Rail employment rises for month and year
Total Class I railroad employment reached 162,443 in October, 1.37% higher than in October 2011 and a gain of 0.74% over September 2012.
Author: Douglas John Bowen
Fiscal juggling aids San Antonio streetcar plan
A funding plan tapping Texas state dollars in a fiscal swap will free $92 million for San Antonio’s proposed streetcar, being advanced by VIA Metropolitan Transit.
NCTD, Marines eye Coaster Camp Pendleton stop
Railway Age erroneously reported North County Transit District and the U.S. Marine Corps were advancing a plan to extend Sprinter diesel light railway transit (DLRT) service to Camp Pendleton, Calif. In fact, NCTD seeks to add a Coaster regional rail stop to serve the base.
FRA tackles workplace electronic device danger
Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo Friday joined senior railroad industry leaders and labor officials to launch a collaborative effort to educate and raise awareness among rail industry employees of the dangers of using electronic devices on the job.
Cargill loop track will tap CSX service
Cargill announced Friday that it is adding a loop track at its grain elevator in Tuscola, Ill., to gain access to CSX service and expand the market for local corn and soybeans to the Eastern/Southeast U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico.
Court denies motion against LA Expo LRT
California’s Supreme Court has denied a motion brought by a local neighborhood group to temporarily block construction of Los Angeles’ Expo Line light rail transit.
Cleveland Track Materials gets MTA NYCT work
Cleveland Track Material says it will deliver five guarded, tangential geometry , double crossovers with 39-41-foot track centers on low vibration concrete tie blocks for New York’s Second Avenue Subway and No. 7 Line subway extension projects, both in Manhattan.
NTSB adds PTC to its Most Wanted list
The National Transportation Safety Board’s annual “Ten Most Wanted” list of safety improvements is aimed at reducing the 35,000 annual transportation fatalities. While rail-related fatalities are a small fraction of that number, rail safety makes this year’s list, released Wednesday, with an entry on Positive Train Control.
CP reaches accord with electrical workers
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) System Council 11 and Canadian Pacific Thursday said the parties have reached a tentative five-year labor agreement covering approximately 450 employees who maintain and install railway signals and communications systems across Canada.
U.S. freight traffic trends resume familiar mix
U.S. freight rail traffic resumed its 2012 norm during the week ending Nov. 10, 2012—gains intermodal, declines in carload freight—the Association of American Railroads said Thursday. The resumption of a yearlong pattern followed a week where Hurricane Sandy impacted both freight carload and intermodal traffic volume.