September 2015 Railway Age

RailwayAge

September 2015 | www.railwayage.com

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RailwayAge 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 ARTHUR J. McGINNIS, Jr., President and Chairman JONATHAN CHALON, Publisher jchalon@sbpub.com WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief wvantuono@sbpub.com CAROLINA WORRELL, Managing Editor cworrell@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 Art Director: Sarah Vogwill 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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From the Editor William C. Vantuono

Interoperability, finally

T

he Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines interoperability as “ability of a system to work with or use the parts or equipment of another system.” Wikipedia defines it as “a property of a product or system, whose interfaces are completely understood, to work with other products or systems, present or future, without any restricted access or implementation.”

Twenty years ago, at our inaugural NextGeneration Train Control conference (then called the “International Conference on Communications-Based Train Control”) MTA New York City Transit’s New Technology Signals Program—CBTC—was just getting under way. Interoperability, specifically, development of a standard with open interfaces to enable multiple suppliers to bid on and supply CBTC technology, was NYCT’s ultimate goal.

It took 20 years to attain that goal. During that time span, a lot of things happened: Supplier consolidations and acquisitions (remember Union Switch & Signal, General Railway Signal, Harmon, Safetran, Westinghouse and Alcatel, or even Invensys?). The 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Budget and funding difficulties at the MTA. We lost a few colleagues, like Tom Sullivan, who headed up the New Technology Signals Program at NYCT and spearheaded the IEEE CBTC Working Group, and John LaForce, a self-proclaimed “old head” signal engineer who embraced CBTC at SEPTA. A few colleagues have retired, like my friend and “partner in crime” at Parsons, Alan Rumsey, with whom I collaborated on many CBTC conferences. I must be getting older.

So, finally, 20 years and 11 conferences later, NYCT has a standard. I can safely say that our conferences played a role in this, if only to facilitate constructive dialogue. Late last month, the MTA awarded Siemens Industry Inc. and Thales Transport & Security two 67-month contracts worth a total of $205.8 million to install CBTC on a portion of NYCT’s Queens Boulevard Line (QBL). The Siemens share is $156.2 million;

the Thales share is $49.6 million. “QBL Phase 1” follows the Canarsie Line (allSiemens) and the Flushing/No. 7 Line (all-Thales) CBTC programs.

Siemens and Thales are currently NYCT’s only CBTC-certified suppliers. Both contracted with the MTA to develop standardized specifications to enable other suppliers to provide interoperable systems.

Both equipped the Culver Test Track, which NYCT set up to enable them to demonstrate interoperability of their equipment and allow other suppliers to demonstrate compatibility. NYCT’s new CBTC specifications have been codified and are required for all future CBTC procurements. As such, QBL Phase 1, which unlike Canarsie and Flushing is not a captive system, is the first implementation of the agency’s interoperability standards and specifications.

More significant is that MTA has now given the go-ahead to a third CBTC supplier, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc., to demonstrate interoperability with Siemens and Thales on the Culver Test Track.

Mitsubishi was awarded a 36-month contract, outbidding Ansaldo STS USA Inc. and GE Transportation—doing the installation at its own cost, except for a $1.2 million NYCT “stipend.” NYCT had anticipated the project cost at around $20 million.

This brings us to the ongoing global communications and signaling supplier consolidation saga. Japan’s Hitachi expects to complete acquisition of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica’s two railway equipment subsidiaries, AnsaldoBreda and Ansaldo STS, by the end of October. General Electric intends to sell its signaling and communications business to Alstom, and acquire Alstom’s Thermal Power, Renewable Power and Grid businesses.

If you hear anything interesting you’d care to share, catch me on the trade show floor at Railway Interchange. You’re going, right?

September 2015 Railway Age 1

RailwayAge

september 2015

visit us at www.railwayage.com Features Railway Interchange Twin Cities triumph Locomotive landscape PTC deadline delay Hamilton, Ontario LRT Beyond basic AEI NEC HSR: What next?

TTCI R&D

27 31 37 45 49 56 60 69

News/Columns From the Editor Update Watching Washington Financial Edge

1 10 24 80

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

4 6 8 72 72 72 73 77 78 79

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On the Cover A pair of GE Tier IV demonstrator locomotives leads a BNSF manifest train across Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho.

Photo: Bruce 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. 216, No. 9.

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Industry Indicators TRAFFIC ORIGINATED CARLOADS

SHORT LINE AND REGIONAL TRAFFIC INDEX FIVE WEEKS ENDING AUG. 1, 2015

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

AUG. ’15 100,891 3,615 47,472 29,331 150,447 67,909 484,804 7,530 16,857 31,433 36,104 20,300 47,908 19,944 79,930 122,719 23,826 41,735 16,262 27,394 1,376,411

AUG. ’14 94,970 3,758 46,664 29,484 150,056 78,600 554,323 7,859 18,000 31,815 43,061 19,124 55,075 21,116 83,231 121,492 26,803 43,503 17,152 25,620 1,471,706

% CHANGE 6.2% -3.8% 1.7% -0.5% 0.3% -13.6% -12.5% -4.2% -6.4% -1.2% -16.2% 6.1% -13.0% -5.6% -4.0% 1.0% -11.1% -4.1% -5.2% 6.9% -6.5%

380,124

406,529

-6.5%

1,756,535

1,878,235

-6.5%

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

FIVE WEEKS ENDING AUG. 1, 2015

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

by Commodity TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL UNITS

AUG. ’15 140,993 1,190,895 1,331,888

AUG. ’14 139,550 1,146,800 1,286,350

% CHANGE 1.0% 3.8% 3.5%

7,341 301,102 308,443

8,573 289,251 297,824

-14.4% 4.1% 3.6%

148,334 1,491,997 1,640,331

148,123 1,436,051 1,584,174

0.1% 3.9% 3.5%

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 7.8% -5.6% 1.7% 12.1% -5.7% 6.6% -2.7% -45.3% -15.8% 6.9% 10.7% 7.0% 3.1% -0.7% 45.6% 5.7% -6.7%

JULY 2015 - 365,509 JULY 2014 - 357,763 310,000 320,000 330,000 340,000 350,000 360,000 370,000 380,000 390,000 400,000 Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved.

Railroad employment, Class I linehaul carriers, july 2015 (% change from july 2014)

CANADIAN RAILROADS TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL UNITS

ORIGINATED JULY ’14 44,745 24,736 30,407 10,311 23,530 6,250 9,840 7,966 21,108 8,982 2,497 1,948 19,302 13,138 34,720 9,895 88,388

TOTAL CARLOADS, JULY 2015 VS. 2014

CANADIAN RAILROADS ALL Commodities

ORIGINATED JULY ’15 48,220 23,344 30,936 11,559 22,181 6,661 9,573 4,358 17,780 9,599 2,763 2,084 19,901 13,050 50,537 10,455 82,508

BY Commodity

Transportation (train and engine) 70,219 2.17%

Executives, Officials, and Staff Assistants 9,910 (-0.63%)

Professional and Administrative 14,578 1.48%

Total employees: 171,043 % change from JULY 2014: 2.34% Transportation (other than train & engine) 6,717 (-0.39%)

Maintenance of Equipment and Stores 31,164 3.97%

Maintenanceof-Way and Structures 38,455 2.95%

Source: Surface Transportation Board

Employment AGAIN UP FROM YEAR-AGO Figures released by the Surface Transportation Board show Class I total railroad employment rose 2.34% in July 2015, measured against July 2014. Maintenane of Equipment and Stores saw the highest gains at 3.97%, followed by Maintenance-of-Way and Structures,which rose 2.95% since last year. Both Transportation (other than train & engine) and Executives, Officials, and Staff Assistants took a slight hit, down 0.39% and 0.63%, respectfully.

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September 2015

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Industry Outlook

FRA issues rule to prevent unattended hazmat trains from rolling away The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued on July 30, 2015 a final rule to prevent unattended trains that carry crude oil, ethanol, poisonous by inhalation (PIH), toxic by inhalation (TIH), and other highly flammable contents from rolling away.

Railroad employees who are responsible for securing a train will now be permanently required to communicate with another qualified individual trained on the railroad’s securement requirements to verify that trains and equipment are properly secured.

The final rule will go into effect 60 days from publication in the Federal Register, FRA said. Exterior locks on locomotives will also be required by March 1, 2017, and must be utilized when a locomotive has been left unattended, FRA added.

Among the rule’s requirements: • A qualified and trained railroad employee to properly secure the equipment and verification of the securement with a second trained and qualified employee.

• Additional communication, including job briefings among crew members responsible for the train securement.

• Properly installed and utilized exterior locks on locomotive cabs.

• Setting of sufficient handbrakes and removal of the train reverser.

STB: 2014 cost of capital is 10.65% The Surface Transportation Board has set the rail industry’s 2014 after-tax cost of capital at 10.65%, some 6% lower than the 2013 figure of 11.32%.

The cost of capital figure represents the Board’s estimate of the average rate of return “needed to persuade investors to provide capital to the freight rail industry.”

STB solicited comments from interested parties on the following issues: (1) the railroads’ 2014 current cost of debt capital; (2) the railroads’ 2014 current cost of preferred equity capital (if any); (3) the railroads’ 2014 cost of common equity capital; and (4) the 2014 capital structure mix of the railroad industry on a market value 6

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September 2015

basis. Comments were received from the AAR based on “Use of a Multi-Stage Discounted Cash Flow Model in Determining the Railroad Industry’s Cost of Capital,” EP 664 (Sub-No. 1), which STB served on Jan. 28, 2009. Western Coal Traffic League (WCTL) and the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation (AECC) replied to AAR’s submission.

STB determined that, in 2014, the cost of railroad long-term debt was 3.58%; the cost of common equity was 12.06%; the cost of preferred equity was 3.69%; and the capital structure mix of the railroads was 16.66% longterm debt, 83.34% common equity and 0.00% preferred equity.

Operation Lifesaver, Inc. (OLI), in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), announced on August 11, 2015 more than $200,0000 in grants to 13 State Operation Lifesaver programs for a variety of highway-rail grade crossing safety public education projects, in conjunction with the nonprofit safety group’s ongoing “See Tracks? Think Train!” public awareness campaigns.

The grants will be awarded to OLI organizations in California, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

These state programs will use the funding to spread “See Tracks? Think Train!” safety messages via television, radio, billboards, sporting events and movie theatre advertising; create displays for public education at events; and target students, school bus drivers, Spanish-speaking populations and the news media to raise awareness about the dangers near tracks and trains.

“The grants will fund a wide variety of projects to expand the reach of our ongoing safety campaign and further Operation Lifesaver’s mission of eliminating collisions, injuries and deaths at crossings and along rail property,” said OLI President and CEO Joyce Rose. “Through our partnership with the FHWA, these grade crossing safety education activities will help us reach critical audiences in many of the states where these incidents are most prevalent.”

The FHWA, a national partner and advisor of OLI, is providing the funding for the new grant program, which complements similar grant programs with the FRA and FTA. “Our rail safety partnership with Operation Lifesaver is very important to FHWA, and we are proud to be a part of the “See Tracks?

Think Train!” educational campaign, said Acting FHWA Administrator Greg Nadeau.

Bruce Kelly

OLI awards $204,000 for crossing safety

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Railway Interchange Booth #3421 5 0 Y E A R S S T R O N G I N T H E R A I L T R A N S P O R TAT I O N I N D U S T RY

Market

For New York New Jersey Rail, new KLW Power New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (NYNJR), a rail-barge short line wholly owned by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, has taken delivery on three new ultra-low-emissions SE10B diesel-electric switcher locomotives from Knoxville Locomotive Works (KLW). The contract, valued at $5.25 million, marks the first collaboration between the Port Authority and KLW.

North America Florida Development Finance Commission: Has voted unanimously to allow All Aboard Florida to issue $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds for its Orlando-Miami service.

Maxwell Technologies, Inc.: Has signed a long-term strategic partnership agreement with China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC-SRI, formerly CNR-SRI), a subsidiary of CRRC, and one of the largest rail vehicle manufacturers in the world. The agreement will examine multi-year collaboration activities between the two companies to jointly develop new application-specific, next-generation capacitive energy storage solutions that meet the unique application requirements of CRRC-SRI’s customers in the Chinese rail market .

Via Rail: Will receive $C102.5 million over the next two years from the Canadian government to improve the safety and efficiency of passenger 8

Railway Age

September 2015

operations on the 116-mile OttawaMontreal corridor.

Worldwide Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure: Has selected DB Regio as preferred bidder for a concession to operate the Gäu-Murr regional network.

Budapest Transport Company (BKV): Has signed a €219.2 million contract with Metrowagonmash, Russia for the refurbishment of 37 six-car trains used on Budapest metro Line 3.

CD Cargo (Czech Republic): Has launched a tender worth an estimated Koruna 550 million ($22.7 million) for a contract to supply five ETCS Level 2-equipped multi-system electric locomotives, with an option for three additional units.

Durmazlar (Turkey): Has been selected to supply trams for the first light rail line in Izmit after placing a bid of

€19.74 million. The five-section bi-directional Silkworm vehicles will accomodate up to 250 passengers.

Duro Dakovic (Croatia): Has been awarded a Kuna 80 million ($11.8 million) contract by French rolling stock leasing company Atir Rail to supply a batch of type-Zacns-bogie tank cars.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality: Has launched tenders for contracts to build two new metro lines as part of the city’s plan to expand the urban rail network to 441km by year-end.

Siemens/Newag: Has submitted the lowest-price bid ($238.6 million) for a contract to supply 20 three-car trains for the initial phase of Bulgaria’s Sofia Metro Line 3.

St. Petersburg Metro: Has selected Oktyabrsky Electric Car Plant (OEVRZ), a subsidiary of Transmashholding (TMH), as preferred bidder for a contract to supply 20 eight-car trains for the city’s 1524mm-gauge, 113km metro network.

