The Emery Rail Heritage Trust has awarded $60,000 in grants to Friends of the 261 and the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (FWRHS) to fund Positive Train Control (PTC) on two historic steam locomotives: Milwaukee Road 261 and Nickel Plate Road 765. Each organization will receive $30,000 to launch individual fundraising efforts to cover the estimated $120,000 cost per locomotive for PTC implementation.
Lyft has been named the exclusive rideshare partner of Brightline. The partnership is the first-of-its-kind for Lyft in Florida and will launch Saturday, May 19, to coincide with the start of Brightline service to Miami.
A Midwest short line thinks a drone’s-eye view will give potential rail shippers a fresh perspective on real estate development.
WSP USA has promoted Maxine Hill to New York City area manager for transportation and infrastructure.
Canada has committed C$1.53 billion ($1.19 billion) in funding for Calgary’s Green Line Light-Rail Project, the largest-ever infrastructure investment made by Ottawa to the province of Alberta.
Los Angeles-area transit and rail freight transportation projects just got a generous public funding boost.
Machine vision technology will help CN keep an eye on its network of steel machinery.
Union Pacific announced that Clark Ponthier has been appointed senior vice president-Supply Chain and Continuous Improvement, effective May 29.
Vincent Gallagher, PE, joined HNTB Corp. as senior program manager in the firm’s national program management and construction management practice for transit and rail, and senior vice president.
Sand, coal and chemicals topped rail shipments for the week of May 12, while intermodal traffic outdistanced carloads again.
“Amtrak must be redefined” begs an immediate response, not just because of the attack on the stewards of Amtrak’s operation over the years, but due to a plethora of allegations lacking factual support.
Freight railroads don’t prosper because shippers have affection for them. Instead, railroads profit when their services are economically relevant. When freight services net customers fewer benefits than the prices railroads need to charge, the customers disappear and, soon, so do the services. These outcomes are not unique to railroads. They hold for all profit-motivated commerce.
Regarding Joe Boardman’s May 10 Opinion piece, the former CEO of Amtrak is railing against a situation he actually created. His actions left Amtrak in disrepair after eight years at the throttle.
Why doesn’t the United States have a big, fast, modern passenger rail system? Many passenger rail advocates claim it’s because passenger rail has enemies: The highway lobby. The auto industry. Big oil. The airlines. They don’t want trains because a successful passenger train system would damage their businesses.
Joe Boardman was not my favorite person during most of his time as Amtrak President. When Boardman left Amtrak, friends wisely persuaded me to let it go. After he was gone, I said nothing negative about him. However, no one said not to praise him if he did something right. I did not expect that to happen.
