Watching Washington, January 2019: Prominently on Harry Truman’s Oval Office desk was a sign, “The buck stops here.” Newly confirmed members of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) may wish to reflect on that acknowledgment of accountability as they wade through a troubling backlog of unfinished rulemakings—some disregarded for years.
Five nominations for rail transportation federal leadership posts were announced Jan. 16 by President Trump. All are nominees from the previous session of Congress, and were cleared by respective Senate oversight committees for confirmation on the Senate floor—but none advanced for a floor vote prior to the Senate adjourning.
Canadian Pacific President and CEO Keith Creel has lashed out at the Canadian Transportation Agency’s (CTA) investigation of possible freight rail service problems at the Port of Vancouver, calling the agency’s probe “far-reaching” and “irresponsible.”
Veteran transportation executive Sandy Bushue leads the new Washington D.C. office of national passenger and freight rail and rail transit firm Quandel Consultants. Bushue, the former Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, will identify national business development opportunities and also help the firm with strategic management initiatives.
A recent internal Transport Canada (TC) document warns of the safety risks posed by exhausted crew members on trains, even as Alberta pursues a plan to ratchet up already-booming shipments of crude by rail.
Wheeling & Lake Erie and Herzog completed brake testing and preparations for Positive Train Control functionality in revenue service by the end of 2018.
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), the research and testing organization of the Association of American Railroads, announced the promotion of Kari Gonzales to Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
UPDATE: “Knock, knock.” Seriously, if you’re awaiting a “Who’s there?” response from many railroad-important federal agencies, you ain’t gonna get one, because, quite literally, there’s nobody there.
The largest Canadian Class I railroad says it met its year-end deadline to install positive train control (PTC) equipment across its system, and is seeking a two-year extension “to complete deployment and interoperability.”
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Dec. 21 awarded $46.30 million in grant funding for 11 projects in 10 states to assist with deploying Positive Train Control (PTC) systems, marking the second selection of PTC systems deployment projects under the Fiscal Year 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act administered via the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program, collectively totaling $250 million.
