One of our society’s current mantras is to “Follow the Science.” Unfortunately, this oft-repeated phrase cannot distinguish between science and myth, so one may not always be perfectly clear about the causes,
RAILWAY AGE, NOVEMBER 2023 ISSUE: Why New Jersey Transit’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) is a DBOM (Design-Build-Operate-Maintain) model deployment.
With Bridget Hodgson, President, BRT Services: During late 2015, Amtrak conducted Vehicle Track Interaction (VTI) testing over a number of selected test sites in New England and New Jersey. This testing constituted a portion of the “safety case” required of Amtrak by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for certification to raise the maximum authorized speed for high-speed trainsets (on a limited number of segments) to 160 mph.
In April 2016, New Jersey Transit’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) celebrates its 16th anniversary of operation. HBLR was the first successful DBOM (Design/Build/Operate/Maintain) deployment of a transit system in the modern era (post-World War II) and represents a throwback to when public-private partnerships were commonly utilized to build and operate railways.
In this series published in Railway Age‘s September, October and November 2015 issues, Contributing Editor Alfred E. Fazio examines the possibilities and engineering requirements for high- or higher-speed rail in the U.S., with emphasis on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, including an improvement project in New Jersey.
PART I: Defining and Expanding High Speed. Considering the future of the NEC helps answer the question: What are the factors governing the expansion of high-speed rail on other railroads?