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Update Miller Ingenuity, DuraForce sign exclusive distribution agreement

Freight car market remains healthy: Economic Planning Associates

Miller Ingenuity has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with DuraForce Company LLC to sell the DuraForce™ Fastener System, the company announced early last month.

The patented DuraForce™ Fastener System is unique because of its self-locking, vibration-proof technology that extends hardware life while reducing maintenance costs. Like many other Miller Ingenuity products, effective engineering provides for easy installation, even in the most extreme conditions.

Yangtze, Anyang Railway Equipment form JV Yangtze Railroad Materials has formed a joint venture with Anyang Railway Equipment LLC, a top Chinese materials manufacturer.

Yangtze, an AAR/M-1003- and ISO 9001:2008-certified railroad track materials supplier based in Maryland since 1989, specializes in the supply of standard and custom made ferrous, nonferrous and special alloy fasteners, as well as standard and custom hot forged and castings parts. Yangtze’s products have been sold to Class I railroads, transit authorities and other private sector businesses throughout North America.

Anyang Railway Equipment is the leading manufacturer of railroad track materials in China, according to Yangtze. It is also an ISO 9001:2008-certified manufacturer, and its products are used on high-speed rail, rapid transit and light rail systems worldwide. By partnering with Anyang Railway Equipment, Yangtze will be able to provide customers with “a greater variety of new products at competitive prices and with faster delivery times.”

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Railway Age September 2015

EPA says production of all types of covered hoppers will be strong through 2020.

D

emand for freight cars remains at a healthy level “in spite of a sluggish economy and extremely soft financial performances by the railroads,” Economic Planning Associates (EPA) said in its most recent quarterly railcar forecast, issued July 31, 2015.

Orders for rail equipment advanced from 15,952 units in the first quarter to 19,786 cars in the second quarter. And, in spite of some cars dropping out of the backlogs in the second quarter, midyear 2015 backlogs stood at the robust level of 135,800 cars, EPA noted.

“Based on current assembly rates, there are 6.3 quarters of railcar production in the end of June backlogs, implying continued strong levels of assemblies for a number of quarters to come,” EPA said.

“While second quarter financial performances by the railroads were adversely affected by steep declines in coal traffic, we expect stronger economic activities to bolster railroad revenues and profits during the remainder of this year and throughout 2016.

This will serve to support future demand for railcars.

“With the exception of coal cars, all other car types are expected to advance at a strong pace due to either expansion

of traffic or replacements of aged equipment. Due to the weakness in coal cars and lower than anticipated first-half assemblies of boxcars and mill gondolas, we have moderately lowered 2015 deliveries to 86,000 railcars. Based on somewhat stronger orders and backlogs for other car types, we have raised our 2016 deliveries estimate to 81,800 cars.

After 75,500 cars are assembled in 2017, deliveries will remain at the healthy annual level of some 73,000 to 74,000 cars through 2020.

EPA went on to analyze specific railcar types: “Demand for boxcars continues to mount as TTX looks to upgrade a portion of its general service fleet. Production of all types of covered hoppers will be strong over the next five years. Demand for coal cars is nonexistent. Based on current backlogs and an anticipation of stronger future growth in demand for intermodal equipment, we look for deliveries of 7,500 units this year and 10,000 units in 2016. Demand for nonintermodal flat cars continues to expand. Demand for tank cars continues to moderate.

After 2016, demand will be led by expanding oil production and will also be supported by replacements of certain cars.

Bruce Kelly

Supply Briefs

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FreightCar America has been building high quality freight cars since 1901.

This grain covered hopper car is just our latest innovation in a diverse and growing line of railcar designs. For more information concerning railcar purchase or lease options, give us a call at 800-458-2235 or email us at sales@freightcar.net.

Update A night with PNR Railworks’ “night crawlers” Track inspection on an active railroad is one of the most time-consuming jobs in railroading. It’s a safety-critical function that requires skill and patience. When you secure track time, you rarely know how far you’ll get, or how long it will take. It all depends upon how many trains are in your territory, and how the dispatcher intends to move them.

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend the better part of an overnight shift with a PNR RailWorks track inspection crew working GO Transit’s triple-track Lakeshore West Line, specifically, the former CN Oakville Subdivision. Metrolinx owns the rightof-way; CN has running rights. Traffic is a mix of GO Transit passenger trains and CN through freights, with a few CN locals thrown in for good measure.

Overnight is the only time that track inspections can be conducted, as GO Transit operates service with 30-minute headways during most of the daylight hours. PNR RailWorks has the contract for all Metrolinx inspection, maintenance and new construction. The track on this subdivision is maintained to 105 mph.

Assistant Track Foreman Scott Rose and Aaron Grobe, a member of the turnout crew, were my hosts. I spent most of the night observing from my perch in a GMC Yukon hi-rail vehicle equipped with the SolidTrack track geometry inspection system provided

by Burnaby, B.C.-based Andian Technologies Ltd.

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Railway Age September 2015

PNR RailWorks Assistant Track Foreman Scott Rose sets up the SolidTrack inspection system.

Rolling at a steady speed of 20 mph, Scott and Aaron looked for defects— gage and cross-level deviations, warping, etc. The technology is relatively simple but highly effective.

Air pressure is applied 5/8 of an inch below the railhead on both rails simultaneously. This translates into readings that appear on a scrolling laptop screen.

Setup is done manually with a device called a “level board.” Scott and Aaron find a good section of track, inspect it visually in front of and behind the vehicle, and determine that everything is good to go. The track inspection equipment is tied into GPS as well as a track database that shows mile-boards, turnouts, grade crossings and other physical characteristics.

“Good to go” is a relative term, however. On this particular night, we crawled along, even making a long

backup move to clear the tracks at one point because a CN through freight needed the railroad in between GO Transit moves. In the space of almost five hours, obtaining and releasing track occupancy permits, we covered only 11 miles. One defect was found at a turnout near a crossing; it was corrected immediately. For a journalist like me, it was a bit frustrating, but for m/w professionals like Scott and Aaron, it’s part of their nightly routine.

Operating safely, however, is anything but routine. The attention to detail and well-established safety procedures is relentless. “I don’t take a second out here for granted,” Scott said. “It’s not worth the risk.”

As RailWorks President and CEO Jeff Levy puts it, “We’re maintaining an active railroad for a great customer.”

—William C. Vantuono

HOCHLEISTUNG I PRÄZISION I ZUVERLÄSSIGKEIT

HIGH-CAPACITY I PRECISION I RELIABILITY

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Update UP reducing headcount after flat second quarter

UP reported an operating revenue decrease of 10% in 2Q 2015.

Union Pacific President and CEO Lance Fritz issued a statement to

non-agreement employees last month announcing a “workforce reduction initiative” as “the railroad takes the necessary steps to align resources with current business requirements.”

Fritz added that the company plans to reduce its management workforce in Omaha and other locations by several hundred people in the coming months through a combination of anticipated attrition and terminations.

News of the headcount reductions followed a flat 2015 second quarter for UP, as the railroad reported net income of $1.2 billion, compared with 2014 net income of $1.3 billion, an operating revenue decrease of 10%, and operating income down 11%.

“As with the furlough of more than 1,000 craft professionals in recent months, this is an extremely difficult decision to make because of the impact it will have on all our employees,” Fritz

still idling?

said. “However, for our company’s long-term success, we must take these painful actions to balance our workforce levels with today’s business demands.”

“While UP does not expect workforce reductions to reach federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) thresholds, we have communicated with appropriate government entities in accordance with WARN guidelines to be transparent with our communities about our intentions,” Fritz added.

Fritz says the company will offer severance packages to employees who will be part of the non-agreement, involuntary workforce reduction.

Communication to impacted employees will occur over the next few months.

No buyout options will be available for employees who retire or voluntarily leave the railroad.

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Railway Age September 2015

TNW completes multimillion-dollar logistics center upgrade

The project included the construction of 23 miles of new track.

TNW Corp., a privately held operator of short line railroads and logistics centers, including TXGN Railway and TXNW Railway, has completed a multimillion-dollar upgrade at its Panhandle Logistics Center, the company announced last month. The logistics center is located on the TXNW Railway complex in Sunray, Tex. In addition to improving the Panhandle Logistics Center’s infrastructure, the 2015 expansion project resulted in the construction of 23 miles of new track. This increases TNW’s railcar storage capacity systemwide to more than 13,000, the company said.

“This is the latest in an ongoing program of expansion and improvements in our facilities and services to ensure that we can securely meet the needs of our clients in the future,” said Paul Treangen, TNW CEO.

September 2015 Railway Age 15

Update CP set for superior grain service Canadian Pacific says it “is well positioned to provide best-in-class service to western Canadian grain shippers during the 2015-2016 crop-year.”

CP’s Dedicated Train Program (DTP), introduced in the 2014-2015 crop year, helped the railroad move a record 276,154 carloads (27,849,434 tons) of Canadian grain and grain products from western Canadian origins, up from the previous record crop year of 2013-2014. DTP, CP says, “provides customers with greater clarity and control of car supply to manage their supply chains. CP anticipates adding more trains to the program this crop year as it responds to greater demand to move grain and grain products from western Canada.

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Railway Age September 2015

velocity in the rail portion of the complex grain supply chain.”

DTP, designed for unit grain trains, serves approximately 70% of CP’s grain operation, according to Vice President Sales and Marketing-Bulk John Brooks.

“Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

“DTP is based on the fact that unit train shippers know their business the best, allowing them to determine origin and destination and to manage their supply chain velocity.”

For non-unit-train shippers, CP’s Open Distribution service “is segmented to better fulfill the shipping needs to these end markets,” said Brooks. “Customers who do not qualify for DTP or choose not to sign up for the program can order cars in the Open Distribution program, which allows shippers to input orders for four weeks.

As orders are filled, new orders can be placed. We continue to offer valuable and efficient service to our less than

unit train customers via Open Distribution. This service is informed by ongoing and collaborative discussions with shippers and coordination through the Canadian Grain Commission for producer car loaders. We are constantly working to recognize and meet the differing needs of all our customers.”

DTP and Open Distribution, Brooks said, “are collaborative programs that give flexible options to our customers, both large and small. CP has stressed and will continue to stress that the complex Canadian grain supply chain must operate on a 24/7 basis to support balanced pipelines, reduce congestion and drive velocity.”

CP said that in 2015, it will invest 21% of its revenue on capital expenditures, a percentage “higher than any other Class I railroad. Canadian rail rates remain among the lowest in the world, having risen just 6% since 2000, even as commodity prices have soared by 166%.”

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West Coast crude by rail shipments stable, for now

There is “big potential” to expand crude by rail shipments to West Coast ports and to California, but building the infrastructure “has proven painstakingly

slow,” said RBN Energy LLC analyst Rusty Braziel.

“CBR shipments from North Dakota to West Coast destinations peaked in January 2015 at 170,000 barrels per day, falling since then to an average 140,000 barrels per day in 2015, January through May,” Braziel said. “The vast majority of these shipments have moved to four refineries in Washington State, providing a cheaper alternative to the Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude staple these refineries have run for decades.”

In “The End of the Line: Will Bakken Shipments to the West Coast Continue?”

RBN’s Sandy Fielden discussed the longterm fate of West Coast CBR. “West Coast CBR shipments from North Dakota remain firmly routed in supplying Washington State refineries for the moment,” noted Fielden. “As such, the shipments will expand if and when Shell gets its permit, but only by

65,000 barrels a day or so. There is also a good possibility that one or more of the rail to marine port terminal projects in Oregon or Washington will eventually be built that could increase Bakken crude shipments to California.

There is also likely to be a slow increase in CBR shipments to California as unloading terminals there are permitted, but pipelines such as the Inland California Express may overshadow these in due course. For the moment, there is no apparent end for CBR shipments from North Dakota to Washington refineries.”

“Unlike the East Coast, where new pipeline infrastructure could eventually replace CBR routes, there are no current plans to build pipelines to Washington State from North Dakota,” said Fielden. “The closest such plans all involve pipelines shipping Canadian crude to the West Coast.”

September 2015 Railway Age 17

Update Cesar Vergara recipient of Graham Claytor Award

Railway Age has selected noted railway industry industrial designer Cesar A. Vergara as recipient of the 2015 W. Graham Claytor Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to Passenger Transportation. Vergara will accept the award at the 22nd Annual Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads Conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28, 2015.

The Graham Claytor Award is presented annually and is based largely on a lifetime of achievement for an individual who has contributed

significantly to the advancement of passenger rail in America.

Vergara, President and Chief Designer of Vergarastudio, “is internationally recognized in passenger transportation design, with three decades of experience managing and leading design teams in consulting firms and transit agencies in Europe, North America and Latin America,” said Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. “He is the Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss of his generation.”

Vergara, who recently accepted the position of Principal Industrial Designer with SNC-Lavalin Group subsidiary Interfleet, formed Vergarastudio in 2009. Prior to that, he held industrial design positions with various organizations. He was National Principal of Design at Jacobs Civil from 2003 to 2009; Chief Designer and Assistant Executive

Director at New Jersey Transit from 2001 to 2003; Senior Director of Rail at Teague from 1999 to 2001; Director of Vehicle Design and Manager of Car Design at Amtrak from 1990 to 1999; Chief Designer of National Railways of Mexico from 1987 to 1990; Senior Industrial Designer at Henry Dreyfuss Associates from 1986 to1987; and an industrial designer at Gustavsberg Villeroy Bosch and Utveckings Design, Stockholm, Sweden, from 1980 to 1982.

Vergara, who hails from Mexico City and came to the U.S. when his father, a World Bank executive, accepted a U.S. post, holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts in Industrial Design from Konstfack University College of Art and Design, Stockholm, Sweden. He resides in Ridgefield, Conn., and has five children with his wife Aideen, a nurse practitioner.

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U.S.-Mexico West Rail Bridge now operational The West Rail Bridge, a key part of the West Rail Project rail relocation initiative, became operational last month.

Cameron County, the city of Brownsville and the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (CCRMA), all located in Texas, have been working on the West Rail Project for the past 15 years.

