For TEXRail and Amy Anderson, a First
Amy Anderson, who started her rail transit career on Trinity Metro’s TEXRail system as a conductor, is now the agency’s first woman engineer, operating Stadler FLIRT diesel-electric multiple units.
Amy Anderson, who started her rail transit career on Trinity Metro’s TEXRail system as a conductor, is now the agency’s first woman engineer, operating Stadler FLIRT diesel-electric multiple units.
U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Nov. 13, 2021 continued to suffer, as a near-10% drop in intermodal loadings canceled out a small carload gain, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported Nov. 17.
Four MTA New York City Transit R110A New Technology Train subway cars, originally built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in 1992 and retired in 1998, are finding new life as two-car pump trains to be used for flooding mitigation in NYCT’s subway system, through a contract awarded to Brookville Equipment Corporation.
Delivery is under way for Stadler’s second U.S.-manufactured order, three low-floor FLIRT DMU (diesel multiple-unit) trainsets for San Bernardino County Transit Authority (SBCTA). The first unit is out for delivery from Stadler’s Salt Lake City, Utah manufacturing facility. This order follows DMUs built for Trinity Metro’s Texrail line in Fort Worth, Tex., in 2019.
CSX President and CEO Jim Foote on Nov. 2 responded to Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman’s Oct. 18 request for information about service problems, as evidenced by what STB characterized as numerous customer complaints. “Your letter referenced anecdotal service incidents, service metrics and employee figures,” Foote replied. He then went on to provide “an update on the current state of CSX’s network and our plans looking ahead to meet our customer’s needs.”
At the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.-based rolling stock and battery technology manufacturer Vivarail operated the very first electric train across the iconic Firth of Forth bridge, and hosted His Royal Highness, Prince Charles.
Fairport, N.Y.-based railroad asset monitoring, control and management technology development company TekTracking LLC has installed a second Commander Terminal Automation (CTA) system on a Canadian Class I.
Fullerton, Calif.-based technology company Rail Propulsion Systems LLC (RPS), partnering with the North Carolina DOT, the North Carolina State Clean Tech Center and the Federal Highway Administration, has demonstrated what it’s describing as “the first diesel passenger locomotive in the United States with combined in-use emissions lower than the current EPA Tier 4 standard.”
On Nov. 8, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would suspend the transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail “until more research and testing can be done to ensure the safety of moving this commodity by rail.” The NPRM would presumably negate a Final Rule issued in 2019.
Following sometimes contentious negotiations arbitrated by the Federal Transit Administration, the three states touching the New York Metropolitan area—New York, New Jersey and Connecticut—finally agreed on how to allocate $13.98 billion in Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSAA) and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the New York MTA, NJ Transit and Connecticut DOT.