Railroad News

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection awarded Smiths Detection a contract to provide its HCVT X-ray scanners for use at U.S. railway checkpoints at both the northern and southern borders. The HCVT is a side-view, high-energy X-ray inspection scanner designed to screen moving rail cars for dangerous or illegal cargo. The initial order value is $13.5 million with initial deliveries planned for 2021. The contract allows for multiple orders up to $379 million over five years. The contract also includes an option for service over a 10-year period.

Rail Vision Ltd. signed a commercial agreement with an affiliate of Knorr-Bremse AG to supply Rail Vision’s Assisted Remote Shunting (ARS) systems to a European train operator. Rail Vision will deliver its ARS prototype system in October. The train operator then has the option to place an order for 30 ARS systems valued up to $3.3 million, or purchase an additional 45 ARS systems valued at about $4.1 million.

Officials from Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and Cary, Illinois, late last month began creating a strategic plan to encourage private investment near the city's Metra commuter-rail station. 

The plan will identify strategies for future transit-oriented land uses and infrastructure improvements near the station in downtown Cary.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) late last month awarded the Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) a $687,000 Accelerating Innovative Mobility (AIM) challenge grant to develop a multimodal trip planning and payment integration feature in the Transit mobile application. 

The grant will allow RTD and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to work with mobile ticketing provider Masabi and Transit to create an app feature that will allow riders to purchase both rail and bus tickets, book microtransit service options, pay for electric scooter trips and create a multimodal itinerary. 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) recently issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a landscape architecture or engineering design firm to advance Flushing Bay promenade improvements as part of the proposed AirTrain LGA project and $8 billion LaGuardia Airport redevelopment plan.

The authority plans to build AirTrain LGA to provide millions of air travelers a reliable, 30-minute trip from midtown Manhattan to the airport, with connection through a new Willets Point station. PANYNJ’s preferred alternative calls for building two airport stations and connecting the AirTrain to MTA Long Island Rail Road and MTA New York City Transit lines.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) last week released its first-ever National Freight Strategic Plan (NFSP), which lays out a vision for long-term investments in infrastructure and other essential parts of the nation’s freight system.

Required as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015, the NFSP identifies major trade gateways and national freight corridors that connect major population centers, trade gateways and other major freight generators. It also assesses and suggests ways to overcome statutory, regulatory, technological, institutional, financial and other barriers to improved freight transportation; outlines a process for addressing multistate projects; and forecasts freight volumes for the next five, 10 and 20 years.

Metrolink today reinstated two Ventura County Line trains as vehicle traffic in the San Fernando Valley and Venture County, California, returns to pre-pandemic levels. 

Ventura County Line trains 101 and 110 have been restored to serve stations connecting Los Angeles to Glendale, Burbank, Northridge, Van Nuys, Chatsworth, Simi Valley and Moorpark.

Amtrak last week announced plans to furlough 1,950 workers and cut 100 management positions due to contracted operations and pinched finances.

For several weeks, the railroad conducted a thorough review of its fiscal-year 2021 operating plan and planned service levels, which revealed reduced staffing needs for the next fiscal year, Amtrak officials said in a prepared statement.

Joseph Alexander, an original member of Virginia Railway Express’ (VRE) operations board, a founding member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) and stanch passenger-rail supporter in Virginia, died Aug. 30. He was 90.

Alexander served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for 32 years and on the NVTC from its inception in 1964 until 1995, serving as chair from 1970 through 1972. He also represented NVTC on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) board for more than 20 years and was chairman four times.

Canada Transport Minister Marc Garneau earlier this week announced the publication of the final Locomotive Voice and Video Recorder Regulations in the Canada Gazette Part II.

The regulations specify the technical requirements for railroads to install the devices on their locomotives by Sept. 2, 2022.

Brightline and Miami-Dade County officials broke ground yesterday for Aventura Station, which will be built on three acres in Adventura, Florida.

To be constructed near Adventura Mall, the 17,500-square-foot station will include an 860-foot platform inside of Florida East Coast Railway/Brightline right of way. The site will include 240 parking spaces and newly landscaped areas.

Federal and state of Montana officials have proposed an agreement that would make BNSF Railway Co. responsible for maintaining and operating track that the railroad is accused of contaminating with asbestos.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Montana Department of Environmental Quality and BNSF proposed in a consent decree that the Class I would implement an operation and a maintenance plan, a health and safety plan and institutional controls to minimize risk to railroad workers and the surrounding community from low levels of asbestos within the Operable Unit 6 of the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site in Lincoln County, Montana.

Federal and state of Montana officials have proposed an agreement that would make BNSF Railway Co. responsible for maintaining and operating track that the railroad is accused of contaminating with asbestos.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Montana Department of Environmental Quality and BNSF proposed in a consent decree that the Class I would implement an operation and a maintenance plan, a health and safety plan and institutional controls to minimize risk to railroad workers and the surrounding community from low levels of asbestos within the Operable Unit 6 of the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site in Lincoln County, Montana.

The extensive environmental planning process for the Long Bridge project has concluded, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and District of Columbia Department of Transportation announced yesterday.

Owned and operated by CSX, Long Bridge is the only rail bridge connecting Virginia to the District of Columbia, and is one of the most significant passenger- and freight-rail choke points along the East Coast. Built in 1904, the two-track bridge is used by CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway — which retains trackage rights on the bridge and connecting CSX track — as well as Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express (VRE).

Metrolink has achieved a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA).

The association honored the Los Angeles-area commuter railroad for its annual financial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019. The report met the highest standards of the program by demonstrating full disclosure and motivating potential riders and user groups to read the document, according to the GFOA.

Sound Transit officials and local public artists have condemned acts of vandalism on Aug. 20 that caused damage to many of the 35 temporary public art murals displayed at the construction site of a future Federal Way light-rail extension station.

Since the slashed murals include numerous depictions of people of color, the damage is suspected to have been motivated by racism, Sound Transit officials said in a press release.