The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in consultation with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), issued on June 19 a final rule authorizing the bulk transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail.
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced plans to invest $906 million in America’s infrastructure through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program. The proposed funding will be awarded to 20 projects in 20 states, and of those 20 projects, four are direct rail or rail-served projects totaling $112.05 million, or 12.3% of total funds. The remaining 16 projects are all highway-related.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced approximately 15.5 million cloth facial coverings will be sent to the transportation workforce.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently announced a new pilot program, the Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Financing Express (RRIF Express), to expedite long-term, low-cost loans for short line and regional freight railroads.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), announced that it is publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The proposed rule will seek comment on changes to the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to authorize the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail in the DOT-113 specification tank cars.
The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced that the Short Line Safety Institute’s (SLSI) program, Safety Culture Assessment (SCA), was named “the most comprehensive or robust approach in the U.S. railroad industry” in evaluating safety culture.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has partnered with five railroads with operations in the state—Norfolk Southern, Georgia Northeastern Railroad, Georgia Southern Railway, Ogeechee Railroad Co. and St. Mary’s Railway West—to add “Stop” or “Yield” signs at nearly 600 crossings that do not have automatic warning devices.
Industry watchers greeted the news of the recent BNSF derailment in Doon, Iowa, as typical ho-hum news. 32 tank railcars hauling crude derailed on a stretch of track that had been compromised by floodwaters. Several of the cars were ruptured and there was a crude spill. Emergency services (BNSF and others) were able to contain the size of the spill, and residents of the area were evacuated as a precaution. Luckily for all parties involved, there was no conflagration whatsoever as a result of the derailment.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is hosting an online dialogue among stakeholders aimed at defining what a federal project is in an effort to improve delivery of federally funded projects.
Forty-five years of Gem State safety effort is reaffirmed by crew members and state troopers climbing aboard a pair of Union Pacific locomotives at Coeur d’Alene Junction, Idaho, on the morning of Sept. 13, 2017.