The West Rail Bridge is the first new international rail bridge built between the U.S. and Mexico in the past l00 years. A new six-mile rail line on the U.S. side replaces the existing connection between Brownsville, Tex., and Matamoros, Mexico. The project prioritizes border security and includes X-Ray scanning machines to scan railcars for illicit cash, drugs and other contraband.

The project also improves safety, travel time and the free flow of legal trade between the U.S. and Mexico,

benefitting Texas jobs and economic opportunity. Fourteen grade crossings were eliminated in the Brownsville area, including some in nearby school zones. Shifting rail traffic out of the congested areas will help speed the flow of legal goods moving between the two countries.

The entire project’s final price tag exceeded $120 million, with about $75 million of infrastructure investment on the Mexico portion of the project.

“This is a project that will leave a lasting effect on our community for many years to come,” said Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda, Jr. “Providing this new link to move goods and services more efficiently is going to bring enormous advantages and opportunities to the consumer, the supplier and to markets throughout North America and the world.”

“This project puts the Rio Grande

Valley on the map,” said David Allex, CCRMA chairman and an expert in logistics and economic development.

“To have this new transportation artery that will help serve our region on both sides of the border is paramount to the success of the region. I know that we will be able to attract more investment to the region because of this project.”

The West Rail Bridge opened on Aug. 7.

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Maplewood, NJ 07040 Phone: (800) 21RAILS Email: gburwell@railsco.com Web: www.railsco.com September 2015 Railway Age 19

Update Alfred E. Fazio joins Railway Age contributing editor staff

Veteran railroad civil engineer and operating officer Alfred E. Fazio, P.E., has joined the staff of Railway Age as a contributing editor.

Fazio, who has 40 years experience in freight and passenger rail, retired in

January 2015 as Amtrak Deputy Chief Engineer of Section Improvements, where he was responsible for the implementation of high-speed rail improvements to the Northeast Corridor. Prior to this, he was General Manager of New Jersey Transit’s Camden to Trenton River LINE diesel light rail system. Fazio also served with Raytheon and Washington Group International as President of TwentyFirst Century Rail, the original DBOM supplier of the NJ Transit HudsonBergen Light Rail system. From 1989 through 1996, he was Amtrak’s Division Engineer for the New York Division.

Fazio holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Villanova University, a master’s in Environmental Engineering from Drexel University, a master’s in Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a registered Professional Engineer. He is RA

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a member of AREMA as well as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Fazio has also served as a member of the Engineering faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy and at Widener University.

Fazio’s first major feature article for Railway Age will be a three-part series on high-speed rail. “HSR in the Northeast: What next? Part I: Defining and Expanding High Speed,” begins on p. 60 of this issue. Parts II and III will be published in the October and November issues, respectively.

Fazio has authored several rail transit books. His newest book, Elements of Planning, Engineering & Operating Light Rail, With Applications in New Jersey, is being published by SimmonsBoardman Books (p. 43). Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono and BRT Services President Bridget Hodgson are co-authors.

Update Charlotte mulls expansion of the CATS light rail network An initial public consultation began last month regarding proposals to expand the light rail network in Charlotte, N.C. Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is seeking feedback on plans for the 12.7-mile Lynx Silver Line, which would link the city center with the suburb of Matthews. The population of Matthews is around 27,000.

Route options for the line are being evaluated as part of the Lynx Silver Line/Southeast Corridor Transit Study, which will conclude in June 2016 with recommendations to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Metropolitan Transit Commission.

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Watching Washington Frank n. wilner

No fingerprints on NEC track grab

H

ere’s a mystery for you, but don’t anticipate—as in the board game, “Clue”—that it’s “Col. Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick.” The perp here is the U.S. Senate—the deed done under the Capitol Dome and with a pen (okay, a word processor).

As for the “what,” it’s a provision in a Senate-passed bill to extend, for a short distance south, the Northeast Corridor by adding to it track of the Amtrakowned Washington Terminal Co. that runs from just north of, and south through, Union Station, thence within a tunnel between the Capitol Building and Supreme Court, and ending shortly thereafter at a CSX interlocking.

The Northeast Corridor (NEC), of course, is the 450-mile long, primarily Amtrak-owned, unbroken longitudinal right-of-way linking Boston with Washington, D.C., attracting more covetous eyes than Kim Kardashian or even the Caitlyn Jenner cover of Vanity Fair.

With that knowledge, your challenge is to determine the author and motive of this stealth Senate provision, which we warn you has even highly proficient congressional savants in a quandary— some suggesting sneakiness benefiting a so-far invisible special interest.

If you naively disbelieve anything sinister is afoot in a Congress fueled by political contributions—Capitol Hill’s lawful equivalent of crystal meth— recall that not long ago, the PAC-rich United Transportation Union deftly guided into the nether shadows of a foreign affairs bill an unrelated and malevolent provision forcing the transfer to the UTU of a rival union’s members. When serendipitously discovered prior to a final vote, the provision was removed.

As for this instant provision redefining the NEC—a so-called legislative orphan, as no senator is claiming 24

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September 2015

parenthood—it is slyly buried in a 1,030-page highway bill. While the NEC’s redefinition ignores precise geography elsewhere on the otherwise loosely defined NEC, this provision is meticulous in defining the southern extension, quashing a Senate staffer’s low-wattage illumination of it being “simple legislative housekeeping.”

Let’s begin the gumshoe reconnaissance with Washington Terminal Co., created more than a century ago by the then multiple railroads whose passenger trains stopped at Union Station. Amtrak took title to Washington Terminal Co. in 1981, but unlike Amtrak, which is exempted by law from most Surface Transportation Board (STB) economic regulation, Washington Terminal Co. is subject to STB track-access and rate regulation. Are you getting warm?

Now consider commuter train operator Virginia Railway Express (VRE), whose singular access to Union Station is over tracks of Washington Terminal Co. Were VRE to become embroiled in a squabble with Amtrak over the price of access and midday storage fees for its commuter trains, VRE today would have the option to petition the STB for an order granting compulsory access over Washington Terminal Co. track, and at an STB approved sum.

An implausible event? In fact, a decade ago, after VRE considered firing Amtrak as the operator of VRE commuter trains serving Northern Virginia, VRE was given an ultimatum by Amtrak to renew the contract or cease operating into Union Station (where VRE trains also are stored, maintained and repaired awaiting the reverse afternoon commute). Sources then involved recall that when Amtrak realized VRE was headed to the STB for redress so as to avoid being effectively shut down, Amtrak removed the embargo threat.

Then, in 2010, in yet another fit of

pique—this time after VRE actually fired Amtrak as its subcontractor operator of commuter trains in favor of French-owned Keolis Rail Services— Amtrak renewed its threat to deny VRE access to Union Station. Again, cooler heads prevailed and the STB was spared the task of refereeing the kerfuffle.

Should this Senate-passed stealth provision redefining the NEC be approved by the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Obama, Washington Terminal Co. track likely would become exempt from STB oversight, as is all other track comprising the NEC. Whoa Nelly, that’s pungent bargaining leverage for Amtrak, as it forces VRE into a Quisling-like contractnegotiating stance.

Another curious outcome of extending the NEC south of Union Station would allow a real estate developer access to a low-interest loan from the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program. A separate provision—this one transparently authored by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)—opens for loan the RRIF’s $35 billion balance to encourage commercial and residential development along the NEC if a train station is involved. Could this stealth provision be to allow a subsidized Trump hotel and casino to be built in proximity to Union Station, the Capitol Building and Supreme Court?

Pardon our skepticism of a slyly buried legislative provision for which there is no press release, no admitted paternity and at least two plausible special-interest end results. Such is the celebrity of a dysfunctional Congress comprised largely of members often pursing such outcomes. If sunlight be the best disinfectant, it too rarely shines inside House and Senate chambers.

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Mechanical marvels

By MISCHA WANEK–LIBMAN, Engineering Editor

Technologies to improve asset life and operational safety are among the many topics to be presented by the CMA at Railway Interchange 2015.

T

he Coordinated Mechanical Associations (CMA), which includes the Air Brake Association (ABA), International Association of Railroad Operating Officers (IAROO), League of Railway Industry Women (LRIW), Locomotive Maintenance Officers Association (LMOA) and the Mechanical Association Railcar Technical Services (MARTS), have a solid, informationpacked agenda in store for their 2015 Technical & Educational Conferences, to be held in conjunction with Railway Interchange 2015.

Railway Interchange 2015, Oct. 4-6 in Minneapolis, is the U.S.-based exhibition and technical conference combining the technical and educational conferences of the CMA and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) with the exhibits of the Railway Supply Institute (RSI), Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA) and Railway Systems

Suppliers, Inc. (RSSI). The semi-annual convention offers participants the opportunity to “see the latest technologies in the rail industry, learn about new trends and rail research, and connect with people from across the U.S. and internationally.”

This year, the semi-annual event has outdoor exhibits located at BNSF’s Northtown Railway Yard. There will be more than 1.5 miles of on- and off-track exhibits, ranging from locomotives to high-production track machines.

The CMA programs will be held during exhibition hours at the Minneapolis Convention Center. All CMA sessions will begin following the opening general session held the morning of October 5th with keynote speaker retired U.S. Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, who is described as having “an incredible story and compelling message for all attendees. O’Neill, who held combat leadership roles in more than 400 missions in four different theaters of war, will translate his elite SEAL September 2015 Railway Age 27

RAILWAY INTERCHANGE 2015

team training into high-impact, actionable insights on leadership, decision-making, operating in uncertain environments, and how to become the ‘best of the best.’”

The ABA and IAROO will hold combined technical sessions Monday, Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. BNSF and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will update attendees on the railroad’s’ 90 CFM test waiver for operating trains with multiple air sources, followed by a presentation

by FRA on Positive Train Control.

ABA: 107 Years

ABA sessions taking place the afternoons of Oct. 5 and 6 will feature presentations from Union Pacific, Wabtec, Canadian Pacific, New York Air Brake, Amtrak, Transport Canada, Norfolk Southern, and Railroad Friction Products Corp.

“As we prepare for the 107th gathering of the Air Brake Association, I am excited by the promise of a successful and informative convention in conjunction with Railway Interchange 2015,” said ABA President Karen Carriere, Regional Vice President-Sales, Wabtec Corp. “Along with our board of directors and fellow CMA members, I look forward to welcoming you during our Technical Program Sessions.

From its inception in 1893, the mission of the ABA has been to enlighten, educate and establish a dialog to advance the safety and, ultimately, the success of the rail industry. The

forum provided by the ABA has allowed for the dissemination of knowledge that has proven to play an integral part in the development of technology throughout the history of the rail industry. The technical presentations provide the industry with a platform to not only discuss pertinent issues but to offer innovative solutions, and this year is no exception.”

“Our program in Minneapolis includes papers discussing important industry initiatives such as Asset Health Strategic Initiative, Automated Single Car Testing Rule Waiver, New Rules for Tank Car Equipment Applications, Mechanical Training Compliance, and Enhanced Braking Technologies,” said Carriere. “An update on the 90 CFM waiver will also be presented. The conference and exhibits offer our membership the opportunity to connect with colleagues from multiple industry segments. As our industry engages in new, multi-faceted technologies such as PTC, the timing couldn’t be better to come together to network and interact with technical experts across a broad range of disciplines. We welcome the opportunity to share our program with our membership and prospective members.”

IAROO, LMOA Sessions

The IAROO technical sessions taking place during the afternoons of Oct. 5 and 6 will see a variety of topics covered, including Phase 2 Distributed Power on Union Pacific, a

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RAILWAY INTERCHANGE 2015

discussion on the Short Line Safety Institute, Locomotive Cab Standards, Effective Operations Testing, an update on Liquefied Natural Gas, Identifying and Preventing Human Attention-Related Errors in Railway Operations, and the 40K Tractive Effort.

The LMOA technical sessions, which will be held in Room 208A on the second level of the Minneapolis Convention Center, will feature reports and papers from the Diesel Mechanical Maintenance Committee; the Shop Safety, Processes & Equipment Committee; the New Technologies Committee; the Fuel, Lubricants and Environmental Committee; and the Diesel Material Control Committee.

Additionally, LMOA President Bob Harvilla will give a State of the Association Address.

the Advanced Freight Car Search program, and updates from the AAR on the QA-5000 Program and its Mechanical Inspection Department.

Speakers at the LRIW conference program, which begins on Oct. 5, include Operation Lifesaver Inc. President and CEO Joyce Rose, Canadian Association of Railway Suppliers Executive Director Sylvia Newell and American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association President Linda Darr. In addition, LRIW will present its “Outstanding Woman of the Year” award during the opening general session. RA Rail vehicles of all kinds will be featured at tghe outdoor exhibits.

MARTS: Focus on Safety

MARTS will tackle an assortment of subjects during its technical sessions Oct. 5-6. Topics include a panel discussion on rolling stock asset health, a Tank Car Safety Forum, which will focus on the Department of Transportation’s rulemaking on tank cars carrying flammable liquids and responses from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and Railway Supply Institute, an update on wheel/rail profile and air brake research, a Protective Coatings forum that will look at increasing productivity in rail coatings and lining facilities,

September 2015 Railway Age 29

W W W. N O R D C O . C O M

414-766-2180

Twin Cities transit triumph Bolstered by the success of the Green Line LRT, Metro Transit is setting ridership records.

By Nick Blenkey, Web Editor

By CAROLINA WORRELL, Managing Editor

Courtesy of Metro Transit

T

his past June marked one year since public transportation operator Metro Transit, which covers the Twin Cities area, opened its $957 million, 11-mile Central Corridor LRT, the Green Line, connecting Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The Green Line is Metro Transit’s second LRT line after the Blue Line, which when it opened in 2004 marked the beginning of Metro Transit’s expansion into rail, a half-century after the last Twin Cities Rapid Transit streetcars were taken out of service.

Having served more than 11.1 million riders in its first year and generating about $3 billion in development along the corridor since construction on the line first began, Metro Transit General Manager Brian Lamb says the Green Line is about more than numbers.

