The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Board of Directors and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Fiscal Management and Control Board voted June 18 to approve the five-year $18.3 billion MassDOT and MBTA Capital Investment Plan (CIP) for Fiscal Years 2020-2024.
Around 1900, sharp operators in New York City would fleece tourists by offering to sell them the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge, which still impresses and inspires New Yorkers and visitors today, was a marvel of its age and towered over everything else on the Manhattan or Brooklyn sides of the East River when it opened for service in 1883. Today, there are still people who have a bridge to sell us; two bridges, in fact. They want transit riders and taxpayers in New York and New Jersey to spend more than $3 billion to replace one bridge with two. They also say that replacing a two-track bridge with another two-track bridge will expand capacity sufficiently to qualify for a grant program established specifically for that purpose.
WATCHING WASHINGTON, JUNE 2019 – Here we go again with Amtrak. While complaining that host freight railroads unreasonably impair its legal right to passenger-train priority handling, Amtrak is employing thug-like tactics to escape federal law and extract greater rents and other concessions from commuter-train operators utilizing Amtrak infrastructure including track and stations.
HNTB Corp. recently announced that Roger Prince has joined the team as Project Director and Associate Vice President of the firm’s program management and construction management practice. He’ll be based in HNTB’s New York City office in the Empire State Building.
Bombardier Transportation recently announced that it is opening a rail car assembly site in Pittsburg, Calif.
German Rail (DB) has begun testing a Socio Empathic Human-Machine Interaction (Semmi) customer service robot that, using artificial intelligence (AI), is able to answer customer queries.
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.
HNTB Corp. recently announced that Chris Price, P.E., has been named President of the firm’s Central Division.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) recently announced the appointment of David Schulze as Chief of Staff.
RAILWAY AGE AT THE ALSTOM MANUFACTURING FACILITY, HORNELL, N.Y., JUNE 12, 2019: Alstom Transportation is building the next generation of high-speed trainsets for Amtrak‘s Northeast Corridor Acela Express service. The new equipment is scheduled to enter service sometime in 2021 between Washington, D.C. and Boston.
