Both U.S. freight carload traffic and U.S. intermodal volume declined for the week ending Dec. 29, 2012—essentially the end of the year—the Association of American Railroads said Thursday.
AECOM Technology Corp. Thursday said, as part of a joint venture, it has been chosen by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to provide advanced preliminary design services for extending Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) Green Line light rail service. The contract is worth $43.3 million.
Among the changes (and status quo) perpetuated by Congress in its Jan. 2 budgetary decision making, public transit users were offered a plus: the rise in pretax federal transit benefits to $240 per month, up from $125 in 2012.
PATH trains linking Newark, N.J., and the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan will resume running on the weekends, beginning this weekend, Jan. 5-6, continuing an on-again, off-again pattern in place since the system was crippled by Hurricane Sandy. Operating hours on the weekends will be from 5:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.
In a report posted Dec. 31, the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety Analysis described strong safety gains in freight train operations in the first 10 months of 2012.
Amtrak begins the new year by formally planning to request revisions to Federal Railroad Administration safety standards to facilitate lighter-weight high speed rail equipment, a move U.S. rail advocates have sought for at least two decades.
