DALLAS — Dallas Area Rapid Transit has awarded $872 million in contracts to design and build its 26-mile Cotton Belt commuter rail line, the Dallas Morning News reports. The contract was awarded to a joint venture of Archer Western Construction, based in Irving, Texas., and Herzog Contracting, based in Fort Worth. Construction is scheduled to […]
Brightline locomotives and trainsets appear at the railroad’s West Palm Beach “b” shops in January. Bob Johnston MIAMI — Could privately owned and operated passenger rail ever succeed in the U.S., given the billions of dollars of public spending lavished annually on competing highway, transit, and air travel transportation modes? If so, what would it […]
FULL SCREEN Jack Ferry collection For a decade, the cover of the Illinois Central system timetable carried illustrations of the Chicago lakefront. All purported to show the view from the top of Great Central Station, which burned in the Great Fire of 1871. The depot’s arched train shed, however, was never rebuilt. FULL SCREEN Detroit […]
PHILADELPHIA – The locomotive engineer at the controls of an Amtrak train that derailed near Philadelphia in 2015 is set to stand trial in September 2019. Eight people died and more than 200 were injured when Amtrak train No. 188 derailment on the Northeast Corridor in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood in May 2015. A National […]
DENVER – The Winter Park Express will have a lounge car when it departs Denver for Winter Park, Colo. on Jan. 3. Ever since the weekend ski train began operating in 2016, skiers and snowboarders have been asking Amtrak to sell snacks and beverages onboard the train. This week, Amtrak announced that their wishes would […]
A Southwest Chief inspection train hosting community leaders pauses at La Junta, Colo, on Aug 4, 2016. A federal grant will pay for the installation of PTC on the Chief’s route between Dodge City, Kan., and Las Animas, Colo., near La Junta. Bob Johnston WASHINGTON — In a boost to efforts to maintain the route […]
MBTA Orange Line cars test in China in 2017. The latest cars in the order are now manufactured in the U.S. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The first of 152 U.S.-built Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Orange Line cars were recently completed by China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. Ltd. (CRRC) in Springfield. MBTA officials, along with Gov. Charlie […]
HARTFORD, Conn. — Former Metro-North Railroad president Joseph J. Giulietti will become Connecticut’s commissioner of transportation, governor-elect Ned Lamont has announced. The Hartford Courant reports that Lamont said he is looking to the commissioner to implement the governor-elect’s vision of “substationally reducing travel time from New Haven and our other towns to New York City.” […]
SEATTLE — Sound Transit and the Federal Transit Administration have finalized an agreement for $1.2 billion in funding for an 8.5-mile extension of its light rail system. The FTA announced the grant on Thursday, after the conclusion of a 30-day congressional review period for the funding agreement announced in November. [See “Sound Transit, FTA reach […]
The Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah, like other national parks, will be closed if the government shuts down. The Department of Transportation will also be affected. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn WASHINGTON — A partial government shutdown, which could happen tonight, will include the U.S. Department of Transportation and could be felt in several rail-related […]
CHICAGO – The first two of Metra’s 21 former Amtrak F59PHI locomotives have entered service this week. The units, which sport modified Pacific Surfliner paint, were spotted on the Metra-owned Milwaukee District North line leading train No. 2119 for Grayslake. Other recently acquired units will featured modified Amtrak Cascades paint, but those have not yet […]
Amtrak’s operations center for the Northeast Corridor, located in Wilmington, Del., is at risk of climate-change-related flooding, according to a news report. Al DiCenso NEW YORK — Several locations on the Northeast Corridor risk inundation from rising waters as a result of climate change, according to a report prepared for Amtrak. Bloomberg reports that the […]
