With 16 months left until the Congressionally mandated Dec. 31, 2020 deadline for full implementation of PTC (Positive Train Control), the U.S. railroad industry is drawing close, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Second-Quarter 2019 PTC Progress Report.
After 44 years at the company, Trinity Industries, Inc. President and CEO Timothy R. Wallace has announced his retirement. Wallace has agreed to continue in his current roles “for as long as necessary to facilitate a smooth transition,” the company said. “The Trinity Board is initiating a search to identify Mr. Wallace’s successor and will consider both internal and external candidates.”
The U.S. Coast Guard on Sept. 5 issued a FONSI (Finding Of No Significant Impact) on BNSF’s plan to construct a new bridge across Sand Creek and Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, supplementing an existing structure and eliminating a bottleneck.
The Railway Supply Institute (RSI) sent a letter to Congress on Sept. 5 urging members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to preserve, in Conference, existing language in H.R.2500/S.1790, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, that would prevent federal funds from being used to award a contract or subcontract for the procurement of transit vehicles to priority enterprises owned, controlled, or subsidized by SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises) falling under three specific definitions.
Reporting on the Cowen and Company Global Transport Conference in Bosto, Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl and analysts Matt Elkott and Adam Kramer offer these observations taken from the conference’s railcar/locomotive builder and Class I railroad panels, with a large trucker and a logistics/LTL company added for deeper perspective:
Amtrak’s Acela Express, which replaced the iconic Metroliner service that helped define the Northeast Corridor for the better part of 30 years, is now approaching age 20 (kind of old for a train). The equipment, popular with customers but sort-of affectionately called “The Fast Pig” in railroading circles, will soon be replaced with new, lighter, sleeker and faster trainsets from Alstom.
The 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act (RSIA) required railroads that operate or host passenger trains (commuter/regional and intercity) to install Positive Train Control (PTC). The Commuter Rail Coalition (CRC) points out that, despite PTC requiring radio frequency spectrum for communication, “when commuter railroads needed to acquire spectrum, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) rebuffed requests to recognize the public safety mandate that required it, and told railroads to buy spectrum on the open market.”
In extremely cold weather, poor combustion sealing can cause diesel engine lube oil to get past piston rings in the power assemblies and pushed out the exhaust stack. Locomotive mechanical officers call the condition “souping.” It’s a messy environmental problem, with oil-coated carbodies that need to be cleaned, at high labor and disposal costs.
Norfolk Southern Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Cynthia “Cindy” Earhart is retiring after 34 years at the railroad, effective Nov. 1. Her replacement is Mark George, who comes to NS from United Technologies Corp.
Robert A. “Bob” Matthews, the last president of Railway Supply Institute (RSI) predecessor Railway Progress Institute (RPI), died Aug. 7, 2019, in Bowie, Md. He was 85.