Efforts to establish streetcar or light rail service in Wisconsin’s largest city, stymied for years by state and county opposition, got a boost Thursday when a Milwaukee study committee, in a 3-1 vote, approved preliminary engineering on a $95.8 million streetcar for downtown.
Texas’ state capital joined the ranks of U.S. cities with rail service Monday as Austin’s oft-delayed 32-mile Capital Metro Red Line opened for service. An observer on the first train reported approximately 40 “real” people (other than dignitaries and media) boarding the morning’s first train out of Leander, Tex., bound for Austin.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle Tuesday announced that Talgo, Inc. (the U.S. subsidiary of Patentes Talgo, S.A.) will locate a U.S. “high speed” rail manufacturing and assembly facility in Milwaukee. Talgo, Inc. will acquire the former Tower Automotive site in the state’s largest city.
Light rail transit proponents in metropolitan Los Angeles Thursday notched a victory when the Expo Construction Authority approved Phase II of the Expo Line; the second phase, a 7-mile, $1.5 billion addition, would extend the line from Culver City to Santa Monica, Calif. Phase I is currently under construction, linking Culver City with downtown Los Angeles. The Expo Line roughly parallels Interstate 10.
Madrid-based CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, SA) says it is working to address problems involving loose bolts in Pittsburgh’s light rail vehicle fleet, operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County (Pennsylvania).
RailComm has successfully commissioned a Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) system for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s diesel multiple-unit (DMU) rail service in Austin, Tex. The Track Warrant Control portion of the system was launched just 32 days from the signed Notice to Proceed.
The Federal Trade Commission has given Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. antitrust approval for its planned takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.,operator of BNSF Railway. The approval, which was expected, appeared Mondayin a list of antitrust clearances routinely issued by the FTC.
Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax counties, outside Washington, D.C., have pursued the Columbia Pike Streetcar plan, a five-mile route expand rail passenger service from Washington Metro’s Pentagon City Station to Bailey’s Crossroads.
Metrolinx and the Toronto Transit Commission are reaching out to the private sector for possible design-build-finance approaches to advance three rail projects. TTC would operate and maintain the new lines, eschewing half of the “DBOM” (design-build-operate-maintain) approach, but the agency duo still seeks to employ a private-public partnership to expedite construction.
Siemens Transportation Systems has delivered the first two of nine light rail transit cars to Hampton Roads Transit, as the agency prepares to launch “The Tide” light rail service along its 7.4-mile starter line in Norfolk, Va., roughly one year from now.