June 2016 Railway Age

RailwayAge

June 2016 | www.railwayage.com

Serving the railway industry since 1856

Passenger Rail’s Bright Future

PTC and IT Perspectives Transit Focus: Phoenix Machines For Better Ballast Passenger Rail Guide

RailwayAge

JUNE 2016

visit us at www.railwayage.com Features Transit Focus: Phoenix PTC vs. Legacy Systems Enterprise IT Passenger Rail Guide Transit Focus: TTC

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M/W Focus: Ballast

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News/Columns From the Editor Update Watching Washington Short Line/ Regional Perspective Financial Edge

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Departments Industry Indicators Industry Outlook Market Products People 100 Years Ago Meetings Advertising Index Professional Directory Classified

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On the Cover Amtrak’s Empire Builder lights up the rails as the Northern Lights illuminate the sky.

Photo: SEAN KELLY

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Railway Age, USPS 449-130, is published monthly by the Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 55 Broad St., 26th Fl., New York, NY 10004. Tel. (212) 620-7200; FAX (212) 633-1863. Vol. 217, No. 6.

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June 2016 Railway Age 1

From the Editor William C. Vantuono

Editorial and Executive Offices Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corp.

55 Broad Street, 26th Fl. New York, NY 10004 212-620-7200; Fax: 212-633-1863 Website: www.railwayage.com

To movement plan—or not?

D

ispatching systems that employ movement planning tools have been around for a while. They’ve largely been touted as evolutionary, or even revolutionary, but this is an oversimplification.

Following are observations worth noting from a recently retired Class I manager who was intimately involved with debugging movement planning software on his railroad’s dispatching system: “There are two major challenges implementing a movement planner. First, the system is only as good as what it knows and the data it’s being fed. Second is the change-management process.

“For a movement planner to work, it has to know about everything happening on the railroad: Maintenance outages. Where and when trains will enter the network. If there’s space at terminals to handle inbound trains.

If trains are planned to depart terminals on time and if not, when. When unscheduled unit trains are going to operate. When runthrough or trackage-rights trains are going to show up. Where local trains will be and when, and when they can clear the main line. When trains get stopped for unusual circumstances like fault detectors, grade crossing accidents, etc.

“A lot of this information is ‘soft’— that is, it doesn’t exist as hard data anywhere for the movement planner to ‘know’ about it. Nearly all of this needs to be accommodated with data feeds, and reports that score completeness and timeliness of new data so that those responsible are held accountable for getting it done.

“The toughest piece is knowing when trains from foreign roads are going to show up. This is the reason major terminal areas like Chicago are the last places a movement planner can be implemented.

“For local train scheduling, the goal is to create a reasonably accurate schedule based on history and actual work planned for that day’s trains.

“Change management is difficult. You can’t go into a dispatching office and tell the train

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RailwayAge

dispatchers that what they believe is the heart and soul of their job is going to be done by a computer and expect them to think it’s wonderful. It’s actually the equivalent of calling them stupid. Nobody likes to be called stupid.

“The dispatcher’s job is changing from primarily throwing switches and clearing routes to one where he or she is primarily responsible for handling exceptions and creating data: A train just hit a hotbox detector. Where? How long will it be stopped?

Where is a crew change going to happen? A signal maintainer needs track time. Where?

How long? Unscheduled pickup? Where? Is the information about receiving yard space in the destination terminal up-to-date and accurate? Etc., etc.

“Rolling out a movement planner without getting train dispatchers fully on board leads to all sorts of suspicion and anecdotes about poor movement planner function. Nearly all of the poor function is due to data issues somewhere, or passive-aggressive behavior by disgruntled dispatchers.

“I once observed a movement planner bringing one train to a meet location on the main and then run another by on siding.

Why? Because the track at that location was coded as double-track, equally weighted, instead of single-track with a passing siding.

“There have been stories about movement planners holding hot trains in sidings to run slow merchandise trains by. This makes chief dispatchers and general managers very nervous! The problem was the movement planner couldn’t see that the priority train was scheduled to be at destination a couple of hours early and that the merchandise train was running late. Part of this problem is having train schedules with padding in the last leg of the schedule. The train can appear to be late mid-route, but actually be in good shape for an on-time arrival.”

Railroading is a complex undertaking. But that’s what makes it fun.

Right?

ARTHUR J. McGINNIS, Jr., President and Chairman JONATHAN CHALON, Publisher jchalon@sbpub.com WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief wvantuono@sbpub.com BEN VIENT, Managing Editor bvient@sbpub.com Contributing Editors: Roy H. Blanchard, Alfred E. Fazio, Lawrence H Kaufman, Bruce E. Kelly, Ron Lindsey, Ryan McWilliams, David Nahass, Jason H. Seidl, David Thomas, John Thompson, Frank N. Wilner Creative Director: Wendy Williams Associate Graphic Designer: Nicole Cassano Corporate Production Director: Mary Conyers Production Manager: Lily Man Production Director: Eduardo Castaner Marketing Director: Erica Hayes Conference Director: Michelle Zolkos Circulation Director: Maureen Cooney Western Offices 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910, Chicago, IL 60603 312-683-0130; Fax: 312-683-0131 Engineering Editor: Mischa Wanek-Libman mischa@sbpub.com Assistant Editor: Jennifer Nunez jnunez@sbpub.com International Offices 46 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3PP, United Kingdom Telephone: 011-44-1326-313945 Fax: 011-44-1326-211576 International Editors: David Briginshaw, db@railjournal.com Keith Barrow, kb@railjournal.com Kevin Smith, ks@railjournal.com Customer Service: 800-895-4389 Reprints: PARS International Corp.

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Industry Indicators TRAFFIC ORIGINATED CARLOADS

SHORT LINE AND REGIONAL TRAFFIC INDEX FOUR WEEKS ENDING April 30, 2016

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

by Commodity Grain Farm Products ex. Grain Grain Mill Products Food products Chemicals Petroleum & Petroleum Products Coal Primary Forest Products Lumber and Wood Products Pulp and Paper Products Metallic Ores Coke Primary Metal Products Iron and Steel Scrap Motor Vehicles and Parts Crushed Stone, Sand, and Gravel Nonmetallic Minerals Stone, Clay & Glass Products Waste & Nonferrous Scrap All Other Carloads Total U.S. CarLoadS

APRIL ’16 78,033 2,815 36,278 24,591 126,936 45,198 244,238 5,030 13,791 21,417 24,839 16,936 35,734 15,002 74,609 91,565 18,695 29,846 15,101 23,715 944,369

APRIL ’15 80,255 3,206 39,038 24,995 125,027 60,320 404,862 5788 14,592 24,063 26,750 14,582 36,379 15,828 73,114 93,211 19,450 31,055 13,480 18,972 1,124,967

% CHANGE -2.8% -12.2% -7.1% -1.6% 1.5% -25.1% -39.7% -13.1% -5.5% -11.0% -7.1% 16.1% -1.8% -5.2% 2.0% -1.8% -3.9% -3.9% 12.0% 25.0% -16.1%

281,254

325,449

-13.6%

1,225,623

1,450,416

-15.5%

CARLOADS

Chemicals Coal Crushed Stone / Sand / Gravel Food & Kindred Products Grain Grain Mill Products Lumber & Wood Products Metallic Ores Metals & Products Motor Vehicles & Equipment Nonmetallic Minerals Petroleum Products Pulp, Paper & Allied Products Stone, Clay & Glass Products Trailers / Containers Waste & Nonferrous Scrap All Other Carloads

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RR INTERMODAL

FOUR WEEKS ENDING APRIL 30, 2016

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

by Commodity TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL UNITS

APRIL 2015 - 349,726 300,000 310,000 320,000 330,000 340,000 350,000 360,000 370,000 380,000 390,000 Copyright © 2016 All rights reserved.

Railroad employment, Class I linehaul carriers, APRIL 2016 (% change from APRIL 2015)

APRIL ’16 86,889 941,571 1,028,460

APRIL ’15 115,892 996,297 1,112,189

% CHANGE -25.0% -5.5% -7.5%

3,557 234,047 237,604

5,788 244,219 250,007

-38.5% -4.2% -5.0%

Transportation (train and engine) 58,519 (-20.63%)

90,446 1,175,618 1,266,064

121,680 1,240,516 1,362,196

-25.7% -5.2% -7.1%

Total employees: 153,143 % change from APRIL 2015: (-12.05%)

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RR TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL COMBINED UNITS

Source: Monthly Railroad Traffic, Association of American Railroads

average weekly U.S. Rail Carloads: all commodities (not seasonally adjusted)

% CHANGE 4.8% -12.9% -9.0% -8.9% -13.3% -8.5% -7.8% -0.2% 4.5% 20.7% -28.1% 2.7% -7.2% 9.3% 0.5% -8.1% -8.9%

APRIL 2016 - 334,024

CANADIAN RAILROADS TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL UNITS

ORIGINATED APRIL '15 44,151 22,853 27,243 11,177 23,677 6,399 10,063 3,244 15,454 8,094 2,865 2,095 18,635 11,675 45,231 9,321 87,549

TOTAL CARLOADS, APRIL 2016 vs. APRIL 2015

CANADIAN RAILROADS ALL Commodities

ORIGINATED APRIL '16 46,290 19,907 24,784 10,187 20,521 5,853 9,276 3,237 16,143 9,768 2,059 2,151 17,284 12,759 45,442 8,564 79,799

BY Commodity

Executives, Officials, and Staff Assistants 9,331 (-5.80%)

Transportation (other than train & engine) 6,232 (-7.23%)

Maintenance of Equipment and Stores 29,068 (-7.44%)

Professional and Administrative 13,804 (-3.06%)

Maintenanceof-Way and Structures 36,189 (-5.09%)

Source: Surface Transportation Board

class I employment shows DECLINES ACROSS ALL CATEGORIES Figures released by the STB show Class I total railroad employment dropped 12.05% in April 2016, measured against April 2015. Transportation (train and engine) dropped the most dramtically at 20.63%. The other five categories dropped by single digits, ranging from Maintence of Equipment and Stores at 7.44% to Professional and Administrative at 3.06%.

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Railway Age

June 2016

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Industry Outlook

MBTA’s newest locomotives are considerably more fuel-efficient than their predecessors.

MBTA targeting energy costs in FY 2017 Continuing efforts begun in 2012 with the purchase of a wind turbine generator at the Kingston rail layover facility, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority projects a further reduction of energy costs in the coming fiscal year, thanks in part to renewable energy efforts.

“The MBTA has increased its focus

on energy management, with a specific eye toward energy conservation as well as developing new renewable energy projects,” said MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola. “We understand the important role the T plays in the Commonwealth’s energy management and conservation efforts.”

The MBTA, the fifth largest mass

transit system in the U.S., is the largest single consumer of electricity in Massachusetts. The MBTA is also the largest consumer of other energy products (e.g. compressed natural gas and diesel) in the New England region.

To illustrate the MBTA’s possibilities for renewable energy, the state agency points to its utility budget for FY 2016: the total budget is $48.4 million, and covers costs for six types of utilities: electricity, natural gas, heating oil, steam, jet fuel, and water.

But of that $48.4 million, electricity accounts for the vast majority of costs: $42.5 million. It’s here the MBTA sees potential cost savings, as renewable energy possibilities produce more of that electricity more cheaply (and cleanly).

The MBTA’s current efforts to produce more green energy less expensively include the addition of a wind turbine project in Bridgewater and upcoming solar power purchase agreements at MBTA parking lots.

Additionally, the MBTA is implementing a system-wide plan for greater energy efficiency at more than 80 facilities, such as by upgrading lighting.

The MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board announced three guiding energy principles going forward: “Use less; buy it and use it more efficiently; and produce it from renewable sources or recapture spent energy.” The MBTA hopes these efforts will result in a continuing reduction of energy costs beyond the 12.8% reduction projected for FY 2017.

The Federal Aviation Administration is considering a funding change that could benefit passenger rail development around airports.

See those fees in the breakdown of your airline tickets? At more than 350 airports in the United States, Passenger Facility Charges (PFC) are added on to benefit airport development, essentially an additional tax for airline fliers.

In 2015, about $3 billion was collected through the PFC, and $46 billion 6

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June 2016

between 1992 and 2015.

Up until now, these fees could only be used to fund projects on airport property used exclusively by airport users. For rail, this meant tracks and trains used by passengers and employees to and from the airport itself.

But a challenge arose in 2014, in our increasingly intermodal-minded transportation times: Developers of a rail link at Dulles International Airport in Virginia asked for PFC funds for part

of their rail link project, which, while still on airport property, would also connect riders elsewhere, including into D.C.’s Metro system, not exclusively to and from the airport. For this reason, the FAA deemed this rail development ineligible for PFC funding.

But now the FAA is considering an update to this PFC funding policy, as more cities—New York’s LaGuardia, Denver, Miami—develop rail links around airports.

William C. Vantuono

FAA may fly onto more tracks with ticketing changes

Market OmniTRAX affiliate acquires Heart of Texas Railroad

A managed affiliate of OmniTRAX, Inc. is purchasing the Heart of Texas Railroad (HTR) from private local investors.

The transaction is subject to Surface Transportation Board approval. Terms were not disclosed. The line, which is being renamed Central Texas & Colorado River Railway, LLC, operates 68 miles of track running due west from Lometa, Tex., where it interchanges with BNSF, to Brady, Tex.

North America Rocky Mountaineer: Awarded a contract to Switzerland’s Stadler to build 10 double-deck passenger coaches for delivery in 2018.

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis: Awarded Wabtec Corp. a contract worth about $21 million to design, install, test and commission a Positive Train Control (PTC) system.

United Rail (Jacksonville, Fla.): Entered into a joint venture with Switzerland-based Ganser CRS, a supplier of common-rail fuel injection systems for off-road diesel engines.

Worldwide: Bangkok Mass Transit System: Awarded contracts worth $305 million for two fleets of metro trains. Siemens will supply 22 four-car Inspirosets

while CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, China, will supply a further 24 four-car trains.

Korail (Korea): Selected Hyundai Rotem to supply a fleet of 30 HEMU250 trains for operation on the new Gyeongjeon line to Masan in the south of the country in 2020.

