MTA Long Island Rail Road on Feb. 6 launched a beta test of myLIRR, an online tool designed for mobile devices that allows customers to see real-time train position. It also shows information about train lengths and locations of any trouble spots affecting service. The map is refreshed with new data every three to five seconds and “benefits from the enhanced accuracy of GPS data.”
Bombardier Aerostructures and Engineering Services President Danny Di Perna, who joined the company in mid-2018, has replaced Laurent Troger as President of Bombardier Transportation. The change is part of an overall leadership restructuring at Bombardier Inc.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has awarded Fullerton, Calif.-based Rail Propulsion Systems (RPS) a contract for a second Blended After Treatment System (BATS) to retrofit its fleet of EMD F59PH diesel-electric passenger locomotives.
RailcarRx, Inc., an IT product and service provider to the North American rail industry, has earned SOC 1 (Service Organization Controls) Audit Certification. The audit of RailcarRx’s controls included examination of the company’s data security policy, overall availability of data, monitoring of data processing, business continuity plans and operating environments.
Kansas City Southern, joining Class I contemporaries Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, CN and Canadian Pacific in adopting one form or another of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), has appointed Sameh Fahmy as Executive Vice President PSR, reporting to KCS President and CEO Patrick J. Ottensmeyer.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR), in reporting U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Feb. 2, 2019, as well as volumes for January 2019, noted that gains in intermodal, chemicals and petroleum-related shipments offset losses in coal, grain and motor vehicles—fluctuations that “don’t reflect weakness in the economy.”
Strong financials in Genesee & Wyoming’s North American Operations unit a more than offset weaker performance in the company’s Australian and U.K./European Operations. As well, the company expects to increase its capital program this year.
R.J. Corman Railroad Company Carolina Lines and Horry County Government in South Carolina are breaking ground on Moving the Carolinas Forward: A Rural Freight Rail Project, “which will significantly improve the value of rail service to the region.”
Private high-speed rail developer Texas Central has contracted with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) for ecological mitigation services “to help protect and enhance natural ecosystems and the environment throughout construction and operations.” RES will oversee plans to comply with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) requirements that the project “restore, enhance and preserve wetlands, streams and environmentally sensitive habitats along the train’s route between Houston and North Texas.”
Three Canadian Pacific Railway crew members were killed early Feb. 4 in a grain train derailment east of Field, B.C., on the Laggan Subdivision. The 112-car westbound train derailed at about 1:00 a.m. Mountain Time (3:00 a.m. Eastern Time) as it emerged from the Upper Spiral Tunnel, plunging about 200 feet off a bridge into the Kicking Horse River. The three Calgary-based crew members killed have been identified as conductor Dylan Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer.