“The Green Line is about improved access to jobs,” Lamb said, citing a recently released accessibility research from the University of Minnesota that indicated the line gave improved access to about 2,000 jobs.

Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman added, “The Green Line has proven to be what we always knew it would be: a key part of a first-class transportation system that provides access and opportunity throughout the corridor, our city and our region.”

Signs of Green Line success: • Initial projections for the Green Line predicted about 27,000 riders on an average weekday. That figure was not projected to top 41,000 until 2030, but on April 15, 2015, the line had a ridership of 44,651. And in May, Metro Transit September 2015 Railway Age 31

metro transit

had a week where average weekday ridership topped 40,500.

• Combined ridership on bus routes 16, 94 and the Green Line is double what it was when service was provided by buses alone.

• When the Green Line entered service, it wasn’t unheard of for a trip to take 60 minutes end-to-end, but now with scheduled times at 45 minutes end-to-end, Metro Transit says it comes within five minutes of that mark about 85% of the time.

• In March, the line’s East Bank Station reached one million total boardings—the first station to do so.

Overall, in 2014, Metro Transit light rail, regional/ commuter rail and buses provided 84.5 million passenger trips, the highest ridership tally since 1981. The ridership figure reflects an increase of more than 3.1 million rides, or 3.9%, compared to 2013, according to the agency.

The Blue Line, connecting Minneapolis to MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport and the Mall of America, accounted for almost 9.5 million rides, bringing the number of rides since it began operations to nearly 100 million.

The Northstar Commuter Rail Line, operated with a fleet of 18 Bombardier Bi-Level coaches and cab cars and six Wabtec/Motive Power MP36PH-3C locomotives, accounted for more than 721,000 rides. Providing service between Minneapolis and Big Lake, Minn., along a BNSF right-of-way, Northstar offers five round-trips in the peak direction, one reverse commute round-trip on weekdays, and three roundtrips on weekends. Currently, there are no expansion plans for the system, which opened in 2009. Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla adds, however, that there always has been a desire to expand the service to Saint Paul. Additionally, he adds, that as opposed to last year, there have been hardly any complications with freight traffic on the right-of-way and the Northstar has been achieving a “95% or better” on-time performance rate.

Bolstered by the success of the Green Line and population growth in the greater Minneapolis-Saint Paul region, as well as by changing transportation preferences and expanded service, transit ridership in 2014 was up 3.5% across all providers in the seven-county Minneapolis-Saint Paul region.

Total ridership in the region in 2014 was 97.7 million rides.

New LRT Lines

There are now three new regional transit projects in development: the Green Line Extension (Southwest LRT), Blue Line Extension (Bottineau Transitway) and Orange Line BRT (Bus Rapid Transit).

Construction on the $1.77 billion Green Line Extension, which will operate from downtown Minneapolis through the communities of St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie, passing in close proximity to Edina, is scheduled to begin in 2017. Funded through a mix of federal, state and local sources, the extension will be part of an integrated system of transitways, including connections to the Blue Line, the Northstar Commuter Rail Line, bus routes and proposed future BRT transitways. The extension originates 32

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September 2015

The Northstar Commuter Rail Line provides service between Minneapolis and Big Lake, Minn.

at Target Field Station, which serves the home of Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins and the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, in downtown Minneapolis.

Construction on the nearly $1 billion Blue Line Extension, an approximately 13-mile route that will serve downtown Minneapolis, north Minneapolis, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park, is scheduled to begin in 2018.

In August 2014, the Metropolitan Council received federal approval from the FTA to begin designing the extension, which will connect Minneapolis and the city’s northwest communities with the region’s system of transitways. It also will originate at Target Field Station. Service will begin in 2021, with nearly 27,000 boardings anticipated in 2030.

Fleet Refurbishment

Metro Transit’s 27 Type I Bombardier LRVs (a Minneapolisspecific version of the Flexity Swift design) are currently undergoing complete refurbishment. New graphics are being applied to match the newer Siemens S70/Avanto Type II LRVs that were added to the fleet in 2012.

The refurbishment includes a rigorous cleaning to remove built-up residue. Lights and other components are being removed and rebuilt, and in some cases replaced, with sturdier equipment that will withstand years of all-weather service, Metro Transit says.

In 2010, Metro Transit negotiated a contract with Siemens to acquire up to 109 S70 LRVs, with the first vehicle arriving in September 2012. The initial order was for 41 vehicles: 31 for the Green Line and 10 to expand the Blue Line fleet, enabling that route to operate three-car trains more frequently. Options for additional vehicles were exercised about a year later as contingency funding from the Central Corridor project became available. The Siemens LRVs are mechanically but not electronically compatible with the Bombardier vehicles, so while the two LRV types are able to operate at the same time and either type would be able to push a malfunctioning unit of the other type, multipleunit consists are only assembled of one type. RA

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Smart maintenance technologies, cold weather mitigation In August 2015, Metro Transit’s Materials Management Department purchased Smart Software, Inc.’s flagship product, SmartForecasts® software, to improve the planning and purchasing of service parts for its rail and bus operations. Smart Software describes the system as “a technology for accurately forecasting intermittent demand, solving a critical parts planning challenge for transit systems.” In addition, Smart Software is providing Metro Transit with consulting, training and ongoing support services.

Using service-level-driven demand planning techniques enabled by SmartForecasts, Metro Transit’s material planners “know the proper amount of inventory to carry for all parts in all warehouses to meet its challenging service level,” the company says. “This will be especially important for intermittently demanded items, which cannot be forecasted using traditional planning methods. Benefits include more effective and less costly resource allocation and increased

34

Railway Age

September 2015

parts availability to sustain ongoing operations.”

Metro Transit joins a number of public transportation systems in its decision to implement SmartForecasts, including MTA Metro-North Railroad, AMT (Montreal Transit) and New Jersey Transit.

The Northstar system is one of many railroads operating in frigid temperatures during the winter months that utilize HOTSTART APUs (auxiliary power units).

Says Director, Northstar Commuter Rail John Paul Vanaska, “It’s an important system to have because it prevents the train’s engines from freezing and helps ensure that they will start.”

HOTSTART offers two locomotive-specific electricpowered engine-heating systems. One is a dual-fluid heater that maintains prime-mover coolant and oil temperatures during layover periods. The other is a coolant-only model. HOTSTART also manufactures a diesel-powered APU, a self-contained system that runs off the locomotive’s diesel fuel supply.

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The locomotive landscape

2015 is adding up to be a year of innovation, and a few surprises, in the North American locomotive market.

M

id-2015 may not be the ideal time for an overview of motive power developments in the railroad industry. Freight traffic in some sectors has been falling off, and the industry is starting to store cars and locomotives. Nevertheless, locomotive builders, component suppliers and railroads are pressing ahead with efforts driven largely by the requirement to meet U.S. EPA Tier 4 emissions standards, as well as those of state and local air quality regulatory bodies. Here are just a few of the programs under way.

NS: New direction in switchers

Early last month, Norfolk Southern unveiled its new GP33ECO switcher locomotive (above). Designed and constructed at the railroad’s Juniata backshops, it’s configured as a mother-slug unit. So far, 10 have been built. They will be deployed in Atlanta; 65% of their cost has been subsidized by a CMAQ grant administered through such federal and state agencies as the Federal Highway Administration and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

Based on an EMD GP50, the four-axle, 3,000-hp GP33ECO uses an EPA Tier 3-compliant 12N-710G3BT3 (“710 ECO Kit”) prime-mover from Electro-Motive Diesel, D87 traction motors (which offer 10% higher tractive effort than a D77), new radiators with two-speed fans, electrical cabinets with EMD’s EM 2000 microprocessor, an AR15 main traction alternator (retained from the GP50) and a CA6 companion alternator. NS’s Admiral Cab, with its angled windshield, has been fitted to the carbody. The unit’s flared radiators “are similar to those of an SD70,” according to NS

By WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief

Mechanical Engineer-Locomotive Design Mark Duve.

The GP33ECO mother unit is mated to a ballasted slug equipped with four d.c. traction motors and two EMD electrical cabinets. “Unlike other slugs, this one goes through transition and does not cut out at 20 mph,” said Duve. “The combination gets very close to Tier 4, compared to two switcher locomotives operating as a multiple unit.

It runs at higher, more efficient throttle notch settings: 4 through 6. We estimate its tractive effort to be equivalent to that of a new GP59.”

Overall, NS’s preferred switcher locomotive is now the SD40, according to Duve. “We’ve retired most of our endcab switchers—MP15s SWs, etc.”

NS is presently working on a CNG-powered mother-slug set.

Duve said this experimental unit is now in the tuning stages.

Tier 4 Developments

Tier 4 emissions standards for locomotives took effect Jan. 1, 2015. Tier 4 reduces PM (particulate matter) by 70% and NOx by 76% from the prior Tier 3 regulations.

GE’s Tier 4-compliant Advance Power 4 locomotive has been sold to several railroads. Among them are CN, which began last month taking delivery of its ET44AC, and CSX, for which production is now in full swing for its ET44AH. California has the “Carl Moyer Emissions Grant Program,” which provides grants of up to 85% of total locomotive cost, as a trade-in transaction. For 2014, this program required that the seller/locomotive manufacturer hold a Tier 4 ARB (Air Resources Board) Verified Certificate, which NRE has received for its Tier 4 GenSet locomotives. “This certificate September 2015 Railway Age 37

Locomotive landscape

has benefits for all NRE Tier 4 locomotive sales throughout the U.S.,” said NRE Southwest Sales Executive Steve Sonni.

“It’s recognized by other U.S. Air Quality Districts, giving our Tier 4 locomotives a competitive advantage when a grant is involved. It provides evidence that our Tier 4 emissions system will maintain its effectiveness through a rigorous 3,000-hour locomotive test period. NRE is the only recipient of this important certificate to date.”

Still in the works is the first freight locomotive to be repowered with a Cummins 4,200-hp, 16-cylinder, 95-liter, Tier 4-compliant QSK95 Power Module engine: Indiana Rail Road CECX 1919. The QSK95 package, now being installed

by Brookville Equipment Corp., is designed to replace the complete diesel-electric system and carbody of the base locomotive as a fully enclosed unit consisting of the 1,800-rpm QSK95 engine, alternator, cooling system and dynamic braking system, with integral Cummins Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) exhaust after-treatment. Testing of CECX 1919 is expected to begin in the fourth quarter.

MARC Going Diesel-Only

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) has decided to phase out its fleet of four AEM7 and six HHP8 electric locomotives used for MARC regional/commuter rail service and replace them with eight new 125-mph Charger diesel-electric locomotives from Siemens Industry. The MTA plans to piggyback on an Illinois DOT contract with Siemens, for an estimated $58 million.

MARC’s electric locomotives operate on the Penn Line (Northeast Corridor) between Perryville, Md., and Washington D.C. Union Station. The agency’s existing 33 diesel locomotives are used on the Camden and Brunswick lines as well as the Penn Line.

Rendering of a MARC Siemens Charger by Cesar A. Vergara.

LNG: In Stealth Mode

Though prospects for LNG-fueled locomotives don’t look as strong as they did in 2013, mainly due to the price of crude oil dropping, a few test programs are still under way. BNSF is still evaluating a GE demonstrator set; CSX recently completed its test program, according to GE New Product Introduction Leader Graciela Trillanes. GE’s LNG delivery system, a GEVO power plant equipped with a NextFuel™ Natural Gas Retrofit Kit, is low-pressure and employs an 80%-20% LNG-diesel mix, for compression ignition. For the economics of LNG or CNG to work, it must have a significantly lower cost per unit of energy compared to diesel. That was the case two years ago.

Other than cost, widespread adoption of LNG has three essential pieces: engine and fuel tender technology, fuel infrastructure, and a supportive regulatory framework. Only the first piece exists, albeit in incomplete form. The railroads have been leaning toward tak-car-style tenders, and are still working with the AAR’s Natural Gas Fuel Tender Technical Advisory Group on a standardized design.

The Charger, which is based on the Siemens Eurosprinter, Eurorunner, and Vectron platforms, features a primary traction drive consisting of a 4,400-hp-rated, EPA Tier IV emissions-compliant 16-cylinder Cummins QSK95 diesel engine with a cubic capacity of 95 liters. The 120-ton Charger offers a starting tractive effort of 65,200 pounds.

MARC’s four EMD/ASEA-produced AEM7s, like Amtrak’s, are approaching 30 years in age. Its six-unit HHP8 fleet, also like Amtrak’s, is only about 15 years old but have performed poorly. The electric fleet’s reliability rating is between 40% and 50%. The diesel fleet, most of which was replaced about five years ago with 26 MotivePower MP36PH-3Cs, has a reliability rating of 85%. MARC’s diesel fleet also contains six EMD GP39H-2s scheduled for repow-

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Locomotive landscape

ering, and one EMD GP40WH-2, used as standby power.

The reasoning behind MARC’s decision to go with diesels, rather than Siemens ACS-64 electrics, as SEPTA is doing (piggybacking on Amtrak’s ACS-64 contract) is rather basic: They fit the bill.

For starters, Amtrak, which has been maintaining MARC’s electric fleet since 1983, will no longer provide the service as of June 2016 because it has retired its own HHP8 locomotives and is phasing out its AEM7s as new Siemens ACS-64 electrics enter service.

“All of our equipment is rated to go through the B&P Tunnel, which is our limiting factor,” Erich A. Kolig, Director-MARC Train and Commuter Bus, told Railway Age. “What constrains us the most is that only one of our three lines is electrified. Of the 22 trainsets we put out for operations each day, only six can be fulfilled with electric locomotives. Therefore, our need is primarily for diesels as they are the most versatile for our operations. That is not to say that MARC is moving entirely away from electrics.

MARC will not take delivery until the fall of 2017 of the new Chargers. The 6 HHP8s are being put through an improvement program and will continue service until the new locomotives arrive. If they can be made to be much more reliable, then their continued operation will be reevaluated based on service needs at the time. MARC also has no yard

facility with catenary. The reliability will have to be increased such that it justifies capital expenditure on infrastructure at our yards.”

