As the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) gets set to roll out the next generation of light rail vehicles (LRVs) for service on the UC San Diego Blue Line on April 20, MTS officials recently unveiled the first car of the new LRV series during a “Trolley Open House.”
STV, Inc. has elevated Senior Director Corporate Communications Jill Bonamusa to vice president.
Continuing on the heels of last week’s trend, three of the 10 carload commodity groups posted a year-over-year increase—and total carloads were slightly up—but all other traffic declined, according to figures released on April 17 by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) for the week ended April 13.
A. Stucki Company has named Sagar Sumant as Global Director of SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) to lead the company’s new SAP Global Center of Excellence.
RAILWAY AGE, APRIL 2019 ISSUE – On the West Coast, California is doing something different in Transit-Oriented Development.
LEGISLATIVE REPORT, APRIL 2019 – Knock, knock. Who’s there? If at the door are those laboring in official Washington, the answer is, “many new faces”—new congressional committee chairs, regulators, association chiefs, lobbyists and labor negotiators. Does not danger dwell where unfamiliarity and uncertainty lurk?
The Louisville & Indiana Railroad (LIRC) and the Rapid City Pierre & Eastern accepted Railway Age’s annual Short Line & Regional Railroads of the Year Awards at the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) CONNECTIONS Convention in Orlando, Fla., on April 9.
Canada’s Province of Ontario government on March 28 agreed to release funding to complete property acquisitions for Hamilton’s planned light rail transit system, following a freeze implemented in 2018. The halt to property acquisitions had been made, allegedly, as part of Ontario’s efforts to reduce a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit.
HNTB Corp. announced April 8 that Alexa Gangemi, P.M.P., has joined the infrastructure firm as a Transit/Rail Senior Project Manager and Associate Vice President, based in the company’s New York City offices.
Quandel Consultants announced on April 15 that Peter Windschmitt has joined the national rail and transit firm as Director of Railroad Operations.
WATCHING WASHINGTON, APRIL 2019 – Stanley found Livingstone faster than vacancies on the five-member Surface Transportation Board (STB) have been filled, with two remaining more than three years after Congress increased from three the number of Senate-confirmed seats.
PERSPECTIVE: SHORT LINE & REGIONAL, APRIL 2019 – “Once upon a time”: Four words that begin some of the most enduring and beloved stories in Western Literature. They are enduring because they have been read over and over again by every generation, and because the hero overcomes obstacles to end up in a good place, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Railroads are a critical component of America’s transportation infrastructure, and have been making significant investments in advanced networked computer control systems and information technologies. This has enabled the employment of new capabilities such as “Positive Train Control and “Precision Railroading” with increased operational efficiencies and improvements in safety. However, the introduction of these new technologies also results in increased organizational and system vulnerabilities to disruption arising from cyberattacks .
Somewhat buried in history is that today’s railroad map is a product of behind-the-scenes actions by former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Frederick (Fritz) Hollings (D-S.C.), who died April 6 at age 97. He was Commerce Committee Chairman 1987-1995 and 2001-2003, during years Democrats controlled the Senate. He left office in 2005.
Anyone connected with the series of passenger rail projects in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area known collectively as Gateway will claim that their eventual completion is inevitable, much like former California Gov. Jerry Brown claimed that completion of the virtually defunct California High-Speed Rail Project was inevitable, or how anti-rail activists like Randal O’Toole claim that the impending demise of passenger trains and rail transit is inevitable. Yet, circumstances have changed in recent years, and new discoveries have led some advocates in the region to doubt the cost-effectiveness, and even the feasibility, of building Gateway as currently proposed.