British train operator TransPennine Express: Selected CAF, Spain, to supply and maintain a fleet of 125-mph intercity EMUs and coaches to be hauled by Class 68 locomotives under a total investment worth $336 million.

Zürich City Council (Switzerland): Approved the acquisition of 70 meter-gauge Flexity 2 LRVs for $363 million from Bombardier to replace the aging Tram 2000 fleet introduced in the 1970s.

Renfe (Spanish National Railways): Modified the terms of its call for bids

on a contract for the procurement of up to 30 high-speed trains as a consequence of an appeal against the process won by Bombardier. The administrative court ruled against Renfe and ordered the public company to restart the controversial process, but this time suppressing the clause that required bidders to manufacture most of the components for the trains in Spain.

Circumetnea Railway (Sicily): Introduced its first new trains in more than 20 years, when the first of four Vulcano DMUs supplied by Newag, Poland, entered service in towns surrounding Mount Etna. The $16.5 million contract represents Newag’s first rolling stock order outside Poland.

Netherlands Railways: Exercised a second and final option with Bombardier for eight additional Class 186 Traxx multi-system electric locomotives, taking its fleet to 45 units.

June 2016 Railway Age 7

Update Supply Briefs

Five new shades of Violet™

A pair of platinum from TTX For the 20th consecutive year, TTX Company has awarded Strato its 2015 SECO (Supplier Evaluation Committee) Award for 2015.

And for the 20th time, Holland LP has received the “TTX Excellent Supplier” designation based on its overall SECO evaluation for 2015.

TXX says it rates suppliers on quality, cost, delivery, service, finance and administration, with the goal of providing the highest quality, most reliable equipment at the lowest cost.

Among Holland’s products supplied to TTX are AAR-approved devices for autoracks such as bridge plates, the Grate Chock Vehicle Restraint System, and door-edge protection.

Strato’s Products include airbrake hose and components, freight and passenger car parts, castings and fabrications, custom product design and engineering services.

CSX picks COMPASS™ Protran Technology, a unit of Harsco Rail, has secured its first order from a U.S. Class I for its COMPASS™ railway asset location and awareness system.

CSX has ordered Protran’s COMPASS™ system for installation on 40 track maintenance machines, with expectations for follow-on orders as the railroad expands its deployment of the COMPASS™ system to additional units throughout its fleet.

COMPASS™ is Protran’s proprietary telematics system that enables railroad and other major fleet operators to achieve real-time asset awareness, productivity analysis and maintenance tracking across an entire range of vehicles, regardless of their operating location. COMPASS™ uses a combination of cellular and satellite communications.

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June 2016

Wi-Tronix President and Chief Technology Officer Larry Jordan (left) introduces Violet™.

I

ntegrating so-called “Big Data” is one of the biggest technical challenges the railroad industry faces over the next few years. New hardware and software tools are being developed to manage Big Data and, most important, render it useful. Enter Violet™, a new LDARS (Locomotive Data Acquisition Recording System) from Wi-Tronix LLC. Wi-Tronix unveiled Violet™ at its annual Chicago Conference on May 17, 2016. Appearance-wise, the hardware package, except for its case color, doesn’t look all that different from the now-ubiquitous purple Wi-PU™ boxes installed in thousands of locomotives worldwide that accounted for more than 2.6 million downloads in 2015. In fact, it is identical in width and depth.

Height-wise, it’s only slightly taller.

Thus, upgrading from a Wi-PU™ to Violet™ in most cases will involve a simple changeout.

It’s what’s inside Violet™’s two-tone orange and purple case that makes this LDARS different from anything Wi-Tronix or its competitors currently offer, the company said.

Wi-Tronix describes Violet™ as a

“revolutionary LDARS.” It incorporates five key elements—interestingly, like the five petals on a violet: Violet onboard platform; Violet Live event recorder functionality; Violet View, “a new way to analyze data”; Violet VI (Visual Intelligence), described as “a sophisticated video analytics platform that transforms petabytes of data per day of raw video content into usable data, utilizing machine learning and neural networks, integrating best rugged cameras available to meet our architectural vision”; and Violet VR (Virtual Reality).

“If you already have a LDARS, we just obsoleted it,” said Wi-Tronix President and Chief Technology Officer Larry Jordan. By his own admission, that’s “a bold statement,” but Jordan and his team are confident that Violet™ has the capabilities and features to take LDARS technology to the next level, which involves providing data in real time, going well beyond periodically downloading an event recorder, for example.

“We asked ourselves, why can’t we download in real time—for example,

automatically download video and event data when critical events occur?”

Jordan said. “We architected Violet™ from the ground up with live capability and a full 360 degree [onboard camera] view.”

Violet™ is based on a “scalable, configurable, and over-the-air onboard platform” that incorporates LDARS functionality with other onboard systems: Event Recorder (ER); Digital Video Recorder (DVR); Crash Hardened Memory Module; and a Multipurpose Onboard Platform that incorporates all existing Wi-PU™ functionality.

Violet™ is the only device to include Wi-Nav™, a patented inertial navigation system, and Wi-Tronix’s Universal Event Recorder Interface. Its flexibility “offers railways the ability to monitor and adjust their PTC (Positive Train Control) safety plans while implementing cutting edge applications,” the company said.

In terms of software, Violet™ “utilizes a revolutionary platform incorporating powerful IoT (Internet of Things) driven technologies: Virtual Reality Camera Integration; Web-Based Viewer Capabilities for ERs and DVRs; Condition Based Data Streaming; Visual Intelligence Software; and Data Fusion Capabilities.

Wi-Tronix’s information hosting is cloud-based, through SaaS (Software as a Service), “providing access anywhere and on any device with proper user authentication,” Wi-Tronix noted. “This eases IT application management of ER and DVR players.

Traditional ER and DVR players do not provide mobility, traceability, trackability, or advanced security.

Lessons learned from the current user experience of these players in the industry has inspired the new Violet™ player, which offers advanced security protocols that track and trace user

plays/views. This significantly improves the user’s experience for viewing data while tracking and controlling access.”

“In the past two years, a new generation of hi-definition DVRs has been developed,” said Jordan. “Violet™’s onboard platform is high-performance and multi-purpose, with all current Wi-PU™ functionality, plus ER, DVR (4-7 ports), a removable solid-state drive, and a crash-hardened memory module. Fully backwards-compatible with our Wi-PU™, it can record thousands of signals. It’s expandable, extendable and sustainable, designed for a 10-15 year life span.”

In terms of integration with other LDAR systems, a Wi-PU™ feature, “Violet is not changing this,” said Jordan. “We’re look to push the industry, but it doesn’t mean we are changing our stance in supporting technology from other suppliers.”

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Update Army Corps of Engineers nixes export coal terminal

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has stopped the permitting process for the $700 million Gateway Pacific Terminal project in Washington State because of objections by the Native Americans of Lummi Nation, based on their 1855 land and fishing treaty.

The terminal, in Cherry Point, Wash., was intended to be one of the largest

U.S. ports for export of coal to markets in Asia. SSA Marine and Cloud Peak Energy planned to ship coal by rail from Montana and Wyoming over BNSF to the new port proposed by Pacific International Holdings LLC, Corps Seattle District Commander Col. John Buck ruled based on the Lummi Nation’s land rights: “I have reviewed submittals from the Lummi Nation and Pacific International Holdings. I have also reviewed my staff’s determination that the terminal would have a greater than de minimis impact on the Lummi Nation’s usual and accustomed rights. I have determined the project is not permittable as currently proposed.”

The Lummi Nation signed the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, which

established the Suquamish Tribe’s Port Madison, Tulalip, Swinomish, and Lummi reservations and guaranteed fishing rights in perpetuity at each tribe’s’ Usual and Accustomed (U&A) fishing areas. The GPT project area is included in their U&A fishing area.

Terminal planners may alter their proposal to address the Lummi Nation’s land rights, though the Army Corps of Engineers concluded with this caveat: “If in the future the Lummi Nation withdraws its objections, the proponent could reinitiate processing of the application. A number of other tribes have expressed concern about effects of the proposal on their treaty rights, so if processing of the application resumes, consultation with those tribes would occur as needed to collect information and make decisions with respect to effects of the proposal on their rights.”

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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has inaugurated new nonstop commuter rail service between Worcester and Boston.

Called the “HeartToHub,” the nonstop service will take about one hour, cutting about 30 minutes off existing service that takes 90 minutes with up to 16 stops. It will run twice daily from Monday to Friday, originating in Worcester in the morning and Boston South Station in the evening, also making stops at Yawkey and Back Bay stations in between.

MBTA officials plan to evaluate the popularity of the service in one year.

Ben Vient joins Railway Age as Managing Editor Ben Vient has joined the editorial staff of Railway Age as Managing Editor, based at Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corp. headquarters in New York City.

Vient is an award-winning journalist, formerly with NBC News. He has also taught on international issues of press freedoms and human rights. He began his journalism career writing for newspapers in New England.

Vient holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Boston University.

Vient replaces Carolina Worrell, who has accepted an editorial position with Madavor Media in Boston.

Contact Mary Jo Balve Global Trade Show Services Inc. 33 Prince Place · Little Silver · NJ 07739 T +1 732 933 1118 · F +1 732 741 6437 mjbalve@globaltradeshow.com

June 2016 Railway Age 11

Watching Washington Frank n. wilner

Time again to reason together

A

t a time when polemics is delivering knockout blows to civil discourse and collaboration, a 78-year-old former amateur boxer—still punching above his weight—has advice on peaceful dispute resolution that lawmakers, regulators, rail executives and labor leaders would do well to read, mark and inwardly digest.

Yes, meet Democrat Jim Florio, a former New Jersey governor, 15 years in Congress and principal author of the 1980 Staggers Rail Act while chairman of the House Transportation Subcommittee. Florio now teaches public policy at Rutgers University amidst practicing law, promoting publicprivate partnerships—including one affecting Amtrak—and appearing at New Jersey Transit board meetings.

Well before alternative dispute resolution earned wide acceptance, Florio stapled himself into railroad history by focusing disparate parties on a shared goal of preserving railroads as privatesector, taxpaying entities able to meet shipper demands, improve productivity and provide solid middle-class wages and benefits.

Collaborating with Illinois House Republican Ed Madigan, Florio persuaded squabbling shipper, labor and carrier parties to embrace a framework for partial economic deregulation that salvaged a then overregulated and underfinanced rail industry from a least desired nationalization alternative.

“The stakeholders were hard talking, frequently adversarial, larger than life personalities—some of them zealots,” Florio says in describing the struggle he superintended to craft a bipartisan “rational solution” (the Staggers Rail Act) to the industry’s ills.

Florio views the current ideologicalfueled political environment as destroying “synergies of interest.” He

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says former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich polarized Congress beginning in 1995 by instructing House Republicans systematically to pronounce Democrats as “the enemy” and term as “evil” all Democratic proposals. “You can’t be reasonable with unreasonable people,” Florio says.

Such a corrosive environment, Florio says, frustrates development of effective policies to deal with the rapid pace of economic and social change. He says the 2008 financial crisis exposed a legislative void impotent to deal with problematic credit default swaps. And current politi-

“Nothing happens until the pain of the status quo exceeds the pain of change.” cal fisticuffs, he says, prevent a nonbelligerent revision of America’s healthcare insurance model that compels U.S. manufacturers to include in the cost of goods produced—virtually alone among developed nations—employee healthcare insurance premiums, rendering American exporters less competitive.

Supportive of free markets and reduced trade barriers, Florio targets protectionism as a prescription for lower living standards. Similar restraints on technological advancements retard productivity and consumer well-being, although the downside is job losses. The solution, he says, is public policy to deal positively with those left behind in an increasingly knowledge-based economy.

It is unlikely that manufacturing jobs will return to our shores, and even

more jobs will be eliminated as artificial intelligence and robotics proliferate. Opinion leaders and decision makers are discussing a Universal Basic Income—a stipend much like Social Security—to ensure a minimum standard of living. Equally important, Florio says, are business-financed strategies to instruct workers in new, marketable skills.

Consider remote control locomotives and Positive Train Control (PTC), two productivity generating technologies that are unsettling for their headcount reductions. Railroad management, he says, “must educate employees on the plusses and minuses of options. As technology improves productivity, and enhanced productivity improves profits, business must reciprocate by investing in education and training for future jobs,” Florio says.

On rail labor’s opposition to oneperson train crews, Florio advocates exploring with employees “the consequences” of resistance—especially with the emergence of self-driving highway vehicles that will dramatically shift the competitive balance in favor of trucks.

Then there is the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor (NEC), hosting Amtrak and New Jersey Transit— equivalent in New Jersey to a human body’s carotid artery, yet decaying under the burden of $52 billion in deferred maintenance.

“The current Amtrak model is unsustainable,” Florio says. His alternative is a public-private partnership to separate infrastructure from train operation, with a private entity funding and managing the NEC (“Is Robert Serlin Amtrak’s Merlin,” RA, February 2016).

In Congress, Florio often counseled, “Nothing happens until the pain of the status quo exceeds the pain of change.”

He now may add, “The time has come for us—again—to reason together.”

Perspective: Short Line & Regional Linda Darr

Three areas of critical importance

T

he American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association held its annual meeting in April, 2016.

I had the opportunity to reflect upon a very busy 2015, reviewing the wide variety of initiatives we have undertaken as an association to support our industry.

Despite economic and regulatory challenges, our industry continues to move forward, successfully.

The short liner’s role is not an easy or simple task: We operate the most vulnerable infrastructure in the national railroad system, so we must spend heavily on capital improvements. We serve small shippers, building volume one carload at a time.

We compete with a heavily subsidized trucking industry, so rates must be aggressively competitive. We partner with Class I railroads, so a railroad’s schedule, equipment and even its customers are not always our own.

In the face of these obstacles we’ve built something that matters in the world of transportation: 550 short lines operating 50,000 miles of track, one out of every four cars moving over the national railroad system, and connections for tens of thousands of towns and businesses to that system.

