CN Invests C$540MM in Alberta and Quebec
CN has announced that it will invest C$540 million (US$394.3 million) in its infrastructure in the provinces of Alberta and Quebec.
PTC
EU to Decide on Alstom/Bombardier Deal by July 16
European Union (EU) antitrust regulators have set a deadline of July 16 for a decision on whether to approve Alstom’s bid for Bombardier Transportation.
Siemens CEOs Buoyant on Rail’s Prospects Post-COVID-19
Siemens Mobility reported resilient performance in the second quarter of fiscal 2020 in spite of the coronavirus pandemic, joint CEOs, Sabrina Soussan and Michael Peter, revealed in an online press briefing held June 15.
Virgin Trains USA, Wabtec Sign $120MM PTC Deal
Virgin Trains USA (VTUSA), more commonly known under its original name, Brightline, has reached a $120 million agreement with Wabtec for the implementation of Positive Train Control.
Breath of Fresh Air: Wabtec Launches BlueFilter
Wabtec Corp. launched air-filtration innovation BlueFilter® in an effort to provide a clean, healthy environment for passengers on metro and trains. The filter continuously provides fresh and clean air onboard metro and railcars by removing more than 90% of contaminants per air cycle.
Commentary
When Warnings Aren’t Enough
It’s not often that I find myself in agreement with the National Transportation Safety Board. Not only is it infrequent, it’s downright uncomfortable. Truth be told, nothing worries me more than finding myself in agreement with a government agency, or a panel of experts, or the vice president operations of whatever railroad I happen(ed) to be working for at the time.
LIRR (73%), Metro-North (82%) A-OK on PTC
The presidents of MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and MTA Metro-North Railroad have announced that Positive Train Control (PTC) has been activated on the majority of their tracks, and both railroads remain on pace to complete system-wide activation of PTC by the end of 2020 as required under a Federal legislation.
FRA: PTC at 98%
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) first-quarter 2020 update on railroads’ self-reported progress on fully implementing Positive Train Control (PTC) by the Dec. 31, 2020 deadline shows that, as of March 31, 2020, the job is 98% complete. Nearly all railroads subject to the statutory mandate are operating their systems in revenue service or in advanced field testing, known as revenue service demonstration (RSD), with PTC technology remaining to be activated on only approximately 1,100 required route-miles.
Commentary
Old Enough to Know Better, Young Enough to Care
I confess to being a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to railroads. Not orthodox, not conservative and certainly not rigid, but a traditionalist. For example, I think a railroad line officer is a trainmaster and not a transportation manager, operations services supervisor or anything else. I’m a traditionalist, so I never thought I’d have to argue certain fundamentals. Silly, traditional me.
Commentary
Managing Costs During A Pandemic
North American rail managers are good at managing costs, but 2020 might be their ultimate challenge. Let’s say you are in charge at a freight railroad. What do you do in such hard times with so many fixed costs? You can ratchet down variable costs. That’s easy. The tougher part is twisting a large part of those fixed costs into segments of variable costs. How do you do that? Let’s start by defining what these railroad costs are.