Clark Testing Opens Propulsion Dynamic Lab
Clark Testing recently announced the opening of its Propulsion Dynamic Lab (PDL), which is aimed at supporting the heavy and light rail industry.
Breaking News
Shippers’ Lot Is Not a Happy One
By age 10, two lessons should be learned—no ketchup on hot dogs, and government does not move at the speed of for-profit business.
Amtrak Reveals Acela, Long-Distance Train Upgrades
Amtrak recently announced new amenities to its Acela Nonstop trains, as well as upgrades to its long-distance trains.
Sponsored Content
TrinityRail®: Hourglass™, TrinFlo™ the New Shape of Railcars
North America’s premier provider of railcar products and services, TrinityRail, is bringing two new railcars to exhibit at Railway Interchange 2019: the Hourglass™ and the TrinFlo™.
Visualize, Allocate, Execute, Report
RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2019 ISSUE – Using Big Data, algorithms and IoT tools to manage locomotive assets: Freight volumes on North American railroads have been showing reductions on monthly year-on-year comparisons throughout 2019. The AAR reported that in the first half the year, cumulative volume was down 3.1% from the same point last year and intermodal units were down 3.5% from last year. While this economic situation continues to play out, the railroads are in the midst of a revolution in the availability of massive amounts of data being produced and captured. Expanding sets of information flow into organizations daily from GPS systems, signaling, Positive Train Control (PTC), Internet of Things (IoT) sources and locomotive on-board event recorders.
CRRC MA Refuting “Protectionist Rhetoric”
CRRC MA Corp. on Sept. 12 released an infographic “outlining the U.S. supply chain for passenger trains being manufactured for America’s first transit system, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).” The infographic “reveals that all software and electronic components on CRRC MA railcars are Buy America compliant, provided by American suppliers, and installed by an American unionized workforce,” CRRC said in a press release.
LIRR Debuts M-9s
After roughly two years’ worth of delays, MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has taken the wraps off its new M-9 EMU (electric multiple-unit) commuter railcars. The first eight-car trainset departed Sept. 11 at 6:50 am from Huntington.
ASLRRA Unveils PTC CI-BOS Designed for Short Lines
The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) has unveiled a complete back-office Positive Train Control (PTC)-hosted solution designed with short lines in mind, provided by Herzog Technologies, Inc.
Transit Oriented Development – Chicago
RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2019 ISSUE – Effectively leveraging rail infrastructure: Dynamic, walkable, higher-density urban neighborhoods in proximity to transit can improve quality of life. Here’s how it’s done in the Windy City.
U.S. Rail Traffic Still Falling As Fall Approaches
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ended September 7, 2019, and, for this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 469,285 carloads and intermodal units, down 6.6% compared with the same week last year.
Patrick Tabbed as LRW President
The League of Railway Women (LRW) recently announced its new board of directors for the 2019-2021 term, with Amanda Trainor Patrick and Sarah Yurasko serving as President and Vice President, respectively.
Opinion
NJT Hoboken 2016, the Final 39 Seconds
The news of the day the other day read “Train Engineer in Fatal 2016 Hoboken Train Crash Wins Back Job with NJT.” The locomotive engineer, Thomas Gallagher, had been dismissed after over-running the end of Track 5 in Hoboken Terminal. The resulting collision damaged the supports for the train shed roof. A woman not on the train but walking on a platform was killed as she was struck by the collapsing structure.
Lesson Learned? Perhaps, But Too Late For Some
A recently issued arbitration decision directs New Jersey Transit (NJT) to re-employ Thomas Gallagher, the locomotive engineer who in 2016 ran an NJT commuter train into a bumping post and onto the platform at Hoboken Terminal. While the arbitrator found that the engineer “… bore some responsibility for the crash,” she also found that, “… NJ Transit had failed to follow its own procedures for screening engineers in his case.”
Shippers’ Lot Is Not a Happy One
By age 10, two lessons should be learned—no ketchup on hot dogs, and government does not move at the speed of for-profit business.
Rail Safety, Skateboards and Google
FINANCIAL EDGE, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2019 ISSUE: On Aug. 14, the ESPN show ¿Highly Questionable? showed a video clip of a skateboarder sliding underneath a moving passenger locomotive, riding the rail on the skateboard and then sliding back out from underneath the train before the second wheelset (1). (The clip can be seen starting at about 16:30 into the video.) The hosts were suitably shocked and aghast over the audacity of the act of sliding underneath a locomotive and unsurprisingly thoughtless about the carelessness of the rider.
Wall Street Darlings or Revenue Inadequate?
RAILWAY AGE, WATCHING WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 2019 – Although a purchase is said to be worth precisely what a buyer agrees to pay, not all buyers possess equivalent market power as sellers. United Parcel Service (UPS), for example, may choose between truck and rail. But where freight cannot efficiently move by truck, shippers wishing to remain in business typically pay higher freight rates than if they had effective alternatives to rail.