Looking forward, our association will prioritize three areas of importance to our success as an industry: safety, carload traffic, and support for reasonable regulation and legislation.

Safety is our priority at ASLRRA with the Short Line Safety Institute.

Safe railroading brings people home to their families and friends, keeps our people healthy and committed to our industry, and is at the core of any company’s reputation. “Safety First” isn’t just a slogan. It’s the right thing to do, and good business. ASLRRA and its members intend to lead the way to develop and maintain a strong and consistent safety culture, including

being open to changing and challenging our assumptions. The Short Line Safety Institute is going to help us make this work. It will ensure that even the smallest railroad can have the tools to have a superior safety culture.

Carload traffic is the lifeblood of the short line industry. We take great pride in the fact that we have turned losing lines into winners by bringing carload traffic back to light-density railroad lines. We work closely with Class I’s to share and transfer the best examples of short lines and Class I’s working

Despite economic and regulatory challenges, our industry continues to move forward, successfully. together to secure carload traffic, developing tools and checklists of actions Class I’s can institute to take advantage of the short lines’ ability to attract and build carload customers in their operating territories.

When looking at recently released figures from RSI, it is clear how tightly our successes can be tied together.

When comparing March 2015 to March 2016, the results of short line traffic help explain the results of Class I traffic. For instance, in chemical carloads, short lines reported an increase of 11.1%, assisting in driving the increase for the same commodity for Class I’s of 5.5%. Similarly, the decrease of 12.2% in short line grain traffic likely contributed to the negative carload traffic of 4.3% posted by Class

I’s. We should be on the lookout for anomalies to these trends, and learn from them to assist in raising the watermark for all.

As an industry, we are also invested in understanding trends, to help frame our thinking about car supply and car type, about investment in capacity to meet demand, and assist in driving business decisions such as the location and functionality of transload and warehouse facilities.

ASLRRA will continue to support legislation that works, such as the 45G Tax Credit and the BRACE Act. In a recent survey, we learned that short line operating revenues grew 164% from 2004 to 2013 and, during that same period, short line infrastructure investment grew 128%. Short line federal tax liability after application of 45G grew 64% from 2004 to 2013.

As a percentage of operating revenue, capital investment has remained between 24% and 31%.

We also learned that even when the recession was at its worst, from 2008-2010, short lines maintained consistently high levels of investment, never falling below 27% of operating revenues.

Clearly, the growth made possible by the tax credit helps generate more tax revenue, not less.

These findings help show that we are making a real and meaningful contribution to the nation’s transportation system. Short lines remain a critical part of the transportation system. When supported by a culture of excellence in safety, a strong working relationship with Class I’s, and a reasonable regulatory and legislative environment, we are able to excel at what we uniquely do—connect America’s small communities to national and international markets, and strengthen America’s economy.

June 2016 Railway Age 13

Transit Focus: Phoenix

Valley Metro

By Ben Vient, Managing Editor

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S

cott Smith remembers the hesitancy, as Mayor of Mesa, Ariz., when one mile of Phoenix’s new light rail line entered his city in 2008: “My predecessor didn’t support it. The city was deeply divided about the project, especially the $75 million cost of that mile.”

Seven years later, Mesa added three miles, growing the entire system to 27 miles. “The public’s assessment went from acceptance to hearty support,” says Smith, who now serves as interim CEO planning to expand the light rail system to 66 miles by 2034.

Smith explains that three pivotal moments allowed for development to start: First, in 1996, the city of Tempe passed a transit sales tax, allowing for planning of bus, light rail and streetcar routes. In 2000, Phoenix voters approved the idea of a transit sales tax. And third, in 2004, the entire Maricopa County voted in favor of a county-wide halfcent transportation sales tax that designates one-third of revenues to public transit, including light rail. (The other two-thirds goes to freeways and streets.)

“If we wanted to improve transportation infrastructure, people needed to step up and direct funding to do so,” Smith says. “We were lucky these consecutive votes allowed for this.”

In December 2008, the initial 20-mile, 28-station light rail system opened to connect Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.

“Rather quickly, we saw more neighborhoods, more communities ask to be included,” says Smith. “We saw with our own eyes, as downtowns and main streets became revitalized.”

To illustrate, Smith points to an impressive figure: City planners estimate the initial $1.1 billion investment has brought upwards of $8 billion in economic activity within one half-mile of the system. “Since people here have been able to experience this, it’s not hard now to sell them on light rail.”

In August 2015, a $200 million 3.1-mile extension opened into Mesa, providing connections to the downtown business district, educational institutions, Mesa Arts Center, and Mesa City Plaza. Groundbreaking occurred in May 2012, and was completed seven months ahead of schedule.

WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff joined with PGH Wong Engineering to manage construction of this extension, scheduling cost and design reviews and providing inspection services on behalf of Valley Metro and the city of Mesa.

John Taylor served as project manager for WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff. At age 73, after managing a number of transportation projects in the southwest, he says he’s surprised to see communities now considering a return to rail projects. “These were projects we in the United States got away from in past decades, but it’s smart we’d be thinking about them anew,” he says. “It makes sense, as we see communities getting more dense, space for parking becoming less and less, and we can’t continue expanding road sizes more and more. The younger generations also seem to have more of an openness to rail transportation development that I haven’t seen in the past.”

Most recently, the $327 million, 3.2-mile Northwest

Extension opened in March 2016 on 19th Avenue in north Phoenix. WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff and PGH Wong Engineering worked on this extension also, as program and construction managers, as did MAC Products, which manufactured and supplied overhead catenary systems material from the poles out.

Each of these light rail extensions added about 5,000 riders per day, and the system now averages 43,418 riders each weekday. It’s these ridership numbers that Maria Hyatt, Public Transit Director for Phoenix, says the community is now watching. Of the 14.3 million passengers reported in FY 2015, some 40% are students.

“I have two kids who both got their licenses at age 16,” Hyatt says. “But among their friends, I’m noticing a trend of people waiting to get their licenses later, as

In August 2015, Phoenix voters approved Transportation 2050, a 35-year plan to create a 0.7-cent tax to fund transit and street improvements. City planners estimate raising $16.7 billion. families may not have the multiple cars they once did, and insurance premiums go up. The light rail goes now to education centers, and we’re seeing ridership especially popular there.”

Not that the development has proven popular with everyone: Just this April 2016, neighboring Scottsdale’s city council deleted light rail from the city’s transportation master plan after Mayor Jim Lane and members questioned the $500 million cost. (This, after Valley Metro’s CEO Stephen Banta resigned after allegations of misuse of funds.)

“It’s the big-picture mindset change that amazes me,” Hyatt says. “In 2000, our mindset was to test new transit initiatives: Could we have Sunday service? Could we have night services? In 2000, we attempted a perpetual transit tax that failed miserably. But then voters found a 20-year transit tax more reasonable. We hear from our private industry partners that they want 20 to 30 years going forward to participate and plan. Our long-term transit sales tax makes these projects more attractive to public-private partnerships. We had to re-frame all this thinking, and the public now seems to be responding well.”

So well that in August 2015, Phoenix voters approved Transportation 2050, a 35-year plan to create a 0.7-cent tax to fund transit and street improvements. City planners estimate raising $16.7 billion over the life of this plan, and look toward creating light rail connections to Grand Canyon University and Arizona State University West.

“Ultimately,” Hyatt says, “we’re trying to get people to think about the future and next generations.” RA June 2016 Railway Age 15

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PTC vs. legacy train control

William Beecher

T

Positive Train Control developers could pay closer attention to history. By LARRY LIGHT, for Railway Age

he investment of blood, sweat, tears, experience and wisdom bound up in our current signal infrastructure is a very rich resource. This valuable investment has resulted in the extraordinarily safe operation of trains on our national networks in North America today— but it was not an easy road to get where we are today.

As the 20th century dawned, railroads were installing new interlockings and automatic signal systems to cope with the rapid rise in traffic, speeds and accidents continuing from the 1880s and ’90s. The new systems were proving effective, but as many track-miles of these new systems were installed, unsafe failures began to be revealed. It became increasingly apparent that the engineers who had begun to trust the new concept of moving by signal indication needed something better.

By 1907, the railroads were experiencing several hundred false-proceed failures per year, the same year that the number of passenger train fatalities peaked. However, a new discipline of railroad signal engineering was beginning to really “get it,” and signal experts from 21 railroads serving the greater New York City area began to meet regularly to examine every false-proceed signal failure to take corrective

action. By 1914, their efforts began to pay off, and the slight decline in passenger fatalities from 1907 changed to a more rapid decline, as the systems got better and many more miles were installed.

Signal experts have continued this process to this day.

Further breakthroughs in the past 30-plus years have eliminated jointed rail and bond wires, replaced wire lines with digital technology, and replaced relays with microprocessors.

This has further enhanced safety, greatly improved reliability, and reduced the cost of our current signal systems.

However, because of a loss of institutional knowledge, this very valuable up-to-date resource is often taken for granted, and even ignored as obsolete when planning improvements.

This has certainly been the case in much of the “hype” that has driven too much of the thinking about PTC. If you don’t know your history, you are doomed to repeat it—the quest for the “silver bullet.”

As signal engineers were stamping out signal failures, and began in 1907 to set the standard for the continuous improvement that continues today, the ICC and the press were losing faith. Fatalities per thousand passenger-miles June 2016 Railway Age 17

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• PTC is costing too much, and we haven’t even touched on future operational and maintenance costs of unnecessary complexity. However, initial estimates of the cost of “failures enroute” when compared to signal-generated train control are not pretty.

• PTC is taking too long to design and install. For example, ACSES on the Northeast Corridor was purposely kept simple to meet only safety concerns. It was a blend of mature technologies. What would have happened if these cardinal principles had driven creation of the “national standard”?

• Submission to political pressure raises the grave danger of compromising our previously very high standards of failsafe design. The U.S. has a safe, reliable signal infrastructure, supporting the freight system, and passenger services with ability to meet future demand. However, the national standard for PTC does not currently have a clear path to certification as a vital system.

This raises three significant questions: • History shows when a signal aspect is missed enroute coincident with a false-clear failure in any system designed to enforce that aspect, human nature will likely interpret the unseen aspect as a “clear” when a stop is required. How can it be safer to give an engineer a non-vital system to interpret and enforce a vital system, when simpler vital PTC systems are available?

• There is rising demand for intercity passenger services in high-performance corridors for 110-mph operation, yet only PTC systems certified as vital will be allowed to support any of these operations at speeds exceeding 90 mph. How will these operations be supported?

• The pressure is very subtle, but still strong, to force the industry down the road toward a more costly, less-safe operation. How are we to justify this negative trend nationally?

And why would we want to?

The good news is that there are forms of PTC that have taken advantage of our signal and train control history to strongly mitigate against negative forces. The bad news is that much of the national network is in danger of being, to a certain extent, compromised by forms of PTC that have failed to take full advantage of our railroad heritage. RA

How can it be safer to give an engineer a non-vital system to interpret and enforce a vital system?

William Beecher

were declining, yet there were rare but tragic high-profile collisions, ultimately resulting in the 1922 mandate for 49 passenger-carrying railroads to install one division with ATC or ATS. After WWII came the 1947 edict requiring ATC or ATS for maximum operating speeds of 80 mph or higher.

Two systems have survived, the intermittent inductor ATS, and the continuous coded ATC, reaching its highest development in the NEC as the backbone of Northeast PTC. A similar quest for the “silver bullet” is now being pursued as PTC. What is never emphasized is the extraordinarily high compliance ratio when it comes to our nation’s locomotive engineers operating their trains on signal indication. As we spend ever-increasing billions on PTC in our asymptotic approach to perfection, when will we realize that an asymptote can consume everything you have, but you can never quite make it?

One other element of signal history often overlooked was the “vital” concept, clearly demonstrated with the introduction of Centralized Traffic Control. In 1928, the first coded CTC went into service, where locations, switch/signal controls and indications were transmitted by codes to and from a central office. This matured into high-speed data transfer that has made possible the control centers of today.

The concept that made this breakthrough possible is “vital” logic vs. “non-vital” logic—separating more costly fail-safe logic from all the other logic not directly affecting the safety of train movement, and reliably executed at less cost.

At any control center, screen data is driven by non-vital logic. Fail-safe vital logic that protects train movements is in the field at sites controlled and indicated. Non-vital indications are reliable for observing and planning train movement, but they cannot be relied upon to execute safety functionality.

In addition to the obvious liability benefit, the genius of the “vitality” concept is simply that it permits signaling and train control systems to be kept simple and affordable in achieving their basic mission: ensuring that individual trains do not exceed their safe speeds or limits of authority within their safe braking distances. Any additional feature that does not directly contribute to this mission can be more economically and efficiently handled separately from fail-safe logic.

The prevalent idea that the “new PTC” should try to make a “business case” has been a costly myth. It is like cancer, metastasizing basic architecture, fatally mixing vital and nonvital elements. If there is no business case for PTC, how can we justify this complexity?

Three basic threads are woven into our current signal infrastructure: continuous safety improvement, simple and effective train control, and the concept of vitality and nonvitality. Each have greatly contributed to making our current S&TC infrastructure safe, reliable and affordable. However, there is a problem.

Loss of institutional knowledge of the significant gains made by signal engineers over the years has been costly in the PTC creation, causing considerable pain in three areas:

An Enterprise IT perspective

If U.S. freight railroads truly want to move toward scheduled operations, Enterprise Information Technology Architecture is a primary requirement. By RON LINDSEY, Contributing Editor

W

ithin the past decade, the three core technologies required to operate a freight railroad efficiently and safely have advanced substantially, but only one has been pursued, with the other two yet to be recognized, yet alone considered as to being major paradigm shifts. The core technologies are communications, positioning, and IT architecture.

As to communications, major freight and passenger railroads across the globe have made the advancement from voice radio to data radio. However, it was only with the federal government’s PTC mandate, which requires an industry-wide wireless platform, that U.S. freight railroads began to consider a broader perspective of the value of wireless data for management purposes other than tracking locomotives. Unfortunately, this perspective is more tactical than strategic at this point, and it doesn’t yet extend to the opportunities for the railroads collectively.

