ORLANDO, Fla. — In a significant milestone toward its effort to launch service to Orlando by midyear, Brightline will being testing at speeds up to 125 mph on its new 35-mile corridor between Cocoa, Fla., and Orlando International Airport as soon as today, March 1. In a Tuesday evening announcement, the passenger operator said test […]
DENVER — The Regional Transportation District does not have to pay builders of its commuter rail lines more than $100 million to cover costs related to grade-crossing problems, a Denver judge ruled Friday, while also turning down an RTD countersuit and effort to cancel its contract with those builders. The construction consortium, Denver Transit Partners, […]
LOS ANGELES — The $106.9 million awarded to Metrolink by the California State Transportation Agency will allow the commuter operator to continue progress on its SCORE (Southern California Optimized Rail Expansion) intiative, a $10 billion capital improvement program with the goal of enabling service at 30-minute intervals throughout the day. The Metrolink program was among […]
MONTREAL — The city of Montreal and the province of Quebec will spend more than C$565 million to begin operational upgrades on the city’s Metro system. CTV News reports the money will equip the Metro Blue Line with a new train control system, better managing spacing between trains, train speed, and track changes. Similar improvements […]
CHICAGO —Metra on Tuesday began the rollout of a new live train-tracking website which the Chicago-area commuter rail operator promises will allow riders to see the exact location of their trains and their station arrival times. The new site, metratracker.com, is made possible by a wholesale replacement of the previous train tracking system. It also […]
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Implementing positive train control was a long, costly process for the railroad industry. Now that it’s in place, the people who know it best — the communications and signal specialists — are finding there are a lot of benefits to the technology beyond its primary purpose of accident prevention. “As a […]
COCOA, Fla. — Brightline crews are set to resume 110-mph tests this Friday, Jan. 6, south of Fort Pierce, Fla., as part of continuing preparations for the passenger operator’s expansion of service to Orlando. The tests in Martin and St. Luicie counties, along an 11-mile stretch of the 129-mile segment of Florida East Coast Railway […]
SAN DIEGO — The North County Transit District’s Sprinter commuter rail line between Escondido and Oceanside will receive $7 million in federal funding for signal improvements, the first phase of a program to allow frequencies on the 22-mile, 15-station line to double from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports […]
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — Caltrain will receive $43 million for its electrification project from the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and awaiting the signature of President Joe Biden, the commuter rail agency said. The federal money will help fill a funding gap in the project expected to be completed in 2024. “The electrification of […]
WASHINGTON — The independent body that oversees DC Metrorail safety issues has indicated reservations about the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s plan to restore automated operation of Metrorail trains, which was disengaged following a fatal collision in 2009. The Washington Post reports the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission says it will work with WMATA on the […]
WASHINGTON — The DC Metrorail system will seek to return to automated train operation, discontinued after a fatal train collision in 2009, according to a presentation to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board on Monday. The website DCist reports the presentation calls for the Red Line to be returned to Automatic Train Operation in […]
BREDA, Netherlands — Alstom says it has demonstrated fully autonomous operation for a switching locomotive in the Netherlands — with starting, movement, stopping, and handling of unexpected obstacles without involvement of on-train staff. The company says this week’s announcement concludes a series of tests that are part of a partnership with Dutch infrastructure manager ProRail and […]
