Effective April 24, Bruce McCuaig is stepping down as President and CEO of Metrolinx, Toronto, to accept a new federal role in Canada’s Privy Council Office as Executive Adviser-Infrastructure Bank, to support the launch of Canada Infrastructure Bank.
I have stressed many times in this blog, and in my monthly magazine columns—at times in harsh terms that may have offended some people who, for reasons I can’t quite figure out, took my remarks personally—that the Trump Administration’s extremely nationalistic ideology, if it morphs into law, will critically injure the railroads and the railroad supply community.
Brandon, Manitoba-based Cando Rail Services has appointed Canadian Pacific engineering department veteran Tim Yamashita as Vice-President of Engineering and Track Services, effective March 13. Yamashita is responsible for management of Cando’s design, construction and maintenance services.
Transportation and environmental project management professional Lisa Ives has joined HNTB Corp. as a senior project manager and associate vice president, focusing on delivery of major transportation projects in the planning, environmental and conceptual engineering phases. Based in Seattle, she currently is working on a light rail extension design and value engineering on-call project for Sound Transit.
Rail freight traffic continues to recover this year, and the industry posted its safest year on record last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on March 22. Coal continues to recover at a strong pace.
Cowen and Company analyst Matt Elkott has upgraded American Railcar Industries (ARI) to Outperform from Market Perform, “as earnings and fundamentals have not only remained stable but improved further on the frac sand front. Our confidence in our above-consensus estimates has grown, and our channel checks suggest rising interest in lease fleets. Meanwhile, valuation has compressed over the same period. Our new PT is $45 (16.5x our 2018 EPS estimate) vs. $44 previously.”
The Trump Administration’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018, which would eliminate the Federal Transit Administration New Starts grant program that supports building new mass transit projects around the country, “would cause far-reaching impacts on the construction of voter-approved projects in the Puget Sound region,” Sound Transit said on March 21.
Nine years ago, the tragic head-on collision of a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train near Chatsworth, Calif., ended debate on whether railroads should be required to install Positive Train Control to prevent these types of incidents. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which included a requirement that railroads operationalize PTC by 2016, moved through Congress and became law at lightning speed.
The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) has presented Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) Deputy General Manager-Finance and Administration Loretta Kirk with its 2017 Women Who Move the Nation Award.
The locomotive refueling track in TransNet’s San Ysidro Yard in San Diego, Calif., received an environmentally friendly improvement with the addition of new, custom-designed spill-containment pans from Trans Environmental Systems, Inc. (TESI).