Regarding positioning, the physical technologies used for determining block occupancy (the underlying basis for safe train movements) have advanced only as to form—token, track circuit, axle counters, wayside markers, and soon fiber optic infrastructure. Nearly all railroads have yet to consider “virtual” technologies, augmented GPS being the most obvious example, that can position both the front and end of a train to determine block occupancy with significant accuracy for most operations. For example, my consultancy, Strategic Rail LLC (SR), has designed a Virtual CTC traffic control solution (VCTC) for two railroads, one in Central

Asia and the other in North Africa, with the former now considering suppliers that have developed and proven similar capability in revenue service. VCTC is real, the major challenge to its rate of implementation being the lack of supplier development and marketing, given the suppliers’ recognition of a substantial loss in revenue as to capital investment and on-going maintenance expenditures, given VCTC’s avoidance of physical positioning infrastructure.

As to IT architecture, most if not all major railroads have developed theirs over decades since the introduction of mainframe computers in the 1960s. While there have been significant shifts in the IT hardware platforms, resource management systems for individual railroad departments have evolved independently of other systems, thereby creating a silo-based or “stovepipe” structure. That is understandable, given the use of physical positioning technologies and the lack of wireless data that has existed until recently. But that is no longer the case, and it is now time to consider the transition to an “Enterprise IT Architecture” (EITA) perspective.

Simply stated, EITA is based on the primary principle of Single Source of Truth (SSOT), where each major Data Class (DC), e.g., train position and speed, is provided by a single Business Process (BP). Hence, any other BP that needs that information, regardless of the Business System in which it resides, can only obtain those data from the SSOT, e.g., a Train Position & Speed server, what I refer to often as a “Positioning Gateway.” That doesn’t mean that there cannot be multiple sources for seemingly same data, but the SSOT June 2016 Railway Age 19

it

approach integrates those data from multiple sources into one source through some sort of rationalization process.

An example of this rationalization of multiple data sources is the Kalman Filtering process used in missile navigation and guidance—or the positioning module for an on-board PTC platform that is not solely dependent upon GPS. Actually, there are two levels of EITA that should be considered by U.S. freight railroads, individually and collectively.

INDIVIDUAL RAILROAD CONSIDERATIONS

The Middle Eastern railroad for which SR designed VCTC has now engaged SR to develop an EITA where VCTC delivers what conventional CTC cannot, i.e., continuous train speed and precise location in fixed- and/or flexible-block operation.

This is the underlying information required by the railroad’s key operating assets to best sync the management of these resources to adhere to “dynamic” schedules, including trains, locomotives, cars, yard switching and maintenance crews.

For this railroad, SR has designed the “ideal” EITA based upon the advanced state of technologies to identify the requirements for advancing its resource management systems, e.g. the use of AEI for tracking rolling stock. This generic EITA provides the basis for this railroad and others across the globe that seek a strategic perspective to advance their IT architectures to best service their operations in the future.

AN INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

The individual railroad EITA perspective is important for major railroads, both domestic and international. But in the U.S. particularly, there is a phenomenal advantage to developing an industry-enterprise perspective, given the interchange of trains across the continent and the associated movement of locomotives, rolling stock and shipments.

For example, consider the opportunities for continentwide maintenance of locomotives and railcars regardless of location and ownership. From a shippers’ perspective, an industry EITA provides UPS-type tracking and shipment condition. For railroad schedules subject to train interchange with foreign roads, an industry-based EITA provides one critical step to improving schedule performance. And, what about fuel management in the locomotive interchange?

THE EITA PROCESS

Structuring an EITA requires a formal process that engages many management levels of the individual railroad and industry, as to their specific requirements. The classic process used

by SR (various consulting firms have similar methodologies) is that of Business System Planning (BSP), introduced by IBM in the early 1970s to minimize data duplication and storage, given the high cost of disc-based operating systems.

The basis of BSP is understanding which BPs create (C)

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it

and use (U) primary DCs. The resulting “C/U” matrix of BPs vs. DCs is massaged to eliminate duplication of the same data generation, processing, storage and distribution to where there is only one creation source for each DC. In the case of the Middle Eastern railroad, the EITA C/U matrix consists of 300 BPs against 140 DCs for a generic railroad. Subsequently, for this railroad, other benefits were identified. That is, given this railroad’s tremendous dependency on manual data generation, SR’s effort identified those BPs that can be replaced by advanced, automated data collection system to reduce manual efforts. So, while the advancement of VCTC will greatly reduce the railroad’s cost of replacing its conventional, maintenance-intensive traffic control system, this railroad can greatly reduce the cost of manual labor with systems and equipment that provide more timely and accurate information automatically.

For railroads outside of the U.S., this tradeoff between conventional CTC and VCTC with advanced resource management systems offers new markets for suppliers willing to consider an entire railroad’s operation with regard to overall advancement of their client, instead of focusing primarily on train control and traffic management. That is, VCTC is the next level of train control and traffic management, and it can supplement supplier revenue by integrating advanced resource management systems.

In a related market, SR developed an EITA for North America’s intermodal industry for a client several years ago.

Given the tens of thousands of companies that are involved in intermodal, an industry-based EITA offers extraordinary market opportunities for suppliers for advancing that industry.

Last, to be clear, EITA is not the same as the popular movement of “Internet of Things” (IoT). IoT is a “back door” means to improve the efficiency of conventional IT architecture by consolidating disparate data for analysis to benefit resource management. IoT is well justified now, but EITA eliminates the need for such processes to provide for more direct analysis and responsible management for how key operating data are obtained, processed, stored and distributed.

Making the transition to EITA is not easy. It requires an IT discipline foreign to the evolutionary process of advancing individual railroad department systems: an integrated SSOT-based information flow. This process involves topdown commitment and involvement by a railroad’s operating executives, who must be directly engaged with—not passive about—the IT department’s objectives. For further understanding, I refer you to an article published in Harvard Business Review, November 2002, titled “ Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn’t Make.” It addresses a lack of operations management in a company’s and industry’s IT progression— as in the case of U.S. railroads. RA

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2016 PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE By ben vient, Managing Editor,

with William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

On May 18, 2016, the California HighSpeed Rail Authority announced amendments to its grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the first amendment to the grant agreement since 2012. This move comes after the CHSRA recently approved its new 2016 Business Plan— which sets forth the plan to connect the Central Valley and Silicon Valley by 2024. CHSRA says this move addresses the current Legislature’s commitment of Cap and Trade proceeds, does not delay the project, and focuses the use of ARRA funds by the mandated deadline of Sept. 30, 2017.

AMTRAK

In February, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved nearly $8 billion in funding for Amtrak.

Dubbed the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment (PRRIA) Act, the bill provides about $982 million per year for Amtrak’s national network and 24 Railway Age June 2016

another $470 million annually for its Northeast U.S. routes. The bill, which is set to expire in 2019, also provides another $300 million per year for construction on Amtrak routes in the rest of the country. Amtrak last received an appropriations bill in 2008, which provided about $1.3 billion for a combination of operations, construction and debt service.

Work on the Empire Corridor, a partnership of Amtrak, the New York State Department of Transportation and CSX Transportation, continues. The program will design and construct approximately $200 million of infrastructure improvements: Albany-to-Schenectady double track, 17 miles of second main track and upgraded signals; Albany-Rensselaer station, fourth track; Schenectady station, new platform; replacement of old signal pole lines with new underground cables between Poughkeepsie and Red Hook; and upgrading of three grade crossings.

VIA RAIL CANADA

In the past year, Via Rail experienced an increase in both ridership and revenues for the first time in seven years, across the network, including regional train services. Total passenger-miles were up by some 1.7% year-over-year, buoyed by a rising trend line in the second half of the year that has continued into 2016. Revenues continued to show a year-over-year improvement, increasing by 6.2% compared to the year prior. As a result, VIA Rail’s requirement for government operating funding decreased by 11.7% compared to the previous year, $13 million less than planned.

BOSTON/MBTA

On the Framingham-Worcester Commuter Rail Line, the MBTA is replacing more than 26,000 rail ties to lift speed restrictions. An express train between Worcester to Boston began in May 2016, running twice daily and taking about an hour.

John Livzey

CALIFORNIA HSR

PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE

The system grapples with the Green Line Extension light rail project. In their recent resolution, the Board recognized that, “the Green Line Extension is a longstanding commitment under the state’s Clean Air Act State Implementation Plan which has many transportation, economic development and environmental benefits not only for Cambridge, Somerville and Medford but for the greater Boston region and economy.” But, the resolution finds, “the Green Line Extension as procured and designed is not affordable or cost-effective for the MBTA given its other needs; and the existing Construction Manager/General Contractor contract documents do not provide sufficient cost reliability or risk allocation for the MBTA.” PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Rhode Island’s state capital scrapped plans for a $117 million, 1.6-mile streetcar line that would had begun at the Providence Amtrak/MBTA station, through the city’s business and cultural core, and end near the main entrance of Rhode Island Hospital. In its place? A $17 million 1.4-mile bus plan slated for 2018.

CONNECTICUT

Metro-North increased the number of Quiet Cars on every train to two.

(Because maybe there’s too much talk this political year.)

ConnDOT branded its upcoming rail service to Springfield, Mass. as “CTrail Hartford Line.” The service, scheduled to begin in 2018, will provide more frequent and faster passenger rail service between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield by increasing the number of round-trip trains from six daily Amtrak intercity trains to a total of 17 round-trip trains a day to Hartford, and 12 trains per day to Springfield.

to improve safety by modifying all seven street-level train crossings along the LIRR Main Line segment between Floral Park and Hicksville: Covert Ave., South 12th St. and New Hyde Park Rd., all in New Hyde Park; Main St. and Willis Ave., in Mineola; School St. in Westbury and Urban Ave. in New Cassel. A third track will begin to service Ronkonkoma, Port Jefferson, Hempstead, Oyster Bay and some Montauk Branch trains. Also, the LIRR’s East Side Access Project will take Long Island commuters to Grand Central Terminal and the East Side of Manhattan for the first time. Together the projects are expected to cut commuting time for many customers by up to 20 minutes in each direction.

400,000 Brooklynites who ride the city’s L train daily anxiously await word on tunnel repairs. The 94-yearold Canarsie tunnel that links Brooklyn to Manhattan flooded in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy with more than 7 million gallons of salt water. The corroded tunnel must be closed for repairs at some point, but whether in 2019, and whether fully for months or partially for years, remain hotly debated.

Hillary Clinton joined millions of New Yorkers underground in the Metro system, and millions of New Yorkers who have had to swipe the Metrocard again and again to enter. In April 2016, the MTA released a request for proposal for a a contacless fare payment system, to experiment with contactless smart cards and mobile devices.

NEW JERSEY

NJ DOT continues to invest in upgrades to the Northeast Corridor (NEC), the agency’s most-utilized rail line. The NEC is allocated $61 million in FY 2016 as part of NJ Transit’s ten-year, $1 billion NEC investment program. Highlights of NJT’s total $2.1 billion FY2016 capital program includes $82 million in rail station improvements: $27 million for Summit Station improvements, $14 million for Elizabeth Station enhancements, $6 million for Perth Amboy Station improvements and high-level platform construction, $4 million for Newark Penn Station upgrades, $4 million to reconstruct Lyndhurst Station to make it accessible to persons with disabilities and $2 million for New Brunswick Station improvements. The program also supports continued investment in rolling stock renewal, with $87 million invested in rolling stock improvements.

PHILADELPHIA

SEPTA released a 12-year, $7.3 billion capital program, beginning in FY 2017, entitled: “Rebuilding the System.” The program was initiated following the enactment of a longterm state transportation funding solution under Act 89. To bring SEPTA’s assets to a state of good repair, the Authority is rehabilitating and replacing critical infrastructure and systems, such as substations, bridges and stations. The capital program includes safety and security

Stephen C. Host

NEW YORK CITY

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced major steps forward for the Long Island Rail Road Expansion Project, including a continued commitment to community outreach by holding four public meetings, expedited modifications to all train crossings along the project route, and increased transparency with the release of a new project scoping report, website and community center. The Project seeks June 2016 Railway Age 25

PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE NORFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH

Virginia Beach City Council voted 9-2 in April 2016 to extend light rail from Norfolk. The City Council also aims to buy three railcars for $19.77 million, though this plan may await a November voter referendum on light rail. (In 2012, 62 percent of Beach voters approved a nonbinding referendum allowing the council to use all reasonable efforts to finance and develop the light rail extension project.)

CHARLOTTE

BALTIMORE

As part of a city-wide $135 million transit re-design project called “Baltimore Link,” the city will expand Light RailLink Sunday hours from 11a.m.-7 p.m. to 6 a.m.-midnight. The Howard Street Improvement Project also will be implemented to increase rider and pedestrian safety. Light RailLink audible and visual safety alerts will be installed at 16 intersections in the Central Business District to alert patrons when a train is approaching.

In February 2016, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) 26 Railway Age June 2016

awarded a $36.8 million contract to Bombardier Transportation to overhaul 63 MARC III bi-level commuter railcars.

Construction on MTA’s $2.5 billion, 16.2-mile, east-west Purple Line is scheduled to begin this year and go through 2022.

WASHINGTON D.C.

WMATA debuted its first 7000-series train from Kawasaki Rail Car USA on the Blue Line. WMATA has ordered 528 of the new railcars, enough to replace all 1000- and 4000-series cars and expand the size of its fleet by 128 cars. Options to purchase an additional 220 cars can be exercised if funding is committed by midyear.

WMATA returned the Red Line to automatic train operation (ATO) in April. Eight-car trains will run in ATO mode initially; six-car trains will continue to operate in manual mode. A future software upgrade will allow six-car trains to return to ATO mode. The five other rail lines (Orange, Silver, Blue, Yellow and Green) are currently undergoing track-circuit module replacement projects and a return to ATO on these lines is expected in late 2017.

100 miles of Washington’s Metro will get new cables to improve radio and wireless technology coverage, a $120 million capital project.

CHATTANOOGA

The city is studying different plans to improve public transit systems, including a city-wide question: “Should we return to rail?” One plan would include the construction of a rapid rail system stretching from the Choo Choo through Highland Park to Enterprise South, while another plan would simply extend the streetcar system along the same route but would sidestep Highland Park and Orchard Knob.

