Switzerland-based rail transit vehicle supplier Stadler Rail has chosen Salt Lake City to establish a manufacturing base for its U.S. subsidiary, Stadler US Inc., beginning next year with construction of a carbuilding plant and test track. Currently, Stadler is leasing space from the Utah Transit Authority at its Warm Springs facility, employing 115.
VIA Rail Canada set ridership records over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. From Oct. 5 to 10, 2017, 193,900 passengers used VIA’s four main services—Cross-Canada, Quebec-Windsor, the Montréal-Halifax Ocean and the Toronto-Vancouver Canadian—for an average 20.8% increase over the same period in 2016, excluding the Ocean, which rose 5%.
Paul Olmstead has joined the Strato, Inc. executive management team as Vice President of Quality Assurance. He brings more than 25 years of international experience in engineering, manufacturing, and quality assurance programs.
The prototype Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Orange Line trainset for Boston’s rail transit system built by CRRC (China Railway Rolling Stock Corp.) is undergoing dynamic tests at the CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles plant in China. MBTA released a short video of testing on Oct. 10.
Long-time Greenbrier Cos. executive and board member, and former Interstate Commerce Commission Chairman A. Daniel O’Neal died at home on Oct. 10 at the age of 81.
The first of 1,000 GE Transportation diesel-electric Evolution Series locomotives for Indian Railways (IR) arrived at India’s Mundra Port on Oct. 11. The ES43ACmi is the first locomotive running on IR that complies with UIC1, the international emissions standard established by the International Union of Railways (Union Internationale des Chemins de fer).
In its Third-Quarter 2017 report to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation-Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, the Surface Transportation Board provided an update on no fewer than nine pending STB regulatory proceedings, “matters that may be of interest”:
Charah®, LLC has opened a fly ash storage and rail-to-truck transloading terminal in Colorado, in partnership with OmniTRAX. The new terminal, located in Kelim, Co. near Denver, is part of Charah’s expanding MultiSource™ network, a distribution system of multiple sourcing locations across the country that ensures a steady and reliable supply of Class C and Class F fly ash for ready-mix concrete producers.
California Gov. Jerry Brown on Oct. 10 signed a state senate bill authorizing Caltrain to place a local sales tax measure on the upcoming November election ballot. If passed, the sales tax, which would be a maximum of one-eighth of one cent (0.125 cents), will provide Caltrain, which provides regional/commuter rail service between San Francisco and San Jose, a dedicated funding source.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Paul Friedman on Oct. 10 denied class certification in the 10-year-old class action lawsuit alleging that BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern engaged in fuel surcharge price-fixing. An appellate court had recently returned the case to the District Court. Individual plaintiffs must file their own cases within 47 days, due to the statute of limitations.
