Senate confirmation of two new Republican members to the three-member National Mediation Board (NMB), and confirmation of a Democrat to a third NMB term, is anticipated in the next few weeks. The NMB will then be under Republican control for the first time since 2009.
Amtrak and New York’s Gateway project got a prospective funding boost as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1.2-trillion omnibus package to provide all discretionary funding for the federal government for the 2018 fiscal year.
INDIANAPOLIS – It will likely be 2018 before Congress makes good on President Trump’s pledge to pass an infrastructure spending bill, according to a member of his inner circle, just one item on a long waiting list of legislative issues concerning the rail industry.
Railroads restarted some services in Florida following Hurricane Irma, and began to assess damage throughout the southeast region.
The Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.), the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology, has sanctioned Penn State University-Altoona’s Rail Transportation Engineering (RTE) degree program. The validation makes Penn State Altoona “home to the first and only ABET-accredited RTE program in the U.S.”
As railroads in the Southeast brace for Hurricane Irma’s projected landfall Sept. 11 on the east coast of Florida, BNSF Railway reports that its operations in southeastern Texas are back to normal, with residual delays.
Railroads serving Florida and the Southeast coastal region are making preparations ahead of Hurricane Irma, which is forecast to make landfall along South Florida and move up the East Coast.
SYSTRA has acquired bridge design company International Bridge Technologies (IBT).
Working with Rockwell Collins, Amtrak plans to equip approximately 310 diesel-electric locomotives with Positive Train Control (PTC) technology to comply with the Dec. 31, 2018 federal deadline mandated by the amended Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
Union Pacific provided a second quarter update on its progress regarding implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and notes it has made strides toward its 2018 goal.