Sir Richard Branson and Patrick Goddard marked the beginning of Brightline’s transition to Virgin Trains USA on April 4 with a ceremony at Virgin MiamiCentral Station that unveiled the passenger rail service’s new branding graphics. Brightline is the express intercity passenger rail service that currently connects Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, with expected service to Orlando and Tampa, and between Las Vegas and Southern California.
Class II Reading & Northern (RBMN) has promoted two long-time employees—Dustin Berndt and Daren Geschwindt—to Vice President Motive Power and Vice President Distribution Services, respectively.
“Commuter rail,” says Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski, “needs a distinct voice.” Derwinski and a group of current and former passenger rail industry executives led by former New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Director of Regulatory Affairs, Corporate Standards and Benchmarking KellyAnne Gallagher, have launched the Commuter Rail Coalition (CRC), described as “an association representing the interests, needs and benefits of the nation’s commuter railroads.”
We traditionally have reported the Association of American Railroads weekly compilation of freight traffic statistics as “straight news,” with commentary restricted to what the AAR may include in the release, which is rare. In this case, there’s a lot going on here, enough to warrant some analysis. The figures are all here, along with supporting charts. But don’t take them at face value.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB) and the Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) a National Clean Diesel Funding grant that will cover 40% of the cost of retrofitting one diesel-electric switcher locomotive with a Tier 4-compliant prime-mover.
Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau, a former NASA astronaut, has named an executive from Canada’s aerospace industry as President and CEO of VIA Rail Canada.
New Jersey Transit has appointed Lookman Fazal as Chief Information & Digital Officer.
Jared Weismantel has joined global design and engineering firm Stantec as a senior industrial architect to support the company’s North America Transit Buildings practice. Weismantel “brings extensive experience with a longstanding specialty in the transit sector,” Stantec said.
The just-abandoned GoTriangle light rail project in North Carolina, while never a slam-dunk, was until recently an interesting game. Now, after a few critical blocked shots and maybe even several offensive fouls, it appears to be a forfeit.
Richard Schaefer, P.E., has joined New Jersey Transit as Chief Engineer in the Capital Planning and Program department.