Leonardo joins RECo
Colleen Leonardo has joined Railway Equipment Company (RECo) as Northern Regional Sales Manager, with responsibility for customers in the company’s Northern service regions. She will be based in Tottenham, Ontario, Canada.
C&S
The march to one-person crews continues …
If one looks at recent developments, the Federal Railroad Administration’s withdrawal of the two-person-crew-minimum NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), it may seem “logical” to say the march toward one-person crews is accelerating. However, that may be an illusion.
CRRC unveils SigThemis ETCS solution
CRRC presented its SigThemis ETCS solution at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm on June 10.
NYCT to test underground GPS
IRJ at Wheel Detection Forum 2019, Vienna: New York City Transit (NYCT) has awarded Syntony Corp. a contract for the trial deployment of its SubWave underground GPS technology on the city’s subway network.
FRA reports “significant progress” on PTC
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) First Quarter 2019 Positive Train Control Progress Report shows “significant progress” toward full implementation on required rights-of-way, which must be completed by Dec. 31, 2020.
WSDOT to retire Talgo trainsets
In the wake of the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the 2017 Amtrak Cascades train 501 wreck on the Point Defiance bypass near DuPont, Wash., that killed three and injured 57, WSDOT (Washington State DOT) said it “will work with Amtrak to follow the NTSB recommendation to remove the [Cascades service] Talgo Series 6 trainsets from service as soon as possible.”
FRA cancels crew-size NPRM
Citing that “no regulation of train crew staffing is necessary or appropriate for railroad operations to be conducted safely at this time,” the Federal Railroad Administration on May 23 cancelled its April 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to mandate a minimum of two crew members on every freight train. Additionally, FRA is preempting—under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which gives the federal government dominion over interstate commerce—all state laws mandating crew size within state borders.
Rail labor may rue its crew-size strategy
News item: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced May 23 that it is cancelling an April 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to mandate a minimum of two crewmembers on every freight train. Additionally, the agency is preempting, as it may under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution giving the federal government dominion over interstate commerce, all state laws mandating crew size within state borders.
New from Bentley for transit: OpenBuildings Station Designer
Bentley Systems Inc. has released OpenBuildings Station Designer, described as “a new multidisciplinary application for the design, analysis, visualization, and simulation of new or operating rail, metro or other transit stations. Advancing beyond generic BIM (Building Information Modeling) applications, OpenBuildings Station Designer was developed specifically for rail and transit station modeling, with asset-specific content and workflows. It streamlines and automates design collaboration design between architectural, mechanical, electrical and structural disciplines sharing modeling, clash resolution and documentation capabilities.”
Metro-North touts its performance, Way Ahead plan
MTA Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi announced that Metro-North’s Way Ahead plan has been a boon with regards to safety, service, infrastructure and customer communication, and has even helped the company’s on-time performance exceed expectations.