Fulfilling an option it has steadfastly maintained as an option, the University of Minnesota Tuesday filed suit against regional planning agency Metropolitan Council to protect what it says is delicate scientific research equipment from vibrations or electromagnetic interference feared from the 11-mile Central Corridor light rail line in St. Paul.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’Transportation Policy Board, a regional transportation board, Wednesdayapproved plans to help fund CSX efforts to expand and improve freight capacity in the district, Maryland, and Virginia.
Los Angeles’s 8.6-mile, $862 million Expo light rail line connecting downtown and Culver City could face construction delays pushing the project’s completion date back by as little as six weeks, or up to a year. The line originally was to open next summer; an estimate provided to the Expo Line Construction Authority Board pegged the delay at 50 weeks.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., officials, racing to comply with a September 15 deadline set by the U.S. Department of Transportation, are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a motion to seek federal stimulus funding for the city’s $124.3 million, 2.7-mile light rail project.
Five Amtrak routes have been added to Google Transit, Google’s public transportation trip planning function, for trip planning, Amtrak and Google have announced. The routes include: Empire Service (New York-Albany-Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.); Ethan Allen Express (New York-Albany-Rutland, Vt.); Hiawatha Service trains (Chicago – Milwaukee); Pacific Surfliner Service (San Diego-Los Angeles-Santa Barbara-San Luis Obispo, Calif.); and San Joaquin service (Oakland-Sacramento-Fresno-Bakersfield, Calif.).
Light rail riders throughout Portland’s TriMet system last weekend began boarding the agency’s new Type 4 cars, built by SiemensTransportation Systems, Inc., as the agency put the first of 22 Type 4s into revenue service.
Communities lining Ontario’s North Shore are racing to beat an Aug. 15 deadline to preserve freight rail service on the Huron Central Railway, linking Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. A committee formed
Responding to a July 10 New York Times article by Elisabeth Rosenthal entitled “Buses May Aid Climate Battle in Poor Cities,” Lyndon Henry, a data analyst for Austin, Tex.’s Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also a technical consultant with Light Rail Now!, wrote the following. As of July 13, the Times had not yet published the response.
New Jersey Transit Wednesday said it will debut rail service between Hoboken Terminaland Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., via Secaucus Junction, beginningSunday, July 26, when the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final title soccer match isscheduled.
Flouting traditional routes taken by most state departments of transportation, Maryland transportation officials are emphasizing financing the proposed 16-mile Purple Line light rail project, traversing the northern Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., while demoting two “major” road projects in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