ATLANTA

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed a landmark bill that empowers the City of Atlanta to hold a fall ballot referendum asking voters to support a half-penny sales tax to expand the MARTA system.

The Atlanta Streetcar project continues after the opening of the Phase 1 section in December 2014: The total cost of the project is $98.9 million, with capital match contributions from the City of Atlanta ($15.6 million) and ADID ($6 million) as part of a total contribution from ADID of $20 million over 20 years.

William C. Vantuono

enhancements, along with modernization of communication and signal equipment. The SEPTA Key project will replace antiquated fare collection systems with cutting-edge payment technology, allowing customers to move seamlessly throughout the SEPTA transit network. SEPTA will replace rail vehicles that have far exceeded their useful life, while enhancing accessibility and expanding capacity to address ridership growth.

Rail expansion is on the drawing board to King of Prussia (the largest employment center outside of Philadelphia), and to the Philadelphia Navy Yard area (where employment is expected to triple to 36,000 at full buildout).

Charlotte Area Transit’s CityLYNX Gold Line 10-mile streetcar opened in July 2015. Phase one runs from the Time Warner Cable Arena to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center with six stations along the way, complete with a lighted, covered seating area. The CityLYNX Gold Line is a free service. Construction continues on the Blue Line extension: The 9.3-mile alignment extends from 7th Street Station in Center City through the NoDA (North Davidson) and University areas, terminating on the UNC Charlotte campus.

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PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE MIAMI

Groundbreaking began on the first expansion of SunRail, which began operations on May 1, 2014 and currently serves 12 stations between DeBary in Volusia County and Sand Lake Road, south of the city of Orlando. The planned expansion will add four stations to the system at Meadow Woods, the Tupperware Station, the Kissimmee Station adjacent to the current Amtrak station in downtown, and the Poinciana station. The $187 million project is funded 50% by the Federal Transit Administration, and 25% each by the state of Florida and local funding partners. The project is a 17.2-mile extension of existing SunRail service, which now operates on 32 miles of the Central Florida Rail Corridor.

The Miami Intermodal Center is a massive $2 billion ground transportation hub being built by the Florida Department of Transportation. The MIC Program consists of several components: major roadway improvements, including a reconfigured Le Jeune Road, completed in May 2008; the user-friendly Rental Car Center, which opened for business in July 2010; the MIA Mover, which became operational in September 2011 and connects MIA to the Rental Car Center; and the Miami Central Station, which opened in April 2015 and currently offers connections to Tri-Rail and Greyhound services with Amtrak services scheduled to start in the fall of 2016. When complete, the MIC will provide connectivity via various modes of transportation between Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and the Florida Keys.

TAMPA BAY

Hillsborough Area Rapid Transit, which operates the 2.7-mile TECO Line Streetcar, issued a study to explore an extension through downtown Tampa to the Marion Transit Center.

FORT LAUDERDALE

The Wave Streetcar’s project design phase, managed by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), was completed. Funding is now in place to advance the 2.7-mile streetcar project in downtown Fort Lauderdale to the next stage. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will navigate through the Design-Build procurement process and produce the necessary guidance and specifications documents for Design-Build teams to bid on the project. It is anticipated to be advertised in July 2016, which will lead to a price opening of the construction bids in the spring of 2017. The $195 million cost to build the Wave Streetcar increased because many improvements and additions have been made to the original proposal. Some of those include the addition of the loop to the north end of Flagler Village, the relocation of the streetcar maintenance and operations facility to SW 18 Street and SW 1 Avenue requiring an extension of the tracks, the addition of more sophisticated and communications equipment and the fortification of the Operations Center to withstand hurricanes.

28 Railway Age June 2016

BUFFALO

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority considers the Amherst-Buffalo Corridor Transit Options Study, with alternative transit options being considered, including an extension of Metro Rail.

CLEVELAND

Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority is planning a $6.3 million project to rebuild the East 116th Street

light rail station at Shaker Boulevard, just west of Shaker Square. The station is used

by Blue and Green line trains.

CINCINNATI

Scheduled to open in September 2016, the 3.6-mile loop Cincinnati Streetcar will connect downtown, the riverfront and Over the Rhine. The Cincinnati Streetcar is owned and funded by the City of Cincinnati, managed by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, and operated by Transdev.

ILLINOIS

Improvements are planned for 27 of Metra’s 241 stations this year. Amtrak will rebuild turnouts and switches on Track 1 near Roosevelt Road south of Chicago Union Station. This $1.8 million project will impact train traffic in and out of the south end of Union Station, which is used by Metra’s BNSF, SouthWest Service and Heritage Corridor lines in addition to Amtrak. The project is funded by Amtrak and Metra.

Along the Rock Island, Metra will replace the bridge at Morgan Street in Chicago and rehabilitate the bridges at 37th, 39th, 51st and 57th Streets. In addition, a $4 million rehabilitation of the 96th Avenue bridge in Mokena will begin later this year.

On the UP North, Metra will begin the next phase of a project to replace

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bridges on the north side of Chicago. This phase includes 11 bridges for the inbound tracks over Grace, Irving Park, Berteau, Montrose, Sunnyside, Wilson, Leland, Lawrence, Winnemac, Foster and Balmoral. As part of this $30 million project, the new inbound half of the Ravenswood Station will be built. The work could start late 2016 and take about three years.

CHICAGO

The Chicago Transit Board awarded a contract for the newest generation of CTA railcars—the 7000-series. The largest railcar order in CTA history will be built by CSR Sifang America JV, which as part of its winning bid has pledged to build a brand-new railcar assembly facility in Chicago—the first of its kind in 35 years. The facility is expected to generate 170 jobs, and represents an investment of $40 million.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) started the next major phase of the Wilson Station Reconstruction Project on

March 21. The $203 million project, which began in late 2014, is completely reconstructing the Wilson station and the station’s more than 100-year-old track structure, creating a new transfer point between the Red and Purple Lines.

Two significant funding boosts for the CTA’s Red and Purple Modernization Program, one of the largest projects in CTA history: First, President Obama’s proposed federal fiscal 2017 budget included $125 million of funding in 2017 for RPM Phase 1 from the Federal Transit Administration’s Core Capacity Program, supported by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in 2012 as a member of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) Conference Committee. Second, the U.S. Department of Transportation allocated a separate $156 million in new funding provided by Congress, which had been budgeted for in previous years but never appropriated.

Combined, the two funding sources represent nearly 30% of the federal funding envisioned for this project.

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30 Railway Age June 2016

MILWAUKEE

The development of The Milwaukee Streetcar is moving forward following city approval and additional funding in February 2015. Final design of the Phase 1 route is nearing completion and, with the October 2015 announcement of a $14.2 million federal TIGER grant, further Lakefront Line planning is also under way. The Request for Proposals (RFP) for streetcar vehicles was issued and selection of a vehicle vendor, U.S.based Brookville Equipment Corp., is complete. Preliminary utility relocation work was completed in fall 2015 and will continue in 2016. In April 2016, the RFP was published for building the system’s main line, operations and maintenance facility. Main line construction is expected to start late summer 2016.

The Milwaukee Streetcar’s Phase 1 route is slated to begin operation in 2018 with the Lakefront Line extension launching service in 2019.

The $957 million, 11-mile Central Corridor LRT, the Green Line, opened in June 2014, connecting Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Nearly 12.4 million rides were taken on the Green Line during its first full year of operation. Average weekday ridership was 37,400 – just under the 2030 forecast of 41,000 rides.

The second light rail line, the METRO Blue Line, set a new annual ridership record with more than 10.6 million rides, the highest annual ridership since it opened in mid-2004.

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Construction of the 3.4-mile QLINE streetcar line began in July 2014 and is anticipated to be complete in late 2016.

In May 2016, QLINE officially dedicated its Penske Tech Center for the QLINE, which will run along the Woodward corridor. Located in the North End, the facility is sponsored by Penske Corporation and named for Roger S. Penske who serves as the chairman of the board for QLINE (formerly M-1 RAIL).

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OMAHA

The city is currently working on a financial plan for its proposed 3.22-mile streetcar line. The aim is to complete the plan by the end of 2016.

PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE KANSAS CITY

The two-mile Downtown Kansas City Streetcar opened on May 6, 2016. The first day consisted of 12,230 riders celebrating opening day of the KC Streetcar.

The starter line is the first step in a longer-range plan to create a regional, integrated transit system.

ST. LOUIS

The $43 million Loop Trolley project, a 2.2-mile electric streetcar service operating along Delmar Blvd. and DeBaliviere Ave., is currently under construction and scheduled to begin operation in the Spring of 2017.

The Loop Trolley Company, a not-for-profit corporation, will be responsible for operating the service following the completion of construction in early 2017. The Trolley is currently being built by the Loop Trolley Transportation Development District (Loop Trolley TDD), which will retain ownership of the system.

NASHVILLE

In the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan, adopted by the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the long-range vision calls for the development of a new commuter rail line in the region’s northwest corridor to connect Clarksville and Nashville.

the proposed streetcar line that will connect downtown and LSU. The 7.38mile line is expected to cost around $100 million, and rely on a combination of federal and private funding.

OKLAHOMA CITY

The Oklahoma City Council voted in March 2016 to approve an agreement to buy up to six electric streetcars from Brookville Equipment Corporation for the MAPS 3 Modern Streetcar system.

The $24.9 million contract is for five streetcars and includes an option to buy a sixth.

The MAPS 3 Modern Streetcar will link downtown, Bricktown, Midtown, Automobile Alley and other areas in OKC’s urban core, including the MAPS 3 Downtown Public Park and MAPS 3 Convention Center.

In February 2016, the City Council approved two streetcar routes: a 2.04mile east-west route, and 4.86-mile north-south route. Construction will begin at the end of 2016.

DALLAS/FORT WORTH

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced that President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget includes $49 million for construction of Dallas’s Red and Blue Line Platform Extensions Project.

The Red and Blue lines currently are limited to two-car train lengths because platforms at 28 of the existing stations on these lines are only long enough to accommodate two-car trains. The Red and Blue Line Platform Extensions Project will expand the platforms at these stations to accommodate three-car trains, resulting in increased capacity and reduced crowding for passengers.

TEX Rail, the 27-mile commuter rail project being developed by the Forth Worth Transportation Authority, will be the next passenger rail service coming to Tarrant County, with service projected to have more than 15,000 daily riders using 10 rail stations at full buildout. The line will begin in downtown Forth Worth at the existing TRE T&P Station, continuing

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LITTLE ROCK

The city considers a 2.5-mile extension to Little Rock National Airport on Central Arkansas Transit Authority’s 3.4-mile River Rail streetcar system.

NEW ORLEANS

Construction on the North Rampart Street/St. Claude Avenue Streetcar Expansion project continues since January 2015. The project is part of the RTA’s French Quarter streetcar expansion and is expected to open in September 2016.

The city credits the Loyola Avenue Streetcar line, completed in 2013, with generating $2.7 billion of private economic investment in the corridor.

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BATON ROUGE

The Federal Transit Administration announced in April 2016 it will help the city navigate the planning and environmental analysis to select the best alignment for

www.ltk.com June 2016 Railway Age 31

PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE

across Northeast Tarrant County to Grapevine and into DFW International Airport. Five groups are working together for the 2018 opening: Fort Worth and Western Railroad, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Union Pacific Railroad and Amtrak.

HOUSTON

Getting from Dallas to Houston could become easier: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) are working with the Texas Central Railway (TCR), a private entity that is developing and funding the environmental study for a proposed high-speed rail between the Dallas and Houston areas. Track construction would cost an estimated $10 billion in private investor funding.

In Houston itself, MetroRail has three light rail lines in operation: the Red, Purple and Green. The Green Line is currently being expanded and will go to the Magnolia Park Transit Center once the Harrisburg bridge is

32 Railway Age June 2016

completed. That project will take at least a year and possibly longer.

AUSTIN

The proposed $97 million El Paso Streetcar Project consists of a two-mile, double-tracked corridor, beginning in the area near the Downtown Shopping District and International Bridges, traveling north through downtown to the University of Texas at El Paso area, the Cincinnati Entertainment District and back. The proposed vehicle is the Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars that once traveled throughout El Paso’s roads. The rehabilitated vehicles will be approximately 45 feet long, 8.5 feet wide, with two entrances, and expected to begin service in 2018.

DENVER

The 23-mile University of Colorado A Line opened on April 22, 2016, connecting downtown Denver, Denver International Airport, and communities along I-70. The B Line (referred to as the

Northwest Rail during construction) will open for service in July 2016, providing direct service from Union Station to Westminster. The B Line is the first six miles of the proposed 41-mile commuter rail line that will eventually go to Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder and Longmont.

The G Line (referred to as the Gold Line during construction) will open for service in 2016. The G Line service will travel 11 miles between Union Station and Wheat Ridge, passing through northwest Denver, Adams County and Arvada.

The R Line (also known as the Aurora Line/I-225 Rail) is a 10.5 mile extension of rail from the current Nine Mile station north to the University of Colorado A Line. The R Line service will travel 22 miles from the new Peoria Station at the north end of the line, to Lincoln Station at the south end of the line.

SALT LAKE CITY

Riders are taking advantage of extended hours and more frequent service on select UTA services. Preliminary data

PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE

shows significant ridership increases on TRAX and the S-Line. TRAX recorded a nearly 14% increase in Sunday boardings after operating hours were extended on Sunday mornings and evenings. S-Line boardings increased by 13.3% after the streetcar’s service hours were extended to match those of TRAX. ALBUQUERQUE

The Rio Metro Regional Transit District is developing a Strategic Plan for transit’s future role in the region. Currently, Rail Runner Express spans 100 miles.

PHOENIX/TEMPE

Valley Metro currently operates 26 miles of light rail. In Fiscal Year 2015, total ridership for the system was 73 million passengers. Seven high capacity extensions are planned or are under construction that will create a 66-mile system by 2034. The $327 million Northwest Extension opened in March 2016.