Operationally, the Siemens Charger’s performance is on par with the ACS-64’s. For example, the Charger offers the same maximum operating speed as the ACS-64, 125 mph.

“MARC has regular operations up to 125 mph and does not want to lose that facet,” said Kolig. “The acceleration is higher on the ACS-64, however, based on station spacing, the difference in the schedule between running with an 8,000-hp HHP8 and a 3,600-hp MP36 locomotive is only about 5 minutes over the entire portion of our operations on the Northeast Corridor. You may go faster with an electric, but you will need more space to brake, and therefore you lose some of the time gained.”

A Charger also costs substantially less than an ACS-64, “and maintenance costs are also substantially less due to replacement parts costs,” said Kolig. “Also, there are no electric locomotive options on the current contracts. If we were to issue our own spec, regardless of locomotive type, it would be for eight or so locomotives depending on cost. The procurement would not benefit from the economies of scale that piggybacking allows. Therefore, with a fixed amount of available funding, we would not be able to buy as many locomotives as we need.” RA

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Eleventh-hour reprieve?

PTC fully installed and turned on by midnight, New Year’s Eve 2015? Not going to happen, for various reasons. Congress, the

By WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief ball’s in your court.

C

ongress tends to be a reactive body, springing into action when there’s a crisis, whether it’s real or perceived. About seven years ago, a fatal collision involving a Metrolink passenger train and a Union Pacific freight in Chatsworth, Calif., led to passage of the RSIA (Rail Safety Improvement Act) of 2008, requiring all Class I railroads transporting poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous (PIH) or toxic-by-inhalation hazardous (TIH) materials and all railroads providing passenger service to implement Positive Train Control by Dec. 31, 2015.

After seven years and what the FRA calls “significant assistance,” it’s now generally accepted that most railroads won’t be in compliance with the “PTC mandate.” The industry has been stating its case in numerous “let’s beat another dead horse” hearings before Congressional committees. Last month, the FRA sent its “PTCl Implementation” report to Congress. For all intents and purposes, it’s a rehash of what the industry has already said. The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee mandated the report.

The report states that it is “highly likely that the industry will not be in complete compliance by Dec. 31, 2015.” That’s an understatement. It’s now up to Congress to act by passing legislation extending the deadline. When that will happen is anyone’s guess, but knowing how Congress typically behaves, it may not occur until 11:59:59 p.m. on Dec. 31. An exaggeration? Yes, but probably not too far off the mark.

Railroad Challenges

“There has been some successful, but limited, deployment of PTC systems in the U.S.,” the report states. “Amtrak has deployed the ITCS on approximately 60 route-miles between Chicago and Detroit. BNSF has deployed the ETMS on a limited number of pilot territories for revenue test and demonstration purposes. The most successful and widely deployed PTC system is Amtrak’s ACSES currently operational along certain portions of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor” (though, unfortunately, not at Frankford Curve in North Philadelphia, where an overspeed-caused derailment of an Amtrak Regional train claimed eight lives).

Railroads “have faced a number of challenges as they have worked to implement PTC,” the report says: • Individual railroads continue to encounter difficulty in secondary market spectrum acquisitions. There are a number of different issues that affect acquisition efforts that vary

depending on the particulars of the secondary market where the railroad must obtain the spectrum. In some situations, incumbent license holders are unwilling to sell or lease their license to railroads at all because the incumbent is actively using the licensed spectrum. In other situations, incumbent license holders, while willing to sell or lease their license, are proffering the spectrum under terms and conditions that the railroads believe are unfair and unreasonable. In other situations, spectrum ownership, and the identity of the actual license holder who can legally proffer the spectrum for sale or lease is tied up in legal proceedings. In these situations, neither the railroads nor the FCC can complete the transactions until the court cases have been settled.

• The number of suppliers who currently manufacture PTC system components is limited. The major suppliers with proven capability to deliver the technology in use in the U.S. include GE Transportation Systems, which manufactures ITCS and E-ATC; Wabtec Railway Electronics, which manufactures I-ETMS; Alstom Signaling Solutions, which manufactures ACSES; and Siemens Rail Automation, which manufactures CBTC. • Different PTC technologies adopted by the railroads use different radios operating with different communications protocols in similar frequency bands. These differences can give rise to desensitization, a form of electromagnetic interference where a radio receiver is unable to receive a weak radio signal that it might otherwise be able to receive when there is no interference.

• To date, FRA has received three of 38 required PTC safety plans. For years, FRA has been in constant and consistent contact with railroads to assist on safety plans and offer guidance. This includes conducting preliminary reviews of required submission documents to try and identify regulatory noncompliance as soon as possible to minimize the cost and schedule impact of changes. Additionally, to make the review of these documents as efficient as possible, in early 2015 FRA sent a letter to each railroad outlining specific items and the level of data quality FRA requires to approve safety plans.

In order to provide additional guidance, the letter also identified omissions that would result in the plans being rejected and considered incomplete.

Progress to Date

As of June 2015, aggregate analysis of data from the railroads, September 2015 Railway Age 45

POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL

along with supplementary data from AAR, indicates that Class I’s have “completed or partially completed installations of more than 50% of locomotives that require PTC equipment; deployed approximately 50% of WIUs (wayside interface units); replaced approximately 50% of signals that require replacement; and completed most of the required mapping for PTC. By the end of 2015, AAR projects that 39% of locomotives will be fully equipped; 76% of WIUs will be installed; 67% of base station radios will be installed; and 34% of required employees will be trained. According to APTA, 29% of commuter railroads are targeting to complete installation of PTC equipment by the end of 2015. Full implementation of PTC for all commuter lines is projected by 2020.

“Based upon this data and FRA’s observations, only a small percentage of railroads are expected to obtain system certification and complete PTC implementation by Dec. 31, 2015.”

Don’t Blame Us

“Despite FRA’s actions to inform and assist railroads in collecting this data—along with the looming statutory deadline and the threat of aggressive enforcement actions (including the imposition of significant civil penalties)— some railroads have not provided complete information or stepped up efforts to comply with the end-of-the-year implementation deadline,” FRA states. “In the seven years since

passage of RSIA, FRA has dedicated significant resources and worked closely with the railroad industry to ensure timely compliance with the PTC safety mandate” FRA points to “approving all 41 railroads’ PTC implementation plans on time; allocating staff to work on implementation; working with the FCC and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to resolve issues related to spectrum use and improve the approval process for communication towers and ancillary equipment; supporting deployment of PTC through the issuance of RSIA-mandated performance-based regulations, as well as technical assistance documents to aid railroads, manufacturers and suppliers; building a PTC test bed at TTCI that is available to railroads; making loans available through the RRIF program; and providing information on specific items and the level of data quality FRA requires to approve safety plans and identify omissions that would result in a plan being rejected.”

FRA said it “has long stated that a lack of public sector funding may result in unwanted delays in fully implementing PTC, especially on commuter railroads. FRA has requested funding for PTC development and implementation in every budget request dating back to Fiscal Year 2011. Congress has not provided a guaranteed, reliable revenue stream for implementation on commuter railroads.”

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Bee line to Hamilton’s B Line Hamilton’s C$800-million-plus LRT project is one of many rail transit initiatives under way in Ontario. By John D. Thompson, Canadian Contributing Editor

T

he municipally owned Hamilton Street Railway, the bus transit operator in Hamilton, Ontario, is returning to rail operation. On May 26, 2015, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced at a media conference at the city’s McMaster University that the province would provide full funding for a 7-mile LRT project. Construction will begin in 2019, with completion slated for 2024.

The announcement ended several years of uncertainty as to whether the province, through its transit agency Metrolinx, would furnish full LRT funding, as requested by the city. In Canada, the bulk of rapid transit financing originates from provincial and municipal sources, rather than the federal government. The estimated cost of the Hamilton LRT is more than C$800 million. Tender calls for the LRT should

begin within about two years. In the meantime, Hamilton’s City Council must vote on an agreement with Metrolinx covering details such as municipal costs (utilities relocation, etc.), construction phasing, and system operation.

There will, of course, be considerable disruption during the construction program, including preliminary work such as underground utilities relocation and replacement. The city is establishing an LRT office for ongoing communications with the community during the entire process. Community members include local businesses, the Chamber of Commerce, educational institutions, and community groups. Printed information material will be distributed, community presentations held, and staff available to answer questions and listen to concerns. The Chamber has offered to assist with the communications program.

September 2015 Railway Age 49

hamilton light rail transit

A Truncated Route

Hamilton is situated at the western end of Lake Ontario, about halfway between Toronto and Buffalo; the metropolitan population as of 2011 was about 520,000. For many years, the city depended on a major industrial economy, with companies such as International Harvester, Firestone Tire and Rubber, Otis Elevator, and Studebaker Automotive, as well as two major steel companies and a railcar builder, National Steel Car. The steel companies and NSC remain, but the others, and many similar companies, are long gone.

The city in recent decades has been transitioning toward a post-industrial economy based on higher education and medical research. LRT is regarded locally as being a stimulus to high-density commercial and residential development, increasing the local tax base significantly. It is also seen as attracting new transit riders in a city where public transit does not have a particularly favorable middle class image, even though the buses are relatively new and well maintained, and service is generally reliable.

The LRT, designated the B Line, will extend in an eastwest alignment across the city, from McMaster University in the west, through the central business district, to a temporary terminus at a property being redeveloped by the city.

It will be entirely above ground, on city streets, on a raised reserved-track alignment. A short section of four blocks on King will be in mixed traffic due to the narrowness of the street at this point, west of Wellington Street.

50

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September 2015

The route, as financed by Metrolinx, is not entirely what the city had originally requested. That plan would have seen it extending eastward from McMaster, through the downtown area and on through older, medium- and higher-density residential areas as well as traditional storefront and strip mall development to Eastgate Square, a large, older shopping mall with redevelopment potential. Eastgate is already the site of a major Hamilton Street Railway bus terminal and transfer point, and about a mile from the Toronto-Buffalo QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) highway.

“This is the biggest deal that Hamilton has seen in the past 100 years.�

Instead, the eastern terminus for the time being will be Queenston Circle, about 2 miles short of Eastgate. This is merely a vacant lot at present, owned by the city, and not close to any significant cross streets. The cutback was decreed

by Metrolinx in order to provide funding for the mile-long LRT spur extending north on James Street from King Street to the new West Harbour GO Transit rail station. Metrolinx maintains that the spur is needed to feed LRT riders onto the GO trains, and vice versa. The spur, though, will likely be a slow, mixed-traffic operation, as James Street is only four lanes wide at this point. A representative told Railway

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About 30% of the preliminary design work has already been completed by Hamilton Public Works staff and consultants.

Age that the city would accept the shortened routing.

The main LRT proceeds eastward on Main from McMaster through a residential and commercial area before arriving at Chedoke Valley. This is crossed via a new LRT bridge that takes the tracks over to King Street, which

parallels Main a short distance to the north. King, an older commercialresidential thoroughfare, is followed to the vicinity of Gage Avenue, in the east end, where the alignment rejoins Main Street for the remainder of the route.

King was chosen for much of the alignment, even though Main is wider, to

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better serve local neighborhoods. The new Tim Hortons football stadium, a major sports venue, is also in this area.

The LRT will follow the general routing of the existing B Line bus service, the system’s busiest and most profitable route. The city is laid out in a longitudinal manner, with the newer, generally postwar area being atop the Niagara Escarpment. The older city does not have any form of limited access crosstown east-west roadway, although both King and Main have been one-way streets for decades. The LRT is expected to relieve pressure on Hamilton’s busiest bus routes, where vehicles are frequently packed to the doors.

About 30% of the preliminary design work has already been completed by Hamilton Public Works staff and consultants. The bridge and maintenance shops, will be the only significant civil works.

Several sites are under consideration for the yard and shops complex. One contender is the Wentworth Street Garage, opened circa 1990 but closed about six years later in favor of consolidation at one large garage at a remote location to the south. Since then, the facility has been used by paratransit and GO Transit buses. Extensive and costly renovations would be needed to modify it for LRV use, as well as construction of several blocks of connecting track.

However, it offers the operational advantage of being close to the center of the line. City-owned property in the West Harbor area, originally purchased

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several years ago for the football stadium, might also be considered.

Fourteen LRVs will be required for the operation. They may come as an add-on to the existing order that Metrolinx has placed with Bombardier for Flexity LRVs for the Toronto Crosstown, Finch West and Waterloo Region LRT systems.

Hamilton’s LRT will be designed and built as a Metrolinx project; however, it may be turned over to the Hamilton Street Railway for operation. For the transit agency, whose name dates back to 1873, it will represent a return to the rail operation inherent in its name.

The last streetcars passed into history on April 6, 1951; the new LRVs will be rolling smoothly and silently down many of the same streets.

Rail transit has been under serious consideration in Hamilton for about eight years, and was thoroughly studied by the city. One of its most steadfast supporters has been Mayor Fred Eisenberger, a native of Amsterdam, Holland, who has had firsthand exposure to that city’s excellent LRT operations. Eisenberger told Railway Age, 5:52:35 PM “Premier Kathleen Wynne and Minster of Transportation Steve Del Duca have made a very dramatic step in terms of what transit will now mean for the City of Hamilton. This is the kind of visionary transit recommendation needed in order to move forward. Perhaps the most significant of long-term development interest in the transportation sector revolves around the subject of LRT. By now, most constituents, regardless of ward, have heard of or have been actively participating in the future of our people moving system.

I believe LRT to be a proven source of economic uplift revenue potential and driver of new business. To become the city we aspire to be for future generations, LRT will be essential.This is the biggest deal that Hamilton has seen in the past 100 years.”

“In terms of investment and the ability to transform our city not only from a people moving perspective but an economic uplift perspective, this investment is huge, Eisenberger added.” RA

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Engineered to Outper form

Beyond basic AEI Several Class I’s are evaluating a rugged handheld AEI reader with a host of innovative features and functions.

By WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief

C

lass I railroads have been seeking a rugged mobile AEI (Automatic Equipment Identification) application that will provide them with detailed railcar inspection and maintenance functions in addition to asset tracking. Several are currently evaluating a promising new device offered by Trimble, a manufacturer of rugged handheld computer devices.

Global Attributes, Buckeye Mountain, and the Mobile Computing Solutions Division of Trimble have collaborated on the Trimble Juno T41, a one-piece handheld AEI reader.

The Juno T41 is also a crossover device that will read standard EPC (Electronic Product Code) UHF tags that railroads around the world have employed for many years.

“Until now, most companies have offered a two-piece handheld solution that requires the user to manage two separate batteries and two separate chargers,” says Buckeye Mountain’s Matt Hunter. “These readers use a sled-based system that requires the user to snap the handheld into an AEI sled. They’re difficult to manage because the batteries are of different capacities and tend to run out of power at different times. In addition, the handheld has to be mated with the AEI reader via Bluetooth, which sometimes experiences connection problems. The Trimble Juno T41, which is a rail-specific version of the Juno T41 with added functionality, has been designed from the ground up as a one-piece solution. It provides a safety range of eight feet or more for reading AEI UHF RFID tags. It’s also available in Windows Mobile or Android operating systems to provide flexibility for whatever application environment the user chooses.”

“The new Juno T41 will allow us to fully automate our yard process software, utilizing high-precision GPS functionality,” says Global Attributes President Steve Johnston. “We will be able to provide customers with instant access to railcar yard locations. Combined with inspection and loading processes, complete car status will be visible at all times. The Juno T41’s small form factor allows the user to be mobile, and its versatile platform will provide a host of features and functions not currently available in the industry. We believe the ability to read a railcar AEI tag and deliver master data and event-based data to the user in a real-time environment will have a significant impact on how work is completed, and on the speed that issues or problems are communicated and 56

Railway Age

September 2015

resolved. We now have the ability to bring true real-time processes to the field—quick asset verification and better data that results in improved decision processes, which in turn improves safety and profitability and, potentially, the environment.”

Global Attributes and Buckeye Mountain collaborated with Trimble to develop, test and perfect this technology. “It’s an excellent example of how two rail-service-based companies helped to define and make available technology like the Juno T41 to the industry,” says Johnston. “This device, combined with our ability to provide a flexible software platform, will allow our users to start utilizing the benefits of this technology immediately. We believe it will allow some smaller operations to eliminate or reconsider expensive trackside AEI readers. All inbound and outbound scanning can be done via this device, communicated instantly and made available via our portal. It’s a step change rather than an evolution.”

Ottawa, Ontario-based Global Attributes is a provider of “sophisticated and flexible inspection-centric railcar management systems” for yard management, integrated maintenance and fleet tracking. Its software is configured to locate cars using onboard GPS or proximity beacons using Bluetooth-smart technologies. Changes in car locations are displayed on live maps and dashboards inside the company’s Cloud services.

Niwot, Colo.-based Buckeye Mountain is a specialist in railroad mobile and wireless technology, “providing rugged, reliable computing and communication hardware.” Customer equipment is managed through the company’s Kansas City Service Center.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble is a global supplier of outdoor handheld computers “that help users collect accurate field data and work more productively in any outdoor or service-related application.” The company’s Railway Solutions combine GPS/GNSS, optical, imaging, scanning and monitoring technologies with customized software and wireless communications to capture data needed to maintain and construct railways as well as manage rail vehicles.

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building better business relations among freight and Passenger Carriers William C. Evans, CRT Consulting LLC, and former Risk and Insurance Director, Union Pacific

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HSR in the Northeast: What next?

T

he recent nationwide initiative for the introduction of high-speed (or “higher” speed) passenger service in the U.S. has experienced mixed success. While California is progressing on its challenging path to VHSR (Very High Speed Rail), other initiatives have been criticized in political venues for their failure to introduce European- or Asian-style “bullet trains” across America.

Much of this criticism is unfair. In many cases, 100- to 110-mph service that operates with high reliability with reasonable frequencies is sufficient to meet demand and fits within North America’s existing freight railroad framework.

For purposes of this article, the term HSR will apply to

60 Railway Age September 2015

services whose maximum authorized speed (MAS) exceeds 90 mph. This is in keeping with the FRA’s approach to safety standards where operation at speeds above 90 mph requires vehicle-specific qualifications and for which Code of Federal Regulations Part G high-speed track standards apply. Also, the term VHSR will apply to speeds of 150 mph or greater.

Thus, on the NEC, only the Acela Express can be considered VHSR, and only on a marginal basis, since the total territory of 150-mph operation consists of approximately 40 routemiles. However, Keystone and Northeast Regional trains (and potentially soon some commuter trains) qualify as HSR. While these categories of VHSR and HSR may not fit well

William C. Vantuono

Part I: Defining and Expanding High Speed

Considering the future of the NEC helps answer the question: What are the factors governing the expansion of high-speed rail on other railroads?

By Alfred E. Fazio, MSME, P.E., Contributing Editor

with the Obama Administration’s euphoric visions of creating an entirely new high-speed rail industry (including vehicle manufacturing) in the U.S., they conform to current reality.

There are numerous transportation and system safety issues as well as engineering challenges that form the very essence of the business and safety cases necessary to foster the expansion of HSR in the U.S. Future U.S. new-start (dedicated) railroads suitable for VHSR face the quandary already challenging California: Land is available only where population is sparse (such as in California’s Central Valley), and most existing main line railroads are components of the world’s best freight rail network and therefore not conducive to HSR.

A number of projects have been supported by federal and state grants with the intention of achieving at least representative segments of HSR operation on existing railroads.

While some have met with reasonable levels of success, none have resulted in high-speed operation over sufficiently long segments. Notable have been enhancements made to Union Pacific’s Chicago-St. Louis line to achieve passenger train speeds of 110 mph. Also noteworthy are the enhancements in progress to the Amtrak/Norfolk Southern Michigan Line.

Other projects funded through the Administration’s HSR initiatives, such as enhancements to the CSX RF&P Subdivision, including new interlockings and addition of a September 2015 Railway Age 61

NEC HIGH-SPEED RAIL, PART I

third main between Fredericksburg and Alexandria (40 miles); restoration of the second main track on Amtrak’s Schenectady-Albany route on the Empire Corridor; and restoration of the second main on the former New Haven Railroad’s Hartford line, improve fluidity and velocity of passenger train operations but do not raise MAS above 90 mph. Thus, for these types of projects to be portrayed as HSR initiatives is somewhat stretching the facts.

An exception to the quandary of available main lines vs. population density is, of course, the NEC and its three branches (Harrisburg, Hartford, Empire). Future improvements to the NEC or the associated 100-mile-long Harrisburg Line may well be the HSR initiative, other than California, that serves as a benchmark for future HSR or VHSR in North America. This railroad is to the Northeastern U.S. what the California Water Project is to California.

The Water Project must satisfy the demands of the megalopolis of Southern California for potable water, and at the same time it must continue to irrigate the rich farmlands of California’s Central Valley. So must the NEC satisfy the demands of multiple users: local commuter trips, HSR, and intercity trains that serve off-corridor destinations. This railroad, particularly the 270 miles between New York and Washington, serves a wide variety of users, many of whom place different, and at times conflicting, operational and

engineering demands on the infrastructure. In addition to the existing HSR (Acela, Keystones, Regionals), the railroad carries an increasing number of commuters and also serves as a terminal railroad distributing and collecting passengers for Amtrak’s Eastern Seaboard long-hauls. At the same time, certain portions are seeing a resurgence in freight (for example, crude oil trains operating in Delaware and Maryland).

Concept of Operations

The original Northeast Corridor Improvement Project (NECIP) of 1976 to the mid 1980s established an operational configuration that supported Metroliner speeds of 125 mph and Northeast Regional speeds of 110 mph. Since that program, Amtrak has pursued an incremental approach to upgrades, achieving Acela Express speeds of 135 mph in the New York to Washington D.C. segment and 150 mph in selected New England segments. Speeds for Amfleet equipped regionals now top out at the former Metroliner MAS of 125 mph. The early NECIP Concept of Operations (CONOPS), which will be reviewed in Part II (October issue), was largely a derivative of rapid transit-type thinking: a double-track high-speed “express” railroad superimposed on a three- and four-track railroad, with locals on the outer tracks and all freight except local freight moved to the parallel CSX main line.

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In development and deployment of complex engineering systems, particularly those with complex subsystems (train control, traction power, vehicles), everything must be highly integrated to achieve the total system’s target performance.

The CONOPS is the basis for developing a formal Program Requirements Document (PRD). The CONOPS explains what the fully integrated and deployed system is intended to do—how it operates, clarifies its performance targets and verifies its ability to achieve its stated mission.

The CONOPS also addresses maintenance requirements and considers partially failed operational scenarios. The PRD, in turn, is accompanied by a robust safety case to become the basis of design criteria development. These criteria then guide the basis of engineering design and engineering maintenance throughout the program life. A change in CONOPS invariably leads to a reconfiguration or replacement of one or more engineering subsystems. For several reasons, the original NECIP CONOPS no longer applies to the NEC.

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September 2015 Railway Age 63

NEC HIGH-SPEED RAIL, PART I The Future of the NEC

In addition to operational and engineering considerations, governmental factors (e.g., PRIIA legislation that arguably makes the NEC less of an Amtrak rail property and under which the NEC may take on the characteristics of a jointly operated terminal railroad) justify reconsideration of the extent and nature of achievable HSR in the Northeast. The short version of this complex issue resembles a simple good news/bad news joke: The good news is that in the future, commuter service will pay fully allocated costs; the potential bad news (at least for HSR) is that the commuter agencies will have significantly more to say about the engineering configuration and operations of the railroad. The particular question is, given these factors, what is next for the NEC? Considering the future of the NEC helps answer the more general question: What are the factors governing the expansion of HSR (passenger service at 90 to 125 mph speeds) on railroads other than the NEC? The balance of this article (Parts II and III, in the October and November issues, respectively) will explore some of the engineering and operational factors that have matured over the past 40 years as part of Amtrak’s incremental approach to NEC upgrades. In particular, the experiences of the past three to four years on the benchmark New Jersey High Speed Rail Improvement Project (NJHSRIP) will be reviewed. The focus will be on

engineering and operational factors, and the reader must be mindful that other considerations such as political factors and business cases are also relevant. Like it or not, however, it is the engineering and operational factors that form the others.

Concepts espoused for the NEC’s future vary widely. One extreme is the so-called “Next Gen” Program, which essentially consists of “selling the house and moving.” The advertised

The question reduces to this: At what cost can engineering, operational and safety factors be addressed? price on this option was $150 billion. Given the history of major infrastructure works in the Northeastern U.S. (Boston’s Big Dig and the LIRR’s East Side Access), a more reasonable estimate for the cost of a new and parallel VHSR corridor is likely to be somewhere north of $300 billion.

At the other extreme is the concept of retaining status quo on the NEC with emphasis on State of Good Repair (SOGR).

A more reasonable future might consist of selected Next Gen

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segments combined with continual incremental upgrades of the existing railroad. Presumably all of these concepts are under review by qualified professionals under an NEC Futures study sponsored by the FRA. The results of this study are anxiously awaited by all who have an interest in NEC. The analysis, one hopes, will be based on fact and not wishful thinking. An important ingredient in this effort should be hard data regarding the cost and service impacts of major upgrades to the NEC. Parts II and III of this series will speak to what would be considered a beta effort to upgrade the NEC well above NECIP standards and capability: the NJHSRIP.

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Off-Corridor Considerations

Likewise, a variety of concepts exist for HSR initiatives “off ” the NEC or CHSRP. Unfortunately the processes that determine future directions for HSR often ignore or greatly downplay engineering and even operational factors. As some so-called “policy makers” offer, “this decision is too important to be left to the engineers.” The pitfalls of ignoring engineering are manifold and include, but are not limited to: cost overruns, failure to achieve operational objectives, and ultimately, train wrecks.

A number of years ago, at a Railway Age “Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads” conference, a briefing was given on a proposal to add sidings to accommodate the superposition of passenger service in the 100 to 110 mph range on a busy freight main line in the western U.S. A question was raised by a well-seasoned transportation officer as to the length of siding needed to effect unimpeded overtakes by high-speed passenger trains.

A simplified analysis of the layout of such a siding, one that would be suitable for a high-speed overtake of a fast freight train, serves to illustrate the operating challenges associated with superimposing HSR upon existing freight main lines.

For a high-density double-track railroad with a freight MAS of 60 mph and a passenger MAS of 110 mph, an exercise to develop a typical design for a siding or section of triple-track suitable for overtakes provides a number of insights into design of “joint priority” shared-use railways. Joint priority means that HSR trains and through freights are considered as “first class” trains. Such configurations once repeated common layouts on mixed-use railroads, such as on the former New Haven Shore Line, where a section of tripletrack existed in the vicinity of Kingston, R.I., intended for passenger train overtakes of freight.

Assuming a “clean” overtake, where neither train suffers a speed downgrade, a freight speed of 60 mph, and a passenger speed of 110 mph, a third main track of slightly greater than 7 miles is required for a perfectly scheduled and executed overtake. If a reasonable schedule tolerance of 5 minutes is introduced, the required length extends to 17 miles. Note that on a joint priority railroad, this length is necessary, since neither train should be held for the other. Not considered here are other operational and safety factors that must also be introduced into the design criteria, including track centers

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(will they be 17 feet or will they be even greater?), movement of hazmat trains, flexibility of train movement scheduling, and dispatcher choices/ priorities for delay recovery.

This is not to say that the engineering and operational challenge of superimposing HSR on heavy freight lines are insurmountable. Railroads of two generations ago were able to find adequate solutions. The question reduces to this: At what cost can engineering, operational and safety factors be addressed? All of these costs must be adequately represented (and paid for) and considered in a comprehensive business case.

