I read with great interest the Railway Age article on March 9 announcing the winners of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Genius Transit Challenge.
“Riding the brand”—a code of conduct exemplifying unbendable trustworthiness, integrity and commitment—is an expression as old as the Wild West, yet as contemporary as Federal Railroad Administrator Ron Batory. Nowhere is this code more needed than at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), lacking permanent leadership since January 2015 and suffering discord and an organizational brain-drain even longer.
WASHINGTON – Ronald L. Batory officially became the 14th United States Federal Railroad Administrator on February 28, 2018. In the presence of his family, and numerous colleagues he has known throughout his 47-year career as a railroader, Batory was sworn in by U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
Caltrain is trading long-delayed CBOSS for conventional PTC on its commuter rail corridor between San Francisco and San Jose.
Wabtec Corp., in reporting results for its 2017 fourth quarter and full year, and issuing 2018 financial guidance, referred to 2017 as “a year of transition” in which the company “made excellent progress on the Faiveley Transport integration and continued to invest in worldwide growth opportunities,” according to President and CEO Ray Betler.
Transit officials in Utah plan to suspend services on a segment of commuter rail connecting the suburbs north of Salt Lake City, citing the prohibitive cost of complying with new federal safety rules mandating PTC (Positive Train Control).
Amtrak won’t operate its passenger trains on tracks without Positive Train Control in 2019 if host railroads fail to meet the deadline for installation of the federally-mandated safety technology.
The railroad industry is making steady progress implementing Positive Train Control. You wouldn’t know it though, if you believed some of the choreographed histrionics the House Subcommittee on Railroads and its chairman displayed at a Feb. 15 hearing on PTC.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is accepting grant applications for projects that will strengthen rail safety efforts through the implementation of positive train control (PTC), crossing improvements and congestion mitigation.
The battle between labor and the management over mandatory two-person crews is far from over and will heat up if a new Democratic-controlled Congress takes charge in 2019. Hoping for big Democratic wins in the U.S. House and Senate later this year, railroad labor quietly continues to set the stage to push for mandatory two-person train crew legislation.