The proposed five-mile South Central Extension project will connect with the

current light rail system in downtown Phoenix and will run south to Baseline Road. In February 2016, planning for the Valley’s first streetcar line reached a significant funding milestone. Tempe Streetcar is included in President Obama’s budget for Fiscal Year 2017, for $75 million. The project moves ahead with next steps including design, preliminary engineering, utility assessments and vehicle procurement. Construction will initiate in 2017 with the opening scheduled for 2019. The Tempe Streetcar project capital costs are estimated at $177 million and will be funded using regional Proposition 400 funds, local funds, and federal grant dollars. (Further details in the feature story, p. 14.)

TUCSON

Sun Link welcomed its millionth passenger in 2015. The $196 million Sun Link streetcar line opened to the public in July 2014. The project is part of the $2.1 billion, 20-year Regional Transportation Authority plan.

HONOLULU

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has completed five miles of guideway for Oahu’s rail transit system, which accounts for 25% of the project’s elevated guideway work for the 20-mile system. The five miles of guideway includes more than 215 spans. Each span, which is the portion of guideway between two columns, typically consists of 12 segments. And each segment weighs about 50 tons. The $5.16 billion Phase 1 of the 20-mile, 21-station metro is scheduled to open in 2017.

SAN DIEGO

The Mid-Coast Trolley will extend service from Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego to the University City community, serving major activity centers such as Old Town, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Westfield UTC. Primary construction of the project is expected to begin in the second half of 2016, with service anticipated to begin in 2021.

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PASSENGER RAIL GUIDE

The FTA approved the project’s entry into final engineering in April 2015. SANDAG is now working to secure a full funding grant agreement (FFGA) from the FTA’s New Starts program. Anticipated in mid 2016, the FFGA would provide 50% of the project funding. The other half of the funding will be provided by TransNet, the San Diego region’s voter-approved half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements. Including financing, the current budget for the project is approximately $2 billion.

LOS ANGELES

The 6.6-mile MTA Blue Expo Line opened in May 2016.

The $1.37 billion, 1.9-mile Regional Connector Project will extend from Metro Rail’s Little Tokyo/Arts District Station to the 7th St/Metro Center in downtown LA, allowing access to the Gold, Blue, Expo, Red and Purple lines. Pre-construction activities should be completed by 2017. From the current terminus at Wilshire/Western, the Purple Line Extension will extend westward in 2023 for about nine miles with seven new stations through Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood.

ANAHEIM

Anaheim Rapid Connection (ARC) is a proposed 3.2-mile streetcar system currently in the environmental review process that will connect Anaheim area destinations with regional rail at ARTIC. The preliminary cost estimate is $300 million, with a proposed construction date of 2019, and opening date of 2022.

SANTA ANA

President Barack Obama included $125 million for the 4.1-mile OC Streetcar in his budget for FY 2017. The Orange County Transportation Authority estimates a $289 million cost. Construction would begin in late 2017, with service beginning in 2020.

SAN BERNARDINO

The $250 million nine-mile Redlands Passenger Rail Project will run between the San Bernardino Transit Center to the University of Redlands. Construction is slated to begin in 2017.

34 Railway Age June 2016

SAN JOSE

SEATTLE-TACOMA

The $2.3 billion Berryessa Extension is the 10-mile, two station, first phase of BART Silicon Valley Line, scheduled to open in 2018.

VTA continues project development activities for $4.7 billion Phase II of VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Extension.

Sound Transit’s Link light rail opened two new stations at Capitol Hill and the University of Washington in 2016. East Link’s 14-mile extension begins construction in 2016, with trains targeted to be running in 2023. South Bellevue construction is scheduled to begin in late 2016. Light rail construction in the I-90 corridor begins in mid-2017. The Federal Way Link Extension project is under environmental review and expects to open in 2023. The $1.9 billion 4.3-mile Northgate Link Extension is under construction and scheduled to open in 2021.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

The Third Street Light Rail Transit Project has been called “the most significant capital investment in public transit in San Francisco in generations.” About $648 million was invested in Phase 1, and an additional $1.6 billion is budgeted for Phase 2.

The majority of funding for the Central Subway Project will be provided by the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) New Starts program, with a total approved commitment of $942.2 million.

A combination of federal, state and local sources will provide the remainder of the funds. Construction of the subway tunnel and stations will continue through 2017.

The Central Subway segment of the T Third Line is slated to open in 2019.

STOCKTON

Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) proposes a $950 million extension to downtown Modesto by 2018 and downtown Merced as early as 2022. A route connecting potential new stations at Lathrop River Islands and Downtown Tracy is being considered.

SACRAMENTO

The Sacramento Regional Transit District (RTD) began operating the first set of newly-refurbished light rail vehicles on the recently opened Blue Line to Cosumnes River College in September 2015. Sacramento-based Siemens is refurbishing a total of 21 light rail vehicles that will eventually be in operation systemwide. The Sacramento Regional Transit District’s Green Line project will extend light rail service approximately 13 miles to Sacramento International Airport.

PORTLAND

TriMet, operating since 1986, plans the system’s biggest rail replacement projects to date in 2016 and 2017: 1st Ave., Rose Quarter, and SW11th Ave/Steel Bridge.

VANCOUVER

Translink’s 42.7-mile SkyTrain system will grow with the addition of the 6.9-mile Evergreen Line, connecting Port Moody and Coquitlam with SkyTrain; the $1.4 billion project is targeted for completion in the fall of 2016.

EDMONTON

Valley Line LRT construction officially launched in April 2016 on the 27-km low-floor line. The $1.8 billion southeast portion will open in 2020.

CALGARY

Calgary Transit’s 63 new Mask cars from Siemens Canada began arriving in January 2016. The entire fleet is expected on the property by early 2017.

ONTARIO

Metrolinx has more than 200 projects worth more than $16 billion under way, with the goal of transforming from a rush hour commuter service to a twoway, all-day regional transportation service. Regional Express Rail (RER) will build on all the planning and infrastructure progress. The Union Station Rail Corridor renewal program aims for a 2019 completion date.

MONTREAL

The city proposes a C$5.5 billion integrated electric rail network linking downtown Montreal, South Shore, West Island, North Shore and the airport, called Réseau Électrique Métropolitain (REM). For the metropolitan area, the REM represents the largest public transportation infrastructure since the Montréal Metro, inaugurated in 1966. RA

TTC’s five-year focus The Toronto Transit Commission’s 2020 goal is a safer, more reliable subway system. By John D. Thompson, Canadian Contributing Editor

2

015 was a year of milestones for the Toronto Transit Commission Subway Group, says Deputy Chief Operating Officer Mike Palmer (pictured, above), a veteran of the London Underground.

Significant achievements included reduced employee absenteeism, fewer passenger injuries, reductions in staff errors, fewer track level fires, higher train reliability and availability, cleaner trains and fewer restricted-speed zones.

The Subway Group has committed to reducing the number of minutes of delays and incidents 50% by 2020.

A number of factors contribute to subway delays: equipment malfunctions (rolling stock, signals, track switches); activation of emergency alarms; trash fires in tunnels; passengers holding doors open; etc. Some equipment has been in service for generations. For example, the oldest signal gear was installed on the original section of the Yonge Subway, opened in 1954.

The TTC has four rapid transit lines totaling 42.4 miles— Line 1, Yonge-University; Line 2, Bloor-Danforth; Line 3,

Scarborough Rapid Transit; Line 4, Sheppard—for a total of 108 trains in operation. Service will increase by six trains in December 2017, when the all-underground Vaughan extension of Line 1, serving an adjacent community to the northwest of Toronto, opens for passengers. Line 1 is the busiest, requiring 53 trains (including two for filling service gaps) during the morning and evening rush periods, on 2.21minute headways.

Base service on Line 1 is furnished by TTC’s new Toronto Rocket trains from Bombardier. A 480-car order (76 6-car trainsets and 6 4-car trainsets) is scheduled for completion

by December 2016. These trains have proven extremely reliable, and early issues, such as slow-acting doors and insufficient handholds, have been corrected. It is the most reliable subway vehicle in TTC history, and is among the “best in class” in North America, according to Palmer. The Rocket contract was modified last year by converting four of the 6-car trains from the original 82-trainset order into 6 4-car trainsets for use on the Sheppard line. Sixteen additional June 2016 Railway Age 35

TTC TORONTO

storage tracks are being added to Wilson Yard at a cost of C$35 million to accommodate the trainsets assigned to the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE).

After much debate, the Toronto City Council has approved a 3.5-mile extension of the Bloor-Danforth Subway to northeast Scarborough, with opening planned for circa 2025.

Construction has not yet begun. This operation will result in closure of the driverless Scarborough Rapid Transit, opened 31 years ago. The line utilizes proprietary 40-foot cars powered by linear induction motors, and was the first Thales (originally Alcatel) Seltrac40 moving-block train control system in the world.

Keeping the Scarborough RT operating for another decade, well past the cars’ life span, will be a challenge for TTC forces. The line’s 4 2-car units are currently being refurbished to refresh their appearance and do structural repairs to allow them to operate for another 10 years.

These vehicles are now obsolete, with no spare sets available worldwide.

Some of the Subway Group’s 2016 plans include introduction of timetable improvements for service resilience; a Safe Train Operation Plan; development of a Signal System Plan; a Train Stop (trip-stop arm) Renewal Program; continuation of North Yonge asbestos tunnel liner removal; emergency management simulations; speed

control system modifications; LED lighting in tunnels and in older T1 cars on Line 2; and commissioning of a Rail Visual Inspection Vehicle.

During 2015, the number of track-level trash fires dropped by 16.7%, thanks to improved cleaning procedures.

The number of stop signal violations (SPAD, or “signals passed at danger”) remains too high, although the reduction goal of 9.1 weekly was met. To address this, a new Safe Train Operator Program (STOP) has been implemented. The cause of each incident is investigated, and, where necessary, operating technique is corrected or modified. Reduced train congestion in the future should reduce SPAD occurrences, as operators encounter fewer stop signals.

A significant reduction has been achieved in the incidents of car doors being opened off-platform. A new rule requires operators to stand up, open the cab window, and point at the platform target to confirm the correct side and correct berthing. In 2015, minutes of delay on Line 1 fell by 4,615 (76.92 hours), or 25.3%. Line 2 recorded a decrease of 1,530 (25.5 hours), or 9.2%.

Key Technology Projects

Automatic Train Control (ATC) in the form of movingblock CBTC (Communications-Based Train Control), after a long hiatus, is back front and center in TTC’s plans to

1st to apply standard industrial automation technology to hump yards Built using commercial off-the-shelf products on the windows platform x x x x x x x x x x

Auto Calibration Graphic Playback Pinpuller Scoreboard Display Loggers – Daily, Event and I/O eBlock™, Electronic Track Blocking AEI Integration and List Verification NX Route Control Hydraulic Retarder Control Pneumatic Retarder Control Valve Box Redundant Processors, I/O, Hot Standby and Remote Diagnostics

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724-443-8881 36 Railway Age June 2016

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ttc toronto

modernize its signaling system. CBTC, according to Palmer, will increase Line 1 capacity. Line 1 will be fully ATC by late 2019; the first section goes into service in mid-2017 between Spadina and Wilson Stations, followed by the TYSSE in December 2017. This will improve signaled headways to 110 seconds from the current 141, and increase the maximum number of trains per hour (TPH) to 32-33 from the current scheduled 25.5 TPH maximum.

One Person Train Operation (OPTO) will modernize train operation by eliminating the Guard’s (conductor’s) position. “Newer, safer technology” to support operators is being rolled out as a pilot on Sheppard-Line 4, on the Toronto Rocket equipment. “We are using 4G technology to provide video into the cab so the operator on departure can continue to monitor the train edge for half a train’s length out of the platform,” Palmer explains. “We are also providing Correct Side Door Enable on the line, so when a train is correctly spotted on the platform, the doors on the correct side can be opened—but not the wrong side. The Toronto Rocket is technically advanced, with safe edges on the doors—they re-open or freeze if there is an obstruction; in-car CCTV and fire detection; and EA (emergency alarm) talkback, so the operator can talk to the person triggering an alarm.”

Reliability Centered Maintenance is the new ethos of the

Subway Group’s Infrastructure division. Moving away from a “fix-on-fail” approach, such equipment as train stops, insulated rail joints and signal relays are now being renewed on a scheduled program, just before life expectancy ends, to ensure that those assets provide a high level of reliability and availability.

Customer Satisfaction Initiatives

TTC’s Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) scores for the third quarter of 2015 reached a new record of 83% for Line 1 and 80% for Line 2, with a subway total score of 82%. This represents increases of 8% and 5%, respectively. Key satisfaction increases identified include in-car cleanliness, wait time for trains, quality of announcements and helpfulness of staff.

One area requiring further improvement is PA announcement clarity. To this end, the number of automated announcements, which Palmer says “annoy many passengers,” has been reduced, and replaced by live, personalized ones by train crews.

In 2014, the TTC subway system carried 324.7 million passengers. This figure will continue to increase as the Toronto area continues to grow. The Subway Group’s Five Year Plan, now in its second year, “will help ensure that the system is ready for increased patronage levels, delivering high-quality, world-class service.” RA

June 2016 Railway Age 37

HOCHLEISTUNG I PRÄZISION I ZUVERLÄSSIGKEIT HIGH CAPACITY I PRECISION I RELIABILITY

The standard of ballast bed cleaning

www.plasseramerican.com “Plasser & Theurer“, “Plasser“ and “P&T“ are internationally registered trademarks

Saving time and resources, assuring high quality cleaning and offering flexibility in operation: that is Plasser’s philosophy for economical ballast cleaning. The most important foundation for sustainable track geometry is a faultless, straight formation. To produce this, the Plasser ballast cleaning machines for tracks and switches are equipped with an excavating chain in a transverse cutter bar - adjustable precisely to the required excavating depth and formation crosslevel.

Brandt Road Rail Corp.

RTB 130 High Rail Backhoe performing undercutting.

