre — will provide a new gateway to the metro, ultimately increasing the production capacity of night-time worksites and increasing the flexibility of logistical planning, STM officials said in a press release.

VIA Rail Canada Inc. today announced it will extend the suspension of its long-distance service routes, the Canadian and the Ocean, due to a rise of COVID-19 cases in some regions of Canada and to follow recommendations from public health authorities. 

Suspension of the sleeper class on the Winnipeg-Churchill route also will be extended until further notice. The routes were originally scheduled to resume Nov. 1.

Operation Lifesaver Canada (OL) last week announced CN Police Constable Andre LeBreux is the winner of the 2019 Roger Cyr Award for Public Safety.

The Cyr award is presented annually during Rail Safety Week, which wrapped up yesterday. Named after the founder of OL Canada, the award recognizes a "rail safety ambassador" who goes above and beyond the call to promote rail safety, OL officials said in a press release. 

MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) officials last week announced that the 318-car fleet of R179 rail cars will return to service after a review of the fleet’s quality issues that prompted the agency to pull the cars from service earlier this year.

A panel of outside experts reviewed primary side collision welding anomalies, door operations and drawbar draft gear assembly issues and incidents the cars have had since delivery began in 2016. The panel ultimately determined that all known production quality issues with the cars provided by Bombardier Transportation had been adequately addressed by NYCT, agency officials said in a press release.

A loose, improperly fastened rail joint was the probable cause of a 2017 rail-car derailment that resulted in the death of a railroad employee, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined earlier this month.

The accident occurred Sept. 22, 2017, when a Union Pacific Railroad train derailed during a coupling operation in UP's Great Southwestern Yard in Arlington, Texas.

Canadian Pacific will not operate its annual Holiday Train tour this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Class I announced last week.

Although train visits will not be part of this year's charitable program, CP will donate to food banks in communities along its rail network and host a virtual concert. The modified program will draw attention to food security issues, while ensuring donations go to all food banks that would ordinarily receive them, including those that typically host a Holiday Train event in alternating years, CP officials said in a press release.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra and Pace today launched a redesigned version of the Ventra travel planning and fare mobile application.

The new app — built for Chicago-region transit users — features a quick-view of fare card balances, available Metra tickets, transit times for nearby stops and travel planning options between Metra, CTA and Pace.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (LA Metro) board yesterday approved the agency’s updated 2020 Long Range Transportation Plan, a $400 billion, 30-year transportation blueprint for Los Angeles County.

The plan outlines how LA Metro will fund, plan, build, manage and maintain the region’s transportation system, and how LA Metro partners should deliver projects and programs, agency officials said in a press release.

Amtrak earlier this week updated its website and mobile application to allow riders to view how full their reserved train will be while booking. 

When searching for travel, riders will see a passenger volume percentage next to each route. The percentage represents the proportion of seats sold based on the total number of seats on the train. 

Anacostia Rail Holdings has announced that Anthony "Tony" Kazakevicius has been named director of sales and marketing at the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (CSS). 

Kazakevicius joined the railroad from the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co., where he had been assistant director of business development since 2013. Previously, he served as senior manager of marketing at Indiana Rail Road from 2006 to 2013, manager of marketing and sales at RailAmerica from 2002 to 2006, and manager of pricing at Iowa Interstate Railroad Ltd. from 1997 to 2001.

Valley Metro earlier this week began construction on the Northwest Extension Phase II project to extend light-rail service 1.6 miles from 19th and Dunlap avenues to the former Metrocenter Mall area in Phoenix.

The extension will include Valley Metro’s first elevated light-rail station, a new transit center for light-rail and bus service, a third station and a rail-only bridge over Interstate 17. 

Nearly half, or 48 percent, of rail tank cars that carried Class 3 flammable liquids in 2019 met the new safety requirements, up from 33 percent in 2018, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

The Fleet Composition of Rail Tank Cars Carrying Flammable Liquids 2020 Report outlines industry-wide progress in manufacturing and modifying rail tanks cars that transport flammable liquids. It tracks the transformation of the fleet carrying Class 3 flammable liquids to be a fleet of DOT-117s, which meet new safety requirements.

Wabtec Corp. has signed an agreement with the New Mexico Rail Runner Express (NMRX) to upgrade the wireless network of NMRX’s commuter fleet, in cooperation with Rajant Corp. The order is the first for Wabtec and Rajant since they formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the adoption of wireless technology in the global rail industry, Wabtec officials said in a press release.

Rajant Corp. has developed a new, high-performance BreadCrumb® platform, the Falcon. The platform offers multiple-input and multiple-output radios, high throughput, enhanced security performance, and edge computing capabilities for third-party applications and artificial intelligence. Combined with Rajant's patented InstaMesh® protocol, the Falcon is capable of bridging Kinetic Mesh wireless networks with other networks such as LTE/5G. “The Falcon will be interoperable with all our technology to expand market capabilities for industries like rail, shipping ports, military, mining and heavy construction,” Rajant officials said in a press release.

Sound Transit today will hold a virtual public hearing to gather feedback on the agency’s 2021 Service Plan, which outlines changes and revisions to commuter- and light-rail service for the upcoming budget year.

The service plan calls for maintaining the Link light-rail and Sound commuter-rail service levels that were in effect this month.