The U.S. Department of Transportation on Dec. 4 repealed a 2015 Federal Railroad Administration rulemaking requiring freight railroads to employ electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on certain trains hauling hazardous flammable commodities such as ethanol and crude oil in DOT-117 tank cars.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) filed comments Dec. 4 with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), citing existing rules and other agency actions it asserts that are ideal areas for repeal, replacement, suspension or modification. The AAR submitted the filing pursuant to Executive Order 13,777, “a directive from the Trump Administration to reform regulatory processes and individual regulations to better serve the public.”
The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) has changed its name to the Rail Passengers Association (RPA) and adopted a new logo that “evokes the image of a train window through which passengers view the world.”
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has awarded WSP USA a contract to oversee Phase II of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Extension into Santa Clara County. As program manager, WSP is tasked with conceptual design, engineering management, contracting strategies, project controls, utilities coordination, constructability reviews, value engineering and development of procurement documents.
The memberships of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) and the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA), which collectively represent nearly 11,000 railroad workers, have ratified a new national agreement.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NYMTA) has awarded RailWorks Corp. subsidiary L.K. Comstock & Company Inc. two contracts worth a combined $74.3 million for underground electrical substations on the New York City Transit (NYCT) Canarsie “L” line in Brooklyn. Both projects will increase power capacity.
Parsons has begun providing technical advisory services for Metrolinx’s Enhanced Train Control and Conventional Signaling (ETCCS) project, part of the Canadian agency’s 10-year GO Transit regional/commuter rail expansion program consisting of C$13.5 billion in capital projects and $7 billion in state-of-good-repair works.
Andy Byford, who has forged a rail transit career on three continents, will join the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as President of New York City Transit, the agency responsible for New York City subways, buses, paratransit services and the Staten Island Railway, effective in January 2018.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is sending its CharlieCard fare collection system to the bottom of Boston Harbor and replacing it with state-of-the-art technology from Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS). Cubic’s base $575 million DBOM contract includes ten years of operations and maintenance, and two five-year extension options. It’s described as “the nation’s first public-private partnership (P3)fare payment project for transit.”
Come Feb. 1, 2018, the Railway Supply Institute (RSI) will have new leadership, as President Tom Simpson, who has spent nearly 30 years at the organization, retires. Mike O’Malley, a transportation policy expert and former Vice President, Procurement and Supply Chain Management with CSX, will succeed Simpson.
