Extreme cold doesn’t have to have an extreme effect on railroad operations and maintenance. As published in the August 2018 issue of Railway Age, following are several examples of how the supply industry has warmed up to the task.
It’s going to take a while for New Jersey Transit to dig itself out of the oversize trench that oversize-ego, oversize-mouthed “Bridgegate” Chris Christie gleefully dug for it during his eight interminably long, interminably loud and intrinsically corrupt years as governor of the Garden State. Meanwhile, NJT customers are enduring the effects of Christie’s transportation starvation diet—a locomotive engineer shortage, cancelled commuter trains, and a PTC implementation program that’s behind schedule.
New Jersey Transit, the nation’s third-largest public transportation agency, on Aug. 8 adopted a Fiscal Year 2019 budget consisting of $2.32 billion in operating expenditures and a $1.46 billion capital program. The budget, which NJT stressed does not include any fare increases, “supports continued investments in personnel, infrastructure and equipment to maintain the system in a state-of-good-repair and enhance the overall customer experience.”
BNSF Railway realized significant gains in operating income and revenue in this year’s second quarter and first half, attributable to volume increases in most commodities, tight truck capacity leading to highway-to-rail conversions, pricing and other factors.
Nathan Neblett has been named chief executive of CTC, Inc., the communications and signal systems services subsidiary of Rio Grande Pacific Corp.
Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Director of Rail Transit and PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) General Manager Michael Marino is scheduled to retire in January 2019 after a distinguished 45-year railroad industry career. The Port Authority has launched a nationwide executive search for a replacement.
Siemen’s’ Mobility division will be transferred into a legally separate company owned by Siemens in anticipation of its merger with Alstom, as part of a Siemens’ company-wide restructuring announced on August 1.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has approved Railroad Software’s TrackAsset application for electronic capture of signal inspections, as outlined in FRA 49 CFR §§ 234.273 and 236.110. TrackAsset “provides visibility for signal maintainers and maintenance-of-way employees to easily track upcoming inspections and generate work orders to complete them,” the company says.
nVent Electric PLC, (nVent) a new corporation that recently separated from Pentair as an independent, publicly-traded company (NYSE: NVT), offers the industry several well-known brands that are now part of the nVent railway portfolio.
Rajant Corp., a provider of mobile wireless mesh networks, has entered into a strategic partnership with Wabtec Corp. to jointly develop and market Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh® wireless networking products to rail operators worldwide. Wabtec has made a minority equity investment in Rajant.
