A Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PA) executive on Tuesday said a contract for the first phase of expanding New York’s Pennsylvania Station, targeted to cost $270 million, would be awarded Wednesday.
Confirming what many have suspected, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota on Tuesday acknowledged that the agency’s East Side Access Project likely would not be completed until 2019, due to unexpected construction difficulties.
Railroads with the industry’s best safety performance records Tuesday were honored at the annual E.H. Harriman Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., with the event also marking the industry’s nearly 100 year commitment to safety and innovation with the Centennial Award.
The Surface Transportation Board Tuesday officially cleared the way for Michigan’s Department of Transportation to acquire two sections of rail right-of-way from Norfolk Southern Corp., totaling about 135 miles, for eventual upgrading to 110 mph passenger rail speeds.
Whatever woes coal volumes are posing for North American railroads in 2012, domestic intermodal container traffic seems determined to offset them, at least in part. First-quarter domestic container volume moving by truck and train rose 14.9% measured against the comparable 2011 quarter, the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) reported Tuesday.
FreightCar America delivered 2,613 freight cars in the first quarter of 2012, compared with 875 in the first quarter of 2011 and 2,489 in the fourth quarter of 2011. New orders totaled 1,244 in the first quarter of 2012, compared with 4,027 in the first quarter of 2011 and 4,481 in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Fitch Ratings says it views “weak year-to-date rail volume trends as a reflection of fundamental shifts in demand patterns for key industrial commodities as domestic production of unconventional oil and gas resources continues to grow.”
Race report courtesy of Furniture Row Racing: Regan Smith was one of the early victims of an engine failure in the Sunday, May 6 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. Not soon after the 43-car field took the green flag to start the Aaron’s 499, Smith saw his day come to an end when smoke started to spew out of his no. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Farm American Chevrolet on Lap 15 of 188.
Berkshire Hathaway reported at its annual meeting that first-quarter earnings included $701 million from BNSF Railway compared with $607 million in the year-earlier quarter, as rising shipments of manufactured foods made up for diminished coal haulage.
Jean-Jacques Ruest, CN’s executive vice-president and chief marketing officer, has announced changes within CN’s senior marketing team that he says “will help us maintain our forward momentum and continue to build on our track record of operational and service excellence”. He said the changes are effective immediately.
Light rail transit’s success in Charlotte, N.C., is being eyed as a model for LRT in the Tar Heel State’s Research Triangle, encompassing Wake, Durham, and Orange counties.
Rail Logistics and Iowa Pacific Holdings on Monday jointly announced a partnership in which Rail Logistics will manage, operate, and market Iowa Pacific’s refrigerated railcar fleet. The venture began May 1.
It’s been a hard climb, but Austin’s relatively small MetroRail transit service—built and operated since March 2010 by Capital Metro—is finally starting to prove its worth.
The California High Speed Rail Authority has approved environmental impact studies for an initial segment of high speed rail from Merced to Fresno.
U.S. freight carload volume for the week ending April 28, 2012 fell 4.1% measured against the comparable week a year ago, continuing an ongoing trend for the year, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday. U.S. intermodal volume, however, continued its own yearly trend during the week, up 5.5% compared with the same week in 2011.
Norfolk Southern said Thursday it has added the Monongahela Railway to the legacy railroads that the company is honoring with its 30th anniversary heritage paint schemes, bringing to 20 the number of predecessor roads to be so recognized.
Skanska Koch, a division of Skanska USA Civil, said Wednesday it has been awarded a $10 million contract with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PA) to install more than 175 steel ribs along the North-South Concourse of the new World Trade Transportation Center Hub.
Furniture Row Racing/CSX Play It Safe Chevrolet driver Regan Smith is without a doubt thinking about repeating his 2011 win at Darlington on May 12, but right now he’s focusing on the May 6 restrictor-plate race at Talladega Superspeedway.
MTA New York City Transit on May 1 took delivery of the first of 28 new diesel-electric locomotives it is acquiring from Wabtec subsidiary MotivePower, Inc.
Economic Planning Associates has released its first-quarter 2012 report on the freight car market, and while there has been a decline in carbuilder backlogs, EPA has not measurably changed its forecast since its last report. EPA noted that “the railroads will continue to support demand for railcars.”