Concorde Supersonic Transport (SST).

Likewise, after careful consideration, Boeing elected to not build a version of the SST, and to invest instead in the 747. Boeing’s analysis considered a wide variety of factors, including the reduction in total trip time achieved by the SST, cost of service delivery, passenger comfort, and environmental

(specifically, the anticipated restrictions on exceeding Mach 1.0 over land).

Today, Boeing is still building 747s, while the few Concordes built have all been withdrawn from service. RA (Parts II and III of this series will be published in the October and November issues, respectively.)

The NEC as the Beta Site

Moving beyond California High Speed Rail and other potential newstarts where new alignments may be constructed, and where the selected test cases where HSR is to be superimposed on freight main lines, leaves one significant opportunity where population density and travel demand match the available main line. This is the Northeast Corridor, including the lines to Harrisburg and Albany. This wellendowed railroad services millions of people within its service area, and it already is devoted primarily to passenger (albeit other than HSR) use.

The first lesson from the NEC is that the practical limits on the extent of incremental HSR upgrades are largely driven by the intense demand for other uses (non-HSR intercity, commuter, freight) as much as by physical plant limitations and cost. As a consequence, the feasibility of highspeed trains exceeding 160 mph on the NEC is extremely remote. And even if it’s feasible, the utility and practicality of, say, 300 kph (186 mph) operation is problematic.

Consider a history lesson from another engineering-based industry, aviation. In the early 1970s, years of technical and marketing research indicated to the British and French the practicality of and commercial case for a civilian supersonic passenger aircraft, leading to the deployment of the

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Rail roll and reverse-cant remedies

TTCI is investigating short- and long-term remedies for achieving stable and consistent wheel and rail contact geometry.

By Scott Cummings, Scientist and Huimin Wu, Principal Investigator II, TTCI, for Railway Age

T

he rotation angle, or cant, of a rail relative to the tie is important for providing a stable base to resist rail rollover and wide-gage issues. Tie plates are typically designed to hold rails at an inward 1:40 cant (1.4 degrees) and all references to rail cant angle are relative to this nominal new condition. Rail is considered to have reverse cant if it is rotated toward the field side.

Causes of reverse rail cant include wear at the interfaces between the rail and tie plate, tie plate cutting, tie degradation, and pivoting of the rail out of the tie plate rail seat. These issues are exacerbated by large gage-spreading forces from sources such as friction levels between wheel and rail, contact

Time History of Dynamic Rail Cant Measurements

conditions between wheel and rail profiles, and freight car truck steering.

Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) has been working with

major North American railroads under the Association of American Railroadsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Strategic Research Initiatives Program to investigate the root causes of rail roll September 2015 Railway Age 69

TTCI R&D

and reverse cant and the remedies for preventing rail rollover derailments.

Forces between the wheel and rail were measured at a revenue service test site constructed with timber ties and cut spikes and a history of reverse rail cant. Five different track maintenance conditions were observed: (1) original condition with reverse rail cant, (2) ARI-29715 SEPT Railway Age_ARI Image Ad

grinding cycle 1, (3) high-rail gaged with elastic fasteners, (4) low-rail gaged with elastic fasteners and application of top-of-rail friction modifier (TORFM), and (5) grinding cycle 2.

Reverse rail cant caused an improper application of the grinding template in grinding cycle 1, resulting in excessive gage side and insufficient field side 8/13/15 12:43 PM Page 1

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metal removal with no reduction in lateral forces. This resulted in vertical loads being applied toward the field side of rail due to poor wheel and rail profile contact, producing low base divided by height values (the ratio of the lateral distance of contact point to rail base field side corner and the height of the rail) that are indicative of a reduced safety margin for rail rollover.

The measured force data indicated that restoring nominal cant and restraining the high rail produced very high lateral forces and significant low rail rotation. Application of TORFM, in combination with restoring the low rail and adjusting track gage, considerably reduced lateral forces even under undesired wheel and rail contact patterns.

Rail grinding cycle 2 was more effective in reshaping the rail because the reverse cant had already been corrected, and the slight change in wheel contact location on the high rail resulted in a measurable reduction in lateral forces.

More recently, the static and dynamic rail cants were measured at three different revenue service test sites to investigate how different trains affect dynamic reverse rail cant. The position of the rail in the absence of a train is the static cant and rotation that occurs in the presence of a train is the dynamic cant. The figure shows a time history of the dynamic rail cant at one test site. Examples of train characteristics that were observed to affect dynamic reverse rail cant include long wheelbase three-axle locomotive trucks, freight car truck steering, asymmetrically worn wheels, and train speeds above or below the curve balance speed.

These results help railroads better interpret the reverse rail cant values measured by their track geometry cars.

Short-term remedies to address reverse rail cant include rail grinding and consistent TORFM application.

Long-term remedies focus on developing strategies for achieving stable and consistent wheel and rail contact geometry through rail profile management, improved rail restraint, improved truck and wheel maintenance methods, and wheel removal limits. RA

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People

Meetings

High profile Union Pacific’s board of directors elected President and Chief Operating Officer Lance Fritz Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, effective Oct. 1, 2015.

He succeeds John Koraleski as Chairman. Koraleski plans to retire Sept. 30 after a 43-year career at UP. Fritz was named President and COO Feb. 6, 2014. Fritz was Executive Vice President Operations from 2010-2014, and previously served as Vice President Labor Relations. Prior to that, he was Regional Vice President-Southern Region after serving as Fritz Regional Vice President-Northern Region. He began his career Union Pacific with UP in July 2000 in marketing and sales as Regional Vice President and General Manager-Energy. “Lance has demonstrated the leadership skills and vision necessary to create value for all of our stakeholders,” said Steven Rogel, UP’s Lead Independent Director.

Oct. 4-7 Railway Interchange 2015 Minneapolis Convention Center.

Combined exhibits hosted by RSI, REMSA, and RSSI. Technical and educational sessions presented

by AREMA and the Coordinated Mechanical Associations (CMA).

Website: railwayinterchange.org

Oct. 13 Western Railway Club Dinner Union League of Chicago Email: wrclub13@comcast.com

Oct. 20 APTA—Daniel E. Grabauskas, HART (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation) Executive Director and CEO, has been named as APTA’s (American Public Transportation Association) U.S./North America representative to the policy board of the UITP (International Association of Public Transport) for the 20152017 term.

ASLRRA—David Collins, Senior Vice President of Commercial Support, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services, Inc. (G&W), has been appointed to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s eleven member Executive Committee, effective July 31, 2015.

CSX—Clarence Gooden, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of CSX Corporation, has been honored with the Intermodal Association of America’s 2015 IANA Silver Kingpin Award.

G&W—David L. Powell, Vice President Motive Power for Genesee & Wyoming, has accepted a two-year assignment effective Sept. 1, 2015 as Director of Rolling Stock for Saudi Arabia Railway Co. (SAR), a 1,700-mile carrier of minerals and other cargo and passengers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

NORFOLK SOUTHERN—Deborah H. Butler, Executive Vice President 72

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September 2015

Planning and Chief Information Officer of Norfolk Southern (NS) will be retiring, effective Oct. 1, 2015.

NYCT—James Ferrara, MTA Bridges and Tunnels President, has been named Interim President of MTA New York City Transit.

100 YEARS AGO in

(SEPTEMBER 1915) WHILE OTHER ACCIDENTS DECLINE, TRESPASSING ACCIDENTS STILL INCREASE Railway travel has not for many years been especially hazardous and it is becoming safer every year. Working on a railroad, while properly classed as a more or less dangerous occupation, according to what department an employee is in, is also each year attended with a reduced degree of risk. But trespassing on railway tracks and trains has always been and still continues to be a very unsafe occupation, and is not growing less so. While regulating bodies of all kinds have been very busy passing laws and issuing orders to prevent railway accidents, the railways themselves have exerted the most strenuous efforts to remove one of the most serious blots on their record, with the result that fatalities to passengers as well as to employees have been steadily decreasing.

2nd Annual Michigan Tech Rail Day and Railroad Night XI Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich.

Website: rail.mtu.edu/ event/2nd-annual-rail-day-andrailroad-night-xi

Oct. 27-28 Railroad Environmental Conference Illni Union, Urbana, Ill. Website: railtec.illinois.edu/ RREC/overview/php

Oct. 28-29 Railway Age Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads Conference Grand Hyatt, Washington, D.C. Email: conferences@sbpub.com; Website: railwayage.com/ conferences

Nov. 9 American Association of Railroad Superintendents Annual Derailment Investigation Seminar Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel Website: railsuperintendent.org

Dec. 9 “Big Data” in Railroad Maintenance Planning 2015 University of Delaware, Newark, Del. Website: engr.udel.edu/

Products New conveyance system for PON cables PON Snake Tray is available in 8-foot sections.

In response to the emerging technology in Passive Optical Networks (PON), Snake Tray has designed an applicationspecific cable conveyance system to bring the fiber from optical line terminals to optical network terminals. The patented hand bendable system is specifically designed to protect and secure the fiber cables in an easy cable management system that installs in seconds. PON Snake Tray protects and secures fiber cables while maintaining the proper bend radius for optimal cable performance. The universal built-in mounting rings can be installed either on a ceiling or wall. Cables easily load from the side to save

on the installation time. PON Snake Tray nests together for low-cost shipping and easy material handling, and seamlessly interfaces with the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PON Enclosures series. PON Snake Tray is available in 8-foot sections with a standard metallic finish or color-coded powdercoat finish.

Snake Tray is the leading manufacturer of cable management and power and data distribution solutions for markets and industries worldwide. All products are uniquely designed to save on labor and materials to decrease the total cost of construction. For more information on Snake Tray products, visit www.snaketray.com.

W o r l d â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s L a r g e s t C r a n k s h a f t M a n u f a c t u r e r a n d R e - M a n u f a c t u r e r

H e r m i t a g e , PA U S A 1 6 1 4 8 Te l e p h o n e 1 - 7 2 4 - 3 4 7 - 0 2 5 0 w w w . E l l w o o d C r a n k s h a f t G r o u p . c o m September 2015 Railway Age 73

Products New all-plastic cam latch meets NEMA 4, IP65 standards

The all-plastic E5 provides corrosion resistance.

Southco, Inc., a global leader in engineered access solutions, has expanded its successful E5 Cam Latch series with a new, plastic version. The redesigned plastic E5 Cam Latch features an all-plastic, corrosion-resistant design that meets NEMA 4 and IP65 standards for water and dust protection, making it ideal for use in highly corrosive environments.

RELIABLE POWER YOU CAN COUNT ON! The Turbo Blast 500’s powerful airflow is ideal for clearing large quantities of snow, ice and hard-packed snow from tracks, third rails and switches.

Features: • 500 H.P • 500 MPH Air Speed

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Visit us at www.wausau-everest.com Made in America Mark Kreutzfeldt • Product Manager mkreutzfeldt@wausau-everest.com • 1-605-270-2602 1905 South Moorland Road • New Berlin, WI 53151

74

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The plastic E5 provides corrosion resistance and non-conductive latching for industrial machinery, marine,transportation and electrical enclosures. Like the standard E5 line, the plastic version features a variety of grip lengths and is available in numerous head style options for added security. Additionally, the plastic E5 features the same panel hole prep as the standard series and is available with pre-installed pawl options to minimize installation time.

Global Product Manager Loc Tieu adds, “With its all plastic design and improved corrosion resistance, our newest E5 Cam Latch is a cost effective alternative for a wide variety of applications, offering a highly modular and easy to configure solution for enclosure access.”

Southco is the leading and trusted global source for engineered access hardware solutions, including a variety of latches, locks, captive fasteners, quick access fasteners, hinges, handles, inserts, electronic access solutions, and other accessories for applications in the networking, telecommunications, computer, automotive, aerospace, mass transit, off-highway/construction, RV/caravan, industrial machinery, marine and HVAC industries.

For more information about the functionality of E5 Cam Latches, visit www.southco.com.

Products High-performance fastener designed in conjunction with NYCT Construction Polymers Technologies produces the Resilient Fastener (RF) at its facility in Saukville, Wis. A highperformance fastener, the RF was designed in conjunction with MTA New York City Transit (NYCT).

The transit agency needed a fastener that could withstand the rigors of its subway system—which includes 138 routemiles of tunnels, and 70 route-miles of elevated and viaduct structures—as well as provide exceptional noise/vibration attenuation and electrical isolation.

NYCT’s track structure generally involves wood ties embedded in concrete and steel aerial structures with woodtie decks. Since there’s virtually no resilience in either of those track structures, noise and vibration levels are elevated.

The RF can rectify the problem by providing the highest degree of noise and vibration attenuation of any directfixation fastener currently on the market. The RF now has been in service at NYCT for more than 10 years, with more than 1 million units installed.

The fastener can achieve exceptional acoustical performance through the use of a specialized microcellular polyurethane pad, produced in conjunction with partner GetznerDEE USA, a leading noise- and vibration-attenuating Railage Ad Final Proof2_PDF2.pdf 8/17/2011 8:26:11 product supplier.

The RF’s bottom plate is a fabrication so the anchorage positions can be custom configured to a customer’s requirements, while the top plate can be produced as a fabrication to accommodate the use of different rail holddown clips, rail sections, and canted or non-canted rail seats.

The company also produces a line of Resilient Fasteners for use with guard rails, restraining rails and special trackwork.

For more information visit constructionpolymerstech.com.

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September 2015 Railway Age 75

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 225 Railroad Accidents/Incidents Update 1-1-15 229 Locomotive Safety Standards 231 Safety Appliance Standards 232 Brake System Safety Standards Update 1-6-15

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

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

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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

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Part 242: Conductor Certification The Conductor Certification rule (49 CFR 242) outlines details for implementing a Conductor Certification Program. The FRA implemented this rule in an effort to ensure that only those persons who meet minimum Federal safety standards serve as conductors, to reduce the rate and number of accidents and incidents, and to improve railroad safety. Softcover. Spiral bound. 124 pages.

