The industry groundswell attacking the Surface Transportation Board’s pending actions on forced access and commodity reregulation has grown to include the railway supply community, including the three principal trade associations (REMSA, RSI and RSSI) and numerous members, the Railway Tie Association and the railway contracting community, led by the NRC.
The Sept. 29th NJ Transit accident in Hoboken will, of courser, trigger another round of the now-usual “how could its,” “should nevers,” “told yous,” “failure to properly regulates,” “lack of trusts,” “insufficient crew members,” “inadequate trainings” “cost/benefits,” from the usual parties, most of whom are motivated by the best of intentions, which just happen to coincide with some strictly personal agendas, or strictly organizational agendas, or election needs, and . . .
Cover story, September issue: Like most Class I railroads, Union Pacific has had to make adjustments to deal with sharp declines in coal and other commodities. While its $3.75 billion 2016 capital program is lower than last year’s, it upholds a strong commitment to maintaining a state of good repair, building capacity and improving technology. As well, UP is committed to sustainability. And then there’s yet another historic UP steam locomotive undergoing restoration.
Amsted Rail and GE Transportation have formed a joint venture “to combine GE’s experience in train management and locomotive monitoring with Amsted Rail’s expertise in onboard monitoring of railcar component condition,” the companies said in an announcement. It’s “the first ever integrated onboard train monitoring platform for the freight rail industry.”
Herzog Technologies, Inc. (HTI) has entered into a contract with short line holding company Watco Companies, LLC to provide PTC (positive train control) program management and back office hosting services.
Herzog Technologies Inc. (HTI) on Sept. 19, 2016 launched a Cloud-based PTC (positive train control) system using technology from Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open-source systems.
As an agency with extensive rapid transit (New York City Transit) and regional/commuter rail (Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North) networks, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is deeply involved both with CBTC (communications-based train control) and federally mandated PTC (positive train control).
On Sept. 1, 2016, the Canadian government awarded a lion’s share of transit development agreements in the province of Alberta to the city of Edmonton.
A quarterly status update released Aug. 17, 2016 by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) “underscores the need for railroads to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) as quickly and safely as possible.” The update also “highlights the Administration’s repeated calls for Congress to provide more significant funding to assist commuter railroads in implementing PTC.”
Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), a business unit of Cubic Corporation, announced on August 18 that its customer Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) received the 2016 Innovation Award for the Ventra Mobile App from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).