Rail freight sees first decline in months
After a mostly steady climb through this year, rail freight volumes on Class I railroads are on a downgrade, and uncertainty in 2019 is looming like a blind curve in the dark.
Breaking News
New York subway to upgrade R142 fleet
On the same day New York City dunned ride-hailing services to help pay for subway upgrades, the MTA New York City Transit announced plans to modernize its fleet of R142 cars.
AAR urges USDOT on “mode-neutral” guidelines for automation
The trade association of U.S. freight railroads this week urged the federal government to take a balanced approach to automation as a way to a safer, more efficient and more productive industry in the coming years.
Ontario transit update: Hamilton LRT, GO extension, Bombardier LRV assembly
Design and planning work continues on Hamilton’s 10-mile (14-kilometer) LRT line, despite ongoing political uncertainty over the project’s future. Meanwhile, the planned and approved expansion of GO Train service to Grimsby, St. Catherines and Niagara Falls has experienced a recent potential setback. And on Oct. 30, the author, representing Railway Age, visited the Bombardier Transportation rail division plant at Millhaven, Ontario, located a short distance west of Kingston.
UP’s Knight “Best CFO” six years’ running
Institutional Investor, a publication covering the financial services industry since the 1980s, has named Union Pacific Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Rob Knight “Best CFO” for the sixth consecutive year in its 2019 All-America Executive Team list of airfreight and surface transportation companies.
TekTracking partners with Gioconda Rail
TekTracking LLC, a railway technology sales and product development firm, has formed a new partnership with Gioconda Rail.
Growing Alaska’s Gold Rush railroad
Ever since the first rail was laid in 1898 to lift Gold Rush Stampeders over the jagged mountains of the Alaska Panhandle to Canada’s Klondike, the tenuous but irrepressible White Pass & Yukon Route has been rescued from peril by a succession of improbable saviors, one of them the United States Army.
LTK elevates four
LTK Engineering Services has promoted four staff members to senior-level positions, three of them with new regional responsibilities.
Light rail project off; Vancouver SkyTrain funded
The Translink Mayors’ council, which oversees Metro Vancouver’s public transport operator, has voted to suspend the C$1.65 billion ($1.2 billion) development of a light rail network in Surrey, the second-largest city in British Columbia.
Orange County streetcar breaks ground as FTA signs for funding
Construction began Nov. 30 on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s 4.1-mile streetcar project in Santa Ana, the same day the project was fully funded.