Better machines for better ballast Ballast is a highly engineered structure that requires highly engineered machinery to keep it in first-class condition. By WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief

T

he importance of well-maintained ballast is in inverse proportion to the size of its components. What may look to the casual observer like a neatly compacted collection of small stones encasing ties and rail is actually a highly engineered structure that performs multiple tasks: Draining water off the roadbed. Maintaining track geometry, in three dimensions (lateral, longitudinal, vertical, as well as superelevation). Providing a safe roadbed that can handle high tonnage and high train frequency.

Modern, computerized machinery has turned working with ballast into a science. For suppliers of such machinery, the market is highly competitive, and the customers, highly demanding. Here’s a look at some of the technology.

Ballast Tools Equipment

Brandt Road Rail

Dymax Inc. is preparing to release a new generation of Ballast Blaster™ undercutters for excavators that will add a bearing carrier armor guard, improved rotational design, a new chain and an improved, patent-pending automatic hydraulic chain tensioning system that allows operation without stopping to manually tighten the chain. Improvements to Dymax’s Ballast Tamper line include a single-motor tamper for grapple trucks, backhoes and excavators capable of tamping on either side of the rail simultaneously, and a rebuildable motor for lower maintenance costs.

Brandt Road Rail Corp.’s new RTB 130 High Rail Backhoe is based on the John Deere 710K backhoe chassis. Its specialty is spot undercutting, in addition to tie, crossing, roadbed and ditch maintenance. It’s powerful: 130 hp and more than 50 GPM hydraulic capacity. It’s versatile: fast-on/fast-off, with rapid attachment changeouts. For higher production undercutting, Brandt’s Rail Tool allows for ballast and other track material cars to be hauled to the work site with its rail propulsion gear and locomotive air brake system.

Ballast Tools Equipment’s line of tamper attachments works with all BTE hi-rail excavators and backhoes, all of which are fast-on/fast-off. Single and double-motor tampers are available for the BTE-450F and BTE-420F backhoes. A fourmotor tamper is available for the BTE excavator fleet, including the BTE-312E hi-rail excavator. BTE’s hi-rail tampers can access hard-to-reach areas where some production tampers cannot productively squeeze and compact ballast, such as switches and diamonds. Users can rapidly line up all approaches and angles of a switch or diamond, and tamp the required spot from on-rail or off-rail.

Dymax Inc.

June 2016 Railway Age 39

ballast Georgetown Rail Equipment Company

Herzog Railroad Services, Inc.

Georgetown Rail Equipment Company’s research and development department has made strategic advancements for the DumpTrain® aggregate delivery-via-belt system and Solaris®/GateSync® and BallastSaver® services. DumpTrain advancements have focused on perfecting the DumpTrain for Curves® (DTfC).

The Solaris/GateSync program has seen software improvements as well as integration with BallastSaver. Solaris kits convert manual ballast gates to a wireless remote-controlled system, while GateSync automates car unloading at speeds of 10 mph with no ground personnel.

GREX’s patented BallastSaver LiDAR ballast inspection system identifies a track’s ballast deficiency while moving at 30 mph. New enhancements enable railroads to detect clearance envelope encroachments, as well as pinpoint excess material volume and location, helping determine where ballast needs to be regulated and identify the exact location of track-fouling debris and vegetation. Assuming ballast dumped at a rate of two cars per mile, a ballast savings of more than 20% over several thousand miles is possible.

BallastSaver has also been incorporated into GREX’s Aurora® Tie Inspection System, in which tie and ballast condition are presented in a 3-D digital environment where exact measurements are taken and exceptions are verified.

In 2015, Herzog Railroad Services, Inc. finished building the first half of its new, one-of-a-kind Automated Conveyor Train (A.C.T.), which is built with a single belt under each of the machine’s 30 100-ton-capacity cars.

At the end of the car, material is transferred up an incline belt and discharged into a hopper at the end of the next car, allowing material unloading in a curve of up to 13 degrees with a superelevation of up to five inches. The cars can be unloaded in just under three minutes each at up to 2,000 tons per hour, and are capable of carrying multiple commodities simultaneously.

The A.C.T. automation system allows the operator to select which car to unload and in what order. The A.C.T. can unload material as fine as sand or as large as five- inch +/– “B” stone.

Knox Kershaw

Knox Kershaw Inc’s expanded service department includes extra service personnel for onsite training services and equipment maintenance/repair of, both domestically and internationally. A new manufacturing facility expansion accommodates service work for machines that customers do not have time to complete, from general maintenance to complete overhauls.

Nobody does ballast

RAILVAC™

HP Shoulder Ballast Cleaner

THE GLOBAL LEADER IN MAINTENANCE OF WAY SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT LORAM.COM

ballast Loram Maintenance of Way

Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc.’s, new SBC2400 Shoulder Ballast Cleaner has the ability to process more material within a shorter work window. Enhanced machine automation reduces labor costs and improves safety by eliminating ground personnel, and accommodates a higher operating speed.

The UC 1200 Undercutter utilizes wheel technology to minimize tie disruption, offers dual material discharge capabilities and provides self-supporting cut-in. Loram also continues to expand its fleet of Railvacs and Shoulder Ballast Cleaners. The Railvac, designed to work in difficult Class I conditions, is flexible enough to accommodate transit and commuter railroads. It can apply 5,000 pounds of force, coupled with a rotating nozzle to break up tough, fouled ballast material.

Miner Enterprises

Miner Enterprises, Inc., has improved the internal electronics of all its aggregate systems, including stand-alone equipment, for improved reliability, longevity and performance.

The electric stand-alone AggreGate® enables independent operation of the car from anywhere within a ballast train, eliminating the need for grouping manual and automatic cars.

The company has simplified aggregate systems applications to help carbuilders and car shops reduce labor costs. The

better.

company is currently building a stand-alone electric AggreGate for some car conversion programs, as well as a manual AggreGate for South America. AggreGate is available in manual pry bar, pushbutton, or remote control versions.

NMC Railway Systems

The NMC Railway Systems hi-rail product line is designed for ease in accessing remote areas for spot ballast maintenance work and other maintenance functions, such as vegetation management, tie tamping and tie handling. The CSL30K Swingloader is designed with friction-drive hi-rail gear and a 180-degree swing boom, allowing operators to move ballast and thread rail. The 20-ton-capacity CHX20E Hi-Rail Excavator can run a 10-foot undercutter bar that has the ability to tackle tight spot work. The CBL30K Hi-rail Backhoe can operate as a one-man-gang when coupled with a Rototilt to run a variety of attachments, including a six-foot undercutter bar, two-motor tamper and tie inserter. NMC’s hi-rail equipment is fast-on/fastoff, capable of exiting any non-crossing location.

Nordco

Nordco’s RoadReady™ surfacing team consists of a production switch tamper (RST-1000) and a production ballast regulator (RBR-1000.) Both machines feature industry comparable

Advanced solutions for ballast maintenance begin with LORAM. Ballast and subgrade problems can quickly undermine your operation. Restore drainage and manage costs with LORAM ballast maintenance solutions: • RAILVAC™, a powerful vacuum-based excavation machine for removing even the most compacted and fouled ballast and debris without removing ties or rail • High Performance (HP) Shoulder Ballast Cleaner features 30-inch wide digging buckets that can excavate as deep as 34 inches from top of rail, remove fines down to 1/2 inch, break up mud pockets 5 inches from end of tie, and groom the redeposited cleaned ballast leaving superb quality behind the machine • Loram Track Lifter (TL) can lift track up to 12 inches in one pass up to 2 mph, renewing the track support structure and drainage with unrivaled productivity Superior ballast maintenance solutions are another way LORAM sets the standard for production, quality, reliability, and overall cost optimization. Let us show you the way.

LORAM Track Lifter

SPEED PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY

© 2014 Loram, Inc.

ballast

production rates with an emphasis on mobility. Nordco also offers a line of rail-bound ballast regulators and switch tampers. The M7 regulator offers ballast moving capabilities.

The HSTX offers a pup tamping solution for those customers who want to chase-tamp without lifting or lining capabilities.

holds track alignment to the desired location. Waste material is discharged on the ground away from the track or loaded into MFS conveyor hopper cars. For switch undercutting, extensions can be added to the cutter bar to increase excavation width up to 25 feet.

Plasser American

Progress Rail Services

Plasser American supplies versatile ballast cleaning machines such as the RM80, which can undercut and clean plain track and switches. High-capacity, double-shaker screening unit machines such as the RM2003 dual shaker undercuttercleaner and the RM802 high-speed undercutter-cleaner work with pre-dumped ballast. The FRM802 is a shoulder cleaner.

The multi-purpose RM80 removes contaminated material from under the track by an excavation chain held by a solid cutter bar, resulting in a flat excavation surface with no dips or low spots. The material is then deposited in a three-level screening unit to be cleaned, separating good, clean ballast from waste. The cleaned rock is returned to the track directly behind the cutter bar as the track is still being lifted, reducing the number of tamping passes required to bring the track back to final grade. The machine utilizes a lifting and lining clamp to lift and hold track at a fixed height, maintaining a constant cutting surface. The clamp also is capable of lining track to assist in working around fixed points. A rear liner

Progress Rail Services Corp.’s Maintenance of Way (MOW) Division features Kershaw equipment that traces its roots to 1945, when Kershaw introduced the first ballast regulator.

Currently, three Ballast Regulator models—the Kershaw 4600, Kershaw 46-2 and Kershaw 46-6 are available. The Kershaw 4600 has a one-pass transfer plow, 36-inch wide reversible wings and a broom attachment for ballast shaping, shoulder profiling, ballast sweeping and a variety of other track maintenance operations.

42 Railway Age June 2016

RCE

Rail Construction Equipment Co. expanded its Railavator product line to include more undercutter bar sizes: 75G, 85G, 135G, 245G, 250G and 350G excavators with undercutter bars ranging from 9 to 15 feet in size. Users can perform undercutting with all RCE hi-rail or standard excavator models. The larger machine has more hydraulic power and the longer bar improves switch undercutting. RA

Products New from Softrail: AEI portable tag reader Softrail, a specialist in lowcost systems to keep track of railcars in class yards, offers a new AEI portable tag reader with an 8 to 10 foot read range, priced at $4500.

The AI4500-FV Portable AEI Tag Reader is a single-piece unit that weighs 14 ounces and can be held in your hand.

The AI4500-FV portable reader will read railroad AT5110, AT5118, AT5125, AT5133, AT5510, AT5541 and AT5549 AEI tags.

The AI4500-FV was designed for capturing track or train railcar inventory by reading the AEI tags on the rail vehicles.

With its built-in camera barcode reader, it can also capture serial numbers from barcoded items such as seals, products and parts.

Because the AI4100-FV has wireless network capabilities (both 802.11b, cellular and Bluetooth), AEI tag data can be easily sent directly to other computer systems. AEI data is sent in a comma-delimited text file or a file containing T94 (S-9203A) records. Either of these file types can be attached to an email or uploaded to an FTP server. The AI4500-FV Portable AEI Tag Reader can send AEI data files directly to as many as seven email addresses in addition to four FTP servers.

Some of the other capabilities of the AI4500-FV Portable AEI Tag Reader with Softrail’s AEI Tag Reading Software are listed below: • Displays AEI tag data in a user-friendly format • Allows manual entry of vehicle identification information in the event an AEI tag cannot be read.

• Allows vehicles to be assigned to a track or a spot on a track.

• Allows the user to assign track and spot names.

• Allows the scanning of two tracks at the same time.

• Allows the use of special AEI tags that are programmed with track and spot information to eliminate the need to enter this information manually.

• Allows additional data to be added about vehicles. There are 12 data fields available. The user can define and name seven of these fields. The other five fields are: two Maintenance Data fields, a Status field, a Consist field and a Comments field.

• Allows for easy development of custom applications.

• Enables other vendors (OEMs) to develop special applications for the portable AEI reader. These special applications can easily access tag and barcode data and send their generated data as files attached to emails or uploaded to an FTP server.

Information: sales@signalcc.com; (888) 872-4612.

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New Under Cutter Bar Sizes!

Complimenting the newly expanded excavator line, RCE can now equip all the models with bars ranging from 8 to 15 feet in size

June 2016 Railway Age 43

People

Meetings

High Profile: Patrick J. Ottensmeyer will succeed David L. Starling as Kansas City Southern CEO, effective July 1, 2016. Ottensmeyer will retain the title of President, a position he assumed on March 1, 2015. Starling will serve as senior advisor to the CEO beginning July 1, 2016, until his retirement on Dec. 31, 2016, and will remain a member of the KCS board until May 2017. Ottensmeyer, 59, will join the company’s board. He joined KCS in 2006 as Executive Vice President and CFO. In 2008, he was named EVP Sales and Marketing. “Pat’s Ottensmeyer extensive financial and marketing background, coupled with Kansas City Southern the leadership he has demonstrated over the past year makes him the ideal individual to direct KCS in the years ahead,” stated Starling. “His relationships with customers, investors, other railroad executives and employees in both Mexico and the U.S. will be a tremendous asset.”

June 14-16, 2016

First Transit—Gregg Baxter appointed Vice President of Rail.

Loop Trolley Company (St. Louis)— Paul Scott named General Manager.

Parsons—Harjinder S. “Harj” Dhaliwal named Senior Vice President, International Rail Transit & Systems, with responsibility for operations outside of the U.S. He is based in Parsons’ Abu Dhabi office. Dhaliwal has been in Parsons’ Middle East Africa (MEA) region since 2010. Dhaliwal holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Nottingham Trent University.

Protran Technology (a Division of Harsco Rail)—Clay Bunting named Deputy Director.

Urban Engineers Inc.—Kenneth R. Fulmer, P.E., will succeed Edward M. D’Alba, P.E., as president and CEO effective July 1, 2016. D’Alba will continue to serve on the firm’s board. voestalpine Nortrak—Ant Watson stepped down as CEO effective June 1, 2016. He has been replaced by Dave Millard. Ludwig Freytag named Chief Financial Officer. Brian Abbott named Chief Operating Officer.

WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff—Bruce Moulds appointed Southeast Regional Business Development Director.

Michael L. Valletta named Director of Project Delivery.

