Railroad News

Unionized Amtrak workers, led by rail labor organizations, today will rally in Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles to urge members of Congress to provide emergency funding to Amtrak to prevent planned cuts to service and its workforce. 

Earlier this month, Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer William Flynn called for $5 billion in emergency funding to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. If no additional funding is provided by the federal government, Amtrak has announced impending cuts, effective Oct. 1, of 1,950 unionized employees and a planned reduction of service.

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) next month will complete its year-long signal and communication improvement project on the MAX Blue light-rail line in Gresham, Oregon.

TriMet crews will replace a rubber rail boot and repave asphalt near a rail crossing at Northwest Eastman Parkway; replace signal equipment and reroute signal conduits and cables on the line; and repair the Fairview Creek wooden trestle bridge. 

Union Pacific Railroad was designated the top “Military Friendly Employer” in the transportation industry for 2021 and ranked No. 7 overall by Viqtory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs magazine.

More than 17 percent of UP employees, or 6,300, are veterans and active-service military members. 

Reading & Northern Railroad yesterday announced it has hired Eric Peters as vice president of transportation and safety. He will succeed Thomas Cook, who will retire later this year.

Peters joins the railroad from Norfolk Southern Railway, where he's worked for the past 14 years. He joined the Class I as a management trainee and rose through the ranks, ultimately reaching the position of superintendent at the Harrisburg Division earlier this year.

Amtrak and Metra yesterday broke ground on a $29 million project to make accessibility and multimodal improvements to a shared rail station in Homewood, Illinois.

The project is underway on the west side of tracks owned by Metra and CN. Amtrak has begun to replace the station stairway and install a ramp to allow Amtrak and Metra riders to access the tunnel under the tracks which leads to the train platforms. 

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.

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.

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.