House Resolution [H.R.} 233, the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009, currently being considered by Congress, would damage the public interest and severely distort the relationship between regulation and antitrust laws, the Association of American Railroads said Tuesday.
Ontario provincial leaders have introduced legislation to merge GO Transit, the transit system serving metropolitan Toronto, with Metrolinx, the regional planning agency charged with growing public transit in the Greater Toronto Area.
The St. Paul, Minn., City Council Wednesday approved the proposed $914 million, 11-mile Central Corridor light rail line linking downtown St. Paul with Minneapolis and the existing Hiawatha Line LRT. The approval makes it more likely that the project will remain on schedule and also receive federal funding.
Federal funds may provide the fiscal spark for a streetcar line in Milwaukee denied the city by state and county planners. Wisconsin U.S. Senators Herb Kohl and David Obey, both Democrats, inserted language in the recently passed $410 billion federal omnibus spending bill identifying $91.5 million for Milwaukee, with roughly $55 million (60%) of that targeted for launching a streetcar project.
If the New York State Senate continues to balk at a plan to help the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority close a looming $1.2 billion budget gap, the agency’s millions of daily rail, subway, and bus riders face fare increases averaging 23% and deep cuts in service.
Three years after an initial construction attempt was aborted, the 1.3-mile Anacostia streetcar line in southeastern Washington, D.C., is nearing a construction start, according to the District Department of Transportation.
Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority voted March 12 to contribute $9 million to help build M1-Rail, a proposed $120 million, 3.4-mile streetcar route for Downtown Detroit that has incorporated details from two separate streetcar proposals.
Canadian efforts to build momentum for high speed rail, particularly between Montreal and Toronto, will be the focus of a second HSR symposium April 25, at the University of Toronto’s Bahen Center in Canada’s largest city.
U.S. freight traffic completed the first week of March with an estimated volume of 29.2 billion ton-miles, off 13.9% from the comparable first week of March 2008, the Association of American Railroads reported. U.S. carload freight declined 15.0% for the week ended March 7 compared with the comparable period of one year ago, slipping 11.9% in the West and 19.5% in the East. U.S. intermodal volume declined 12.7% compared with year-ago levels.
Virginia’s Arlington County, west of Washington, D.C., is set to commit $3 million for environmental planning and preliminary design of the Columbia Pike Streetcar, expected to cost $120 million. The county board is expected to approve the measure.
