The $1.55 billion Metro Regional Connector Transit Project, a 1.9-mile long twin-bore rail tunnel linking the Gold, Blue and Expo lines in Los Angeles, has punched through the site of the future 2nd/Hope Station in Bunker Hill.
SMBC Rail Services, LLC on June 1 acquired American Railcar Leasing (ARL); all railcars previously leased from ARL (SHPX and ACFX reporting marks) are now owned or managed by SMBC Rail. In addition, American Railcar Industries (ARI) began to directly manage the ARI fleet (AMFX, SHQX reporting marks).
Amtrak on June 5 began operating non-scheduled, non-revenue trains between Lynchburg and Roanoke, Va., to train and qualify T&E (train and engine service) crews for new, extended Northeast Regional service expected to start in the fall of this year.
ZTR Control Systems has introduced a new locomotive display, and has launched a joint venture with a South African railway supplier.
Public relations practitioner Heath Hall, currently a vice president in the marketing and external affairs department of non-profit Innovate Mississippi, is expected to be named Deputy Federal Railroad Administrator, a post that does not require Senate confirmation. His appointment could come as early as June 5.
In a recent survey, Caltrain asked customers to select the livery of new high-performance electrified trainsets to be built by Stadler Rail for the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project.
On May 1, 2017, Great Lakes Basin Transportation, Inc. (GLBT) filed an application seeking authority from the Surface Transportation Board to construct and operate an approximately 261-mile rail line extending around the Chicago, Ill. area at a distance of 38 to 89 miles from downtown and passing through counties in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. The application, among other items, requested a protective order governing exchange and use of information GLBT deemed confidential.
The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. and Astra Holding GmbH on June 1 completed their previously announced plans to create Greenbrier-Astra Rail, described as “Europe’s largest end-to-end freight railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair business.”
On May 22, 2017, after 146 years, the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus folded its tent for the last time after a final show at Long Island’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and passed into the history books. The next day, the circus’s famous 79-car Red Train operated for the last time; it had been for years one of two, the other being the Blue Train.
SMBC Rail Services LLC (SMBC Rail), the railcar operating lessor and fleet management division of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), on June 1 completed its acquisition of American Railcar Leasing LLC. SMBC Rail, headquartered in Chicago, will maintain an operating and sales office in St. Charles / St. Peters, Mo.