The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a Draft Safety Advisory, 2018-01, Related to Temporary Signal Suspensions. For the first time I can recall, FRA is soliciting public comment “on all aspects of the Draft Safety Advisory.”
Ex-Florida Congressman John Luigi Mica, a foodie who spent a considerable amount of time when he was Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee questioning Amtrak’s food service costs, must be very pleased with Amtrak’s announcement that it’s getting rid of dining cars on two long-distance trains.
Hurricane recovery and Positive Train Control were front and center as BNSF Railway Company recognized its 2017 Employees of the Year.
The Federal Transit Administration said states that miss the deadline for certifying rail safety oversight programs are risking billions of dollars in government funding.
For the second consecutive year, the IRSE (Institution of Railway Signal Engineers) “CBTC and Beyond” conference was held in Toronto at the Fairmont Royal York. The 2017 conference, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, included a technical tour of the state-of-the-art, award-winning Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE), showcasing the line’s application of communications-based train control.
BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) has announced a 2018 capital expenditure program for California valued at about $230 million.
The Federal Railroad Administration on March 29 issued an RFI (Request For Information) on “the future of automation in the railroad industry.”
BNSF is the first U.S. Class I (and the second overall) to respond to the Surface Transportation Board’s March 16 blanket letter requesting information on each railroad’s 2018 service outlook.
What a world. FRA is on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube. NTSB is on Twitter and YouTube, and might be on Facebook, but I don’t know since the NTSB website doesn’t say one way or another, and I’m not on Facebook or Twitter, and not, to my knowledge on YouTube, or if I am, it’s not my doing, I promise.
Characterizing progress on Positive Train Control as “uneven,” Federal Railroad Administrator Ron Batory pledged that the agency he now officially leads “is taking a proactive approach to ensure railroads acquire, install, test and fully implement certified PTC systems in time to meet the congressional interim deadline of Dec. 31, 2018.”