44

Railway Age

June 2016

OBITUARY Robert D. Liggett, retired Chief Signal and Communications Engineer, CSX, died Dec. 15, 2015. A native of Iowa (born 1925) and a 1945 Electrical Engineering graduate of Purdue, he was commissioned a Line Officer in the United States Navy and served aboard a cruiser until the end of WWII. Liggett worked for Union Switch & Signal before joining the Seaboard Air Line, which became part of CSX. He participated in AAR committee work and served two terms as Chairman of the AAR Communications and Signal Division. He was also a member of the Eastern Signal Engineers. Liggett was pre-deceased by his wife, Vivian, and two sons.

100 YEARS AGO in

International Crosstie & Fastening System Symposium Newmark Civil Engineering Lab, Urbana, Ill. Contact: crosstie-conf@illinois.edu Website: http://railtec.illinois.edu/ Crosstie/2016/crossties.php

June 19-22, 2016 APTA Rail Conference Phoenix, Ariz.

Website: www.apta.com

June 28-30, 2016 RSSI 56th Annual C&S Exhibition Gaylord Texan Resort Grapevine, Tex. Contact: mike@rssi.org Website: http://www.rssi. org/2016-portal/index.html

July 11-12, 2016 Midwest Association of Rail Shippers (MARS) Summer Meeting Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, Wisc.

Contact: mars@mwrailshippers.com Website: www.mwrailshippers.com

August 8-12, 2016 Railway Engineering Short Course Newmark Civil Engineering Lab, Urbana, Ill. Website: http://railtec.illinois.edu/ short-course/overview.php

Sept. 15-16, 2016

June 1916 Noise Nuisance in Sleeping Cars In a letter to the Editor: “Not all of the noise, by any means, comes from the outside of the car… I am a sound sleeper, usually sleeping better on the train than elsewhere, but recently in a single night’s ride I was wakened seven times… To give the passenger the quiet to which he is entitled means a long campaign of hard work on the part of the Pullman Company, to say nothing of some skillful instruction of porters in tact and diplomacy.”

Railway Age/Parsons Next-Generation Train Control Conference Key Bridge Marriott, Arlington, Va. Contact: conferences@sbpub.com Website: www.railwayage.com/ nextgen

Oct. 27-28, 2016 Railway Age Energy By Rail Key Bridge Marriott, Arlington, Va. Website: http://www.railwayage. com/index.php/conferences/ energybyrail.

Ad Index Company

Phone #

ACI

617-523-3131

Fax

URL/Email address

Page #

617-523-9696 jnaughton@aciboston.com

33

Ameristar Perimeter Security USA, Inc. 918-879-6011

918-835-0899

allen.wright@assaabloy.com

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Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc.

888-250-5746

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42

Danella Rental Systems, Inc.

610-828-6200

610-828-2260

pbarents@danella.com

Dixie Precast

770-944-1930

770-944-9136

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36

Herzog Railroad Services, Inc.

816-233-9002

816-233-7757

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20

LORAM

763-478-6014

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LTK Engineering Services

215-641-8826

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MAC Products

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Messe Berlin GMBH

+49 30 30381852

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Michigan State University

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21

New York Air Brake

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C4

NRE

618-241-9270

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C2

Plasser American Corp.

757-543-3526

757-494-7186

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38

Progress Rail Services

256-505-6402

256-505-6051

info@progressrail.com

29

Railquip Inc

770-458-4157

770-458-5365

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32

Railway Educational Bureau, The

402-346-4300

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C3

RCE

866-472-4510

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Ritron, Inc.

800-USA-1-USA

317-846-4978

Siemens Industry, Inc.

412-944-6533

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27

STV, Inc.

212-777-4400

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30

Trainyard Tech LLC

724-443-8881

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36

Vertex Railcar Corporation

508-556-5500

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37

Western-Cullen Hayes

773-254-9600

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21

773-254-1110

3

40-41 31 5 11

janice.pheile@nyab.com

sales-info@ritron.com

43 9

The Advertisers Index is an editorial feature maintained for the convenience of readers. It is not part of the advertiser contract and Railway Age assumes no responsibility for the correctness.

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AK, AZ, CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, KS, MN, MO, MT, NE, NM, ND, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, WY, Canada – AB, BC, MB, SK Heather Disabato 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 683-5026 Fax: (312) 683-0131 hdisabato@sbpub.com The Netherlands, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, North Germany, Middle East, South America, Africa (not South), Far East (Excluding Korea /China/India), All Others, Tenders Louise Cooper International Area Sales Manager The Priory, Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom +44-1444-416368 Fax: +44-(0)-1444-458185 lc@railjournal.co.uk

Scandinavia, Spain, Southern Germany, Austria, Korea, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe Baltic States, Recruitment Advertising Julie Richardson International Area Sales Manager The Priory, Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom +44-1444-416368 Fax: +44-(0)-1444-458185 jr@railjournal.co.uk Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland Dr. Fabio Potesta Media Point & Communications SRL Corte Lambruschini Corso Buenos Aires 8 V Piano, Genoa, Italy 16129 +39-10-570-4948 Fax: +39-10-553-0088 info@mediapointsrl.it

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June 2016 Railway Age 45

equipment Sale/Leasing

Available For Lease ◆ Pressure Differential (PD) Covered Hopper Cars – 5,125 & 5,230 cu. ft., 286K GRL, operate at 14.7 psi. ◆ 3,600 cu. ft. Open Top Hoppers. 45 degree slopes for aggregate, coke, coal, etc. ◆ Pressure Differential (PD) Covered Hopper Cars – 3,915 cu. ft. capacity, operate at 14.7 psi. ◆ Mill Gondolas – 65’ 6” inside length with 5’ sides and 52’ 6” inside length with 4’ 6” sides.

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June 2016 Railway Age 47

Financial edge DAVID NAHASS

Dissecting a complex marketplace

F

or anyone weeding through the confusion of an uncertain and complex marketplace, I can confidently say that those who attended Rail Equipment Finance 2016 came away with a much better understanding of where things stand. Here are a few takeaways from days two and three.

The U.S. economy has pockets of strength but needs to adjust to secular changes in energy markets, according to Wells Fargo Bank’s Sarah House.

There are plenty of optimistic signals as the consumer supports the economy.

Debt levels for the consumer are reasonable. Watch for increasing interest rates in second-half 2016 and a dollar that may continue to strengthen in 2016 before softening.

Marketplace trends and topics, Kristine Kubacki and Larry Gross: The rail marketplace has economic headwinds while the industrial market has weakened. There are concerns about the railcar manufacturing backlog and future manufacturing due to ongoing energy market weakness. A potential concern: excessive optimism regarding auto deliveries. Gross discussed the consumer-centric economy and the current hope for growth, and the loss of coal loadings and where replacement growth will originate.

Dave Murawski and Bob Pickel discussed retrofitting tank railcars.

Retrofit costs and demand remain inconclusive amid a languishing energy market. Retrofits may cost between $30,000 and $60,000 per car.

North American energy revolution: Graham Brisben discussed weakness in frac sand market price dynamics and in the CBR market, and the next phase of North American energy production.

He also discussed the growing market in plastics manufacturing in North America, highlighting the $114 billion of “high-probability” shale gas related

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June 2016

projects. Railcar demand for plastics is almost 17,000 railcars.

Covered hoppers: Todd Kahn highlighted the 32,000 small-cube hoppers put into service over the past two years, declines in demand for smallcube hoppers, decreased production and depressed rates.

Operating lessors: Tom Ellman addressed cyclicality of the railcar marketplace and drew comparisons between the current and previous downturns. Carloads have declined less than in previous downturns;

The U.S. economy has pockets of strength but needs to adjust to secular energy market changes. current weakness is energy-centric and full scope and the scale is known.

Overbuilding in tanks and small-cube hoppers is the primary motivator in this downturn.

North American locomotive review, David Humphries: The locomotive fleet increased in size with a slight increase in average age. The percentage of AC over DC continues to increase. Higher horsepower units outpace lower horsepower units in production.

T.J. Mahoney discussed genset locomotives and their long-term role in the marketplace. As units get deployed, reliability remains a concern. Units can meet emissions compliance at higher horsepower levels. One issue is the cost of locomotive frames for new gensets. The lease market for

gensets remains undeveloped.

Colby Davis of NRE discussed the rules and requirements for recertifying locomotives for emissions compliance and standards. He also provided reallife examples for calculating the reporting and trading of emissions credits.

Locomotive backlog update: Ed and Stuart Biggs chatted on the 2015 backlog in locomotives and gave thoughts on the order book for 2016.

Grace Trillanes of GE Transportation discussed GE’s LNG locomotive and its potential future. Testing continues with preproduction expected in early 2017.

View from the marketplace: Drew Schoessel examined the statistics of the national fleet, the Wells Fargo Rail fleet and its overhaul plans for 2015 and 2016. He also offered his perspective on locomotive values in the current marketplace.

Alan Cercelius of Electro-Motive Diesel discussed EMD’s Tier 4 emissions-compliant locomotives, its repowering program for existing units and the broad range of engine types used in the repowering process.

CNG locomotives: Pedro Santos addressed the use of CNG as a locomotive fuel, the cost savings of using CNG over LNG and the challenges to mainstream utilization of CNG fuel. An ongoing Class I initiative to be natural gas ready was discussed.

Analyzing the locomotive marketplace: Jason Keuhn discussed the impact of loading levels and velocity on locomotive demand and the impact of emissions on new locomotive production. Higher emissions standards are limiting new unit sales and highlighting repowering strategies.

Locomotive valuation and leasing: While used prices are dropping, certain units are undervalued. Investors are looking for purchase opportunities as the Class I’s offer units for sale.

We’re current, are you? FRA Regulations FRA News:

Mechanical Department Regulations A combined reprint of the Federal Regulations that apply specifically to the Mechanical Department. Spiral bound.

Part Title 210 Railroad Noise Emission Compliance Regulations 215 Freight Car Safety Standards 216 Emergency Order Procedures: Railroad Track, Locomotive and Equipment 217 Railroad Operating Rules 218 Railroad Operating Practices - Blue Flag Rule 221 Rear End Marking Device-passenger, commuter/freight trains 223 Safety Glazing Standards Update 4-11-16 225 Railroad Accidents/Incidents Update 1-1-16 229 Locomotive Safety Standards 231 Safety Appliance Standards 232 Brake System Safety Standards

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49 CFR Part 218, Train Crew Staffing: On March 15, 2016, FRA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would require establishing minimum requirements for the size of train crew staffs depending on the type of operation. FRA is announcing an extension to the comment period and that it will schedule a public hearing in a future notice to provide interested persons an opportunity to comment on the proposal and to discuss further development of the regulation. When FRA schedules the public hearing in a future notice, it will also reopen the comment period for this proceeding to allow additional time for interested parties to submit written comments in response to views or information provided at the public hearing.

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Part 215: Freight Car Safety Standards 49 CFR 215. Prescribes the minimum safety standards for freight cars allowed by the FRA. Includes safety standards for freight car components, car bodies, draft system, restricted equipment and stenciling. Softcover, spiral.

Current FRA Regulations Item Code

FRA Part #

209 211 BKTSSAF 213 BKTSSG 213 BKWRK 214 BKFSS 215 BKROR 217 218 BKRRC 220 BKEND 221 BKSEP

Update effective

2-12-13 7-20-09 3-25-14 7-11-13 1-6-15 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12

BKHORN 222 6-25-12 BKRFRS 224 6-25-12 BKHS BKLSS BKSLI BKSAS BKBRIDGE BKLER

228 229 230 231 237 240

6-25-12 12-19-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-13 6-25-12

BKCONDC 242 6-25-12

BKBSS

BKCAD BKSTC

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RR Safety Enforcement Procedures & Rules of Practice Track Safety Standards (Subpart A-F) Track Safety Standards (Subpart G) RR Workplace Safety RR Freight Car Safety Standards RR Operating Rules and Practices

28.50 10.50 9.50 9.95 7.65 9.95

9.45 8.55 8.95 6.90 8.95

RR Communications Rear End Marking Device, Passenger, Commuter & Freight Trains Use of Locomotive Horns Reflectorization of Rail Freight Rolling Stock Hours of Service Locomotive Safety Standards Steam Locomotive Inspection RR Safety Appliance Standards Bridge Safety Standards Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Conductor Certification

5.95 5.50

5.35 4.95

13.75

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11.50

10.35

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49 CFR 232. Regulations and general requirements for all train brake systems, inspection and testing, periodic maintenance and training requirements, and end-of-train devices for Class I, II, and III railroads. Plus the introduction of new brake system technology. Softcover. 155 pages. Softcover.

15.25

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232 10-5-15 Brake System Safety Standards

FRA Part #

40 219

233 234 235 236 238 239

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Part 231: Railroad Safety Appliance Standards 49 CFR 231. General requirements for safety appliances including: handbrakes, brake step, running boards, sill steps, ladders, end ladder clearance, roof handholds, side handholds, horizontal end handholds, vertical end handholds, and uncoupling levers. 106 pages. Softcover.

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Combined FRA Regulations Each

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10-3-12 Drug and Alcohol Regulations in 7-7-15 the Workplace

37.25

9-2-14 Signal and Train Control Systems 5-28-15 10-21-14 4-29-16 2-5-16 Passenger Safety Standards 7-29-14

20.50

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Track and Rail and Infrastructure Integrity Compliance Manual - Volume II, Track Safety Standards - Part 213 Technical Manual for Signal and Train Control Rules. - Includes Part 233, 234, 235, 236

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Compliance Manuals BKINFRA

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33.00 47.00

Updates from the Federal Register may be supplied in supplement form.

30.00 42.30

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The Railway Educational Bureau 1809 Capitol Ave., Omaha NE, 68102 I (800) 228-9670 I (402) 346-4300 www.RailwayEducationalBureau.com

Add Shipping & Handling if your merchandise subtotal is: U.S.A. CAN U.S.A. CAN UP TO $10.00 $4.50 $8.75 25.01 - 50.00 10.78 16.80 10.01 - 25.00 7.92 12.65 50.01 - 75.00 11.99 21.20

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*Prices subject to change. Revision dates subject to change in accordance with laws published by the FRA. 6/16

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