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Part 240–Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Engineers This rule clarifies the decertification process; clarify when certified locomotive engineers are required to operate service vehicles; and address the concern that some designated supervisors of locomotive engineers are insufficiently qualified to properly supervise, train, or test locomotive engineers. 162 pages. Spiral bound.

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CFR Part 232, Brake System Safety Standards - Securement of Unattended Equipment—FRA amends the brake system safety standards for freight and other non-passenger trains and equipment to strengthen the requirements relating to the securement of unattended equipment. Specifically, FRA codifies many of the requirements already included in its Emergency Order 28, Establishing Additional Requirements for Attendance and Securement of Certain Freight Trains and Vehicles on Mainline Track or Mainline Siding Outside of a Yard or Terminal. FRA amends existing regulations to include additional securement requirements for unattended equipment, primarily for trains transporting poisonous by inhalation hazardous materials or large volumes of Division 2.1 (flammable gases), Division 3 (flammable or combustible liquids, including crude oil and ethanol), and Class 1.1 or 1.2 (explosives) hazardous materials. For these trains, FRA also provides additional communication requirements relating to job briefings and securement verification. Finally, FRA requires all locomotives left unattended outside of a yard to be equipped with an operative exterior locking mechanism. Attendance on trains is required on equipment not capable of being secured in accordance with the proposed and existing requirements. Dates: This regulation is effective October 5, 2015.

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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 Orders over UP TO $10.00 $4.35 $8.75 25.01 - 50.00 10.30 16.80 $75, call for shipping 10.01 - 25.00 7.60 12.65 50.01 - 75.00 11.45 21.20 *Prices subject to change. Revision dates subject to change in accordance with laws published by the FRA 9/15.

Ad Index Company

Phone #

Fax

URL/Email address

Page #

18th International Wheelset Congress +86 28 61315190 +86 28 61315190 info@iwc2016.com 29 Alcoa Fastening Systems/Huck 800-388-4825 254-751-5259 stu.millard@alcoa.com 7 ALLU Group, Inc. 800-939-2558 201-288-4479 usa@allu.net 12 American Railcar Industries 636-940-6020 636-940-6100 sales@americanrailcar.com 70 Amsted Rail Group 312-922-4516 312-922-4597 kskibinski@amstedrail.com 23 Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc. 888-250-5746 904-378-7298 info@bbri.com 16 205-424-7245 205-424-7436 bhamrail@aol.com 64 Birmingham Rail & Locomotive Coastal Environmental Systems, Inc. 800-488-8291 206-682-5658 marketing@coastalenvironmental.com 65 866-707-4286 724-962-3658 cboughner@driworldwide.com 28 DALKO Resources Danella Rental Systems, Inc. 610-828-6200 610-828-2260 pbarents@danella.com 53 514-421-0177 514-421-0188 sales@davanac.com 18 Davanac Inc. Diesel Electrical Equip.

219-922-1848 219-922-1849 dieseleqpt@aol.com 75 770-944-1930 770-944-9136 fbrown142@aol.com 75 Dixie Precast Element Financial Corporation 416-386-1067 x2222 lcarroll@elementcorp.com 44 Ellwood Crankshaft & Machine 724-347-0250 724-347-0254 ecgsales@elwd.com 73 FreightCar America 312-928-0850 312-928-0890 tbaun@freightcar.net 11 Global Attributes 613 340 2945 steve@globalattributes.com 21 Greenbrier Companies The 800-343-7188 503-684-7553 gbrx.info@gbrx.com 39 HARTING, Inc. of North America 847-204-4970 847-741-8257 bob.Laskowski@harting.com 54 HKX, Inc. 360-805-8600 360-805-0718 sales@hkx.com 18 Holland Co. 708-672-2300 ext.382 708-672-0119 gpodgorski@hollandco.com C4 Hotstart 509-536-8667 509-534-4216 mfloyd@kimhotstart.com 14 Kelso Technologies 630-495-1151 630-396-9069 schwartz@kelsotech.com 19 LORAM 763-478-6014 763-478-2221 sales@loram.com 35 LTK Engineering Services 215-641-8826 215-542-7676 tfurmaniak@ltk.com 54 MAC Products 973-344-0700 973-344-5891 edward.gollob@macproducts.net 34 Metalex 847-362-5400 847-362-5434 sales@metlx.com 38 Miner Enterprises 630-232-3000 630-232-3055 sales@minerent.com 47 New York Air Brake 315-786-5431 315-786-5676 janice.pheile@nyab.com 55 Nordco 414-766-2180 414-766-2379 info@nordco.com 30 NRE 618-241-9270 618-242-8519 sales@nre.com 40-41 Okonite Co. 201-825-0300 201-825-3524 info@okonite.com 5 Pandrol USA, Inc. 1-800-221-CLIP 856-467-2994 9 Penn Machine Co. 412-279-4460 412-279-4465 pmcsales@pennmach.com 67 Phoenix Contact 800-888-7388 717-948-3475 info@phoenixcon.com 25 Plasser American Corp.

757-543-3526 757-494-7186 plasseramerican@plausa.com 13 716-822-3600 716-824-4817 r.panzica@powerdrives.com 3 Power Drives, Inc. Progress Rail Services 256-505-6402 256-505-6051 info@progressrail.com 20 Progress Rail Services - EMD 256-505-6402 256-505-6051 info@progressrail.com 36, 66 R&W Machine Division 708-458-4200 708-458-3299 jwarner@rwmachine.com 68 Railhead Corp.

800-235-1782 708-844-5559 jdonnan@railheadcorp.com C2 Railquip Inc 770-458-4157 770-458-5365 sales@railquip.com 42 Rails Co. 973-763-4320 973-763-2585 rails@railsco.com 19 Railway Educational Bureau, The 402-346-4300 402-346-1783 bbrundige@sb-reb.com 43, 71, 76 866-905-7245 952-469-1926 jrhansen@railworks.com 33 RailWorks Salco Products, Inc. 630-685-4661 630-783-2590 sales@salcoproducts.com 51 Samyoung Machinery 82 41 840 3000 82 41 853 4855 sales@sym.co.kr 17 SIEB Sales & Engineering, Inc. 219-924-3616 219-924-3617 sales@siebsales.com 52 502-244-7400 502-253-3760 bob.coffman@invensys.com 48 Siemens-Rail Automation SMBC Rail Services LLC 312-559-4800 888-4RAILCAR sales@smbcrail.com 63 Soft Rail 888-872-4612 sales@signalcc.com 64 Stella-Jones 800-272-8437 412-894-2846 kdulski@stella-jones.com 57 Strato 732-317-5406 732-981-1222 korozco@stratoinc.com 62 Therm-Omega-Tech 732-996-8216 msorrentino@slicecommunications.com 22 TTX Company 312-606-1450 felix.castillo@ttx.com 26 Vertex Railcar Corporation 508-556-5500 info@vertexrail.com 15 Wabtec Global Services 816-245-5461 402-217-4622 rmetcalf@wabtec.com 46 Wausau-Everest, LP 800-788-6066 262-784-6720 sales@wausau-everest.com 74 Wi-Tronix 888-948-7664 630-679-9954 cjasmin@wi-tronix.com C3 September 2015 Railway Age 77

equipment Sale/Leasing

Available For Lease ◆ 3,600 cu. ft. Open Top Hoppers. 45 degree slopes for aggregate, coke, coal, etc. ◆ Covered Hopper Cars – 4,650 & 4,750 cu. ft. cars with trough hatches & gravity gates. 268K Gross Rail Load. ◆ Covered Hopper Cars – 3,000 cu. ft. cars with circular hatches & gravity gates. ◆ Flat Bottom Gondolas – 4,000 cu. ft. cars, 268K Gross Rail Load and no interior bracing.

For additional information and pricing, please contact John Goodwin phone (605) 582-8318 e-mail jgoodwin@mwrail.com www.carmathinc.com

Available for Lease 4650 cu ft Covered Hopper Cars 3600 cu ft Open Top Hopper Cars 100 ton Automated/Manual Ballast Cars 4480 cu ft Aluminum Rotary Open Top Gons 50’, 70 ton mechanical refrigerated boxcars Contact: Tom Monroe: 415-616-3472 Email: tmonroe@atel.com

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RailwayAge.com

AGM64RR (3.375in x 5in).indd 1

22/09/2014 10:03

The News Destination for the Rail Industry 78

Railway Age

September 2015

ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED

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EMPLOYMENT

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New York City Transit

• SET YOUR CAREER IN MOTION • Join the Largest Public Transportation Authority in North America as a

SENIOR MANAGER, INSPECTION & TESTING (Concrete)

RAIL BRIEF: The Weekly RT&S Email Newsletter SUBSCRIBE AT: www.rtands.com/RailBrief

JOB DESCRIPTION: The selected candidate will perform tasks designed to manage a staff consisting of Engineering Technicians, Transit Management Analysts, and technical consultants responsible for concrete batch plant inspection, concrete field testing, and cylinder testing for major capital projects, coordinate concrete inspection/testing with user departments, vendors, and technical consultants. Additional responsibilities will include, but will not be limited to: review of all concrete inspection and testing reports; managing all activities necessary to ensure timely cost effective delivery of concrete inspection and testing services; manage special projects. Plan and develop contract specifications, detailed cost analyses, and feasibility studies for future initiatives as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS: Professional Engineering license (PE) is required. The successful candidate must possess a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and six years of experience including three years of supervisory or managerial experience in the concrete industry.

A satisfactory combination of equivalent education and experience may be considered. However all candidates must possess a minimum of three years supervisory or managerial experience and a PE license.

This position offers an excellent compensation package which includes competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, promotional opportunities and a diverse collection of work assignments.

TO APPLY AND TO VIEW THE FULL JOB DESCRIPTION, PLEASE VISIT: www.mta.info/employment.

Select “NYC Transit”, Select “Job Postings”, Agree to the Privacy Statement, Select “NYC Transit” and Search by Title: Senior Manager, Inspection & Testing (Concrete), JOB NUMBER: 83798 Follow us on: Twitter.com@NYCTSubwayScoop Facebook: MTA New York City Transit www.mta.info/employment/ EOE M/F/D/V

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September 2015 Railway Age 79

Financial edge DAVID NAHASS

A shift in CBR market fundamentals

O

n Sept. 17-18, Railway Age will be holding its second annual Crude by Rail conference in Alexandria, Va. A powerhouse lineup will analyze the current state of what was for a time the market darling, which, in the minds of many, was prepared to unseat intermodal loadings as the great hope of incremental railroad earning increases.

As the saying goes: That was then, this is now. A short time later (in railroad years), the CBR picture has changed dramatically, and the future prospects for CBR are less sanguine.

What is the scope of the change?

According to the Association of American Railroads (and as reported in Railway Age), CBR loadings in the second quarter of 2015 dropped by 16% from their third-quarter 2014 peak. That’s part of the story. As of this writing, WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude dropped below $40 per barrel for the first time since 2009. OPEC pumped 31.51 million barrels a day in July 2015, the most per day since May 2012 (when the price of WTI was $90 per barrel) and shows no signs of taking its foot off the gas pedal. There’s the threat of increasing output to the world markets if the U.S. government’s nuclear deal with Iran goes through.

Current prognostications indicate that oil may drift into the $20s per barrel, and the analyst community suggests that this low price trend may last for years. In spite of these factors, domestic producers, presumably to hold onto market share, continue to decrease the cost of production and to churn out more oil into the vast oceansized glut that exists today.

As the price of crude goes, so do the railcar markets struggle under the pressure. Roll back into 2014 and you may recall expectations that retrofitting of older (CPC-1232 and legacy DOT 111)

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tank railcars was going to dominate tank railcar repair shops and production. The glut of oil has softened CBR demand as the cost of transportation by rail becomes a competitive drag on the total delivered cost of crude. Recent oil pricing has allowed many energy companies to take delivery of waterborne (OPEC sourced) crude for less than the cost of crude delivered by rail.

The price of delivered crude along with increasing pipeline capacity has impacted railcar utilization and decreased car demand. There are anecdotal and factual stories about tank railcars currently in storage. We hear

According to AAR, CBR loadings in the second quarter of 2015 dropped by 16% from their third-quarter 2014 peak. rumors of thousands of tank railcars used in crude service moving into storage. Recently, the Olean Times Herald published an article quoting industry veterans Carl Belke and Ed Ellis about tank railcars for crude service stored on their respective short line railroad tracks in some cases without having ever been loaded.

It has been stunning to watch the CBR market move from wildcat to entrepreneurial to corporate to mature over the course of five years. In a circumstance that may have been viewed as inconceivable, domestic (North American) crude production,

especially with crude at current price points, may become a baseload of pipeline transported capacity with a much smaller amount of CBR combined with a second “peaker” tier of CBR capacity, based upon destination. Oil drilling and energy companies would be able to own or lease cars long-term that can be stored serviceable, ready to spring into action at certain price points.

It is the sheer volume, in barrels, of crude and the availability of an alternate mode of distribution, pipelines, that causes this kind of a shift in market fundamentals. There are several vocal sources that put a significant portion of this blame for this shift on railroad pricing for killing the goose that laid the golden egg. That’s a different debate for a different day.

Combined with global softness in demand for crude and the pedal to the metal production instincts of foreign oil producers, the pressure on CBR has been extraordinary.

Other bulk commodities such as coal, grain and plastics will always be rail or water bound. No less a commodity and no less mature a market, their non-viscous nature cements the symbiotic relationship between the bulk nature of the commodity and rail transportation.

Now that CBR isn’t “coming to the rescue anymore,” as Wall Street Analyst Tony Hatch wrote recently, the market dynamics and the discussions about the market become that much more interesting. The longer WTI stays below $60, the more market expectations will continue to be adjusted. There will be a point when WTI goes back up in price and when it does, the CBR story will continue to evolve. Today, it presents a fertile field for discussion at Railway Age’s CBR conference.

Got questions? Set them free at dnahass@railfin.com.

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