This installment of the Rail Group On Air podcast series sponsored by the Commuter Rail Coalition features Virginia Railway Express CEO Rich Dalton, who discusses COVID-19 recovery; his U.S. Navy experience; PTC
While New Mexico Rail Runner Express (NMRX) service remains suspended due to COVID-19, work is under way to upgrade the wireless network for its commuter rail fleet, which includes nine Wabtec-manufactured Rail Runner locomotives and nine cab cars. Positive Train Control (PTC) installation also continues.
As a lifelong railroader, I’m especially pleased to join Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) and others across the nation in observing Rail Safety Week (RSW). In addition to Canada, this year we also welcome our colleagues in Mexico in helping all of us in North America to raise the profile of rail safety awareness.
I don’t often feel the need to defend our industry’s regulator, the Federal Railroad Administration. Part of that is me. Like many who have stumbled into a career in this industry (and I literally stumbled my way into railroad employment, half-blinded and three-quarters frozen by a blizzard in Chicago), I’ve always had a problem with authority. Not that I begrudge anyone his or her authority, title, rate of pay—any of that stuff. I just don’t like other people telling me what to do, and I positively hate it when others think they need to tell me what to do.
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye sent warning letters to MTA’s 11 largest suppliers on Sept. 17. “The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a horrific toll in human, social and economic terms across the nation,” he noted in the letters. “I am writing to alert you that because of this financial devastation, many current and all future contracts are in jeopardy without an injection of $12 billion in emergency federal aid.”
Three industry professionals with nearly 140 years of combined experience have joined forces at Railroad OP Services LLC, a new company whose purpose is assisting railroads with audits, rulebook updates and training to improve overall safety culture and public image, and limit financial exposure. Joe Meade and Bruce Parkin, along with company founder JD. Riley, describe themselves as “knowledgeable subject matter experts” who can provide on-site services to determine vulnerabilities, teach safety practices and prepare for Federal Railroad Administration inspections and audits.
Ingenuity and innovation have made rail one of the safest modes of transportation in our nation today. Hard lessons were learned over many decades by railroads, workers and regulators. Significant strides were made possible by the development and widespread adoption of evolving technologies and modern business practices. Among the contemporary cutting-edge technologies making their mark on the railroad industry is artificial intelligence, or “AI.”
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has announced the lowest bidder for a $403 million contract for work on the Middleborough Secondary & New Bedford Main Line (MS/NBML) section of its South Coast Rail project. South Coast Rail Constructors, a consortium of Littleton, Mass.-based Middlesex Corporation and Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini, was identified by MBTA as the lowest bidder and is expected to be awarded the contract for the commuter rail extension.
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has made “major progress on implementing Positive Train Control (PTC) on MTA Long Island Rail Road and MTA Metro-North Railroad, reaffirming both railroads will be in full PTC operations by the end of 2020.”
I chuckle sometimes these days. Chuckling, in some circles is considered to be an indication of maturity, of wisdom. Those circles don’t include me, and they don’t mean me. Chuckling is that kind of half-wry, half-sad, half-surprised, half-jaded response—and that’s two many halves.
