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Center Update: Partnership Highlight
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The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) has been in existence since 1976 but has had rail for less than a decade. CATS' first light rail line, Lynx Blue Line, opened On November 24, 2007 and runs a total of 9.6 miles between Uptown Charlotte and stops short of Pineville. The Blue Line Extension, scheduled to open in 2017 will extend the main line by 9.7 miles to University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Being a rail agency that is relatively new and has a relatively small service area, CATS saw a great opportunity in joining the two current National Training Consortia that the Center is coordinating:
- National Signals Training Consortium
- National Rail Vehicle Maintenance Consortium
CATS joined the Signals Training Consortium at its onset in 2013 and joined 20 other public transportation agencies and their unions in an effort to create a standardized national training program for signal maintainers. This was a great opportunity for CATS not to only obtain a complete set of training materials but also to both learn from and share with other locations. Working with locations that have been around for much longer, some since
1834, h
elps involved CATS Subject Matter Experts perspective that they may not have otherwise. One example is feedback that was given during the groups meeting in Charlotte in October 2014 and the subsequent tour of their maintenance facility. During this tour, partner locations identified an issue with how the pantographs were riding on the power lines and shared how they addressed this issue at their location. CATS has been a champion not only in participating in courseware development but also in hosting the group and in piloting many of the courses.
Following the success in Signals Training Consortium, CATS decided to participate in the newly established Rail Car Training Consortium in late 2015, along with eleven other agencies. CATS' training manager and SME have become active participants at the courseware development webinars. In addition, CATS is partnering up with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to build a pipeline of qualified maintenance and engineering workforce for its rail services.
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will get the chance to help develop the future of public transportation: SpaceX's Hyperloop. The Hyperloop aims to transport people in long metal tubes at speeds hundreds of miles per hour. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk opened the design of the pods that would transport on the Hyperloop to a competition involving 22 university teams and one non-university team, Fortune reported. The MIT team will now get to see their pod design tried out on SpaceX's Hyperloop test track at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) last week held a ceremony to mark the recent opening of a new commuter-rail station in Acton, Mass. The South Acton Station now includes train-length, accessible high-level platforms, as well as new enclosed overhead walkways over the tracks, a train approach warning system, elevators, new canopies, passenger shelter and several other improvements, MBTA officials said in a press release. Additionally, the station will be equipped with closed-circuit television video surveillance cameras and police emergency call boxes.
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What caused the worst American rail disaster in decades?
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rom 30th Street Station, the train glided northwest out of Philadelphia, tracing the arc of the freeway. Near the old Schuylkill River Bridge, it jogged right, gathering speed, bound for the New Jersey border. Had you been standing anywhere near the tracks, you would have heard Amtrak 188 before you saw it, in the hum of the rail bed and the metallic shiver of the electricity in the overhead catenary wires. And then you would have felt it, in the vibration of the earth: the combined weight of a 98-ton locomotive and seven 50-ton cars, carrying a total of 258 people, eight of them employees.
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Proterra, the leading provider of zero-emission, battery-electric buses, today announced that it will begin supplying buses to campus locations nationwide as university systems, both urban and suburban, realize the economic viability and environmental necessity of sustainable transport. Its first university customer, the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM) Transportation, has ordered two Proterra 40-foot Catalyst Fast Charge buses and one semi-autonomous fast charger for its UDASH routes.
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Building Transportation Infrastructure
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Progressive Railroading - February 2, 2016
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) late last week opened the new $19.6 million West Terminal at the 69th Street Transportation Center. Renovations to the multimodal facility's terminal include reconstructing pedestrian ramps to terminal platforms, replacing track and road surface, installing security cameras and several sustainability-related improvements, SEPTA officials said in a press release. The project called for the installation of two "green" roofs and a green wall to reduce storm water damage.
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Metra today issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the design and production of new rail cars as part of the agency's 10-year, $2.4 billion modernization plan. The agency is seeking a firm to manufacture up to 367 new rail cars over seven years, with 10 cars to be purchased this year. A pre-proposal conference for the RFP will be held on March 3 in Chicago, according to a Metra press release. Adopted by Metra's board in 2014, the agency's modernization plan calls for the purchase of new rail cars and locomotives and seeks funding for the rehabilitation of the 49th Street Shop and the costs to install positive train control. The plan calls for the purchase 367 new rail cars.
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Based on years of planning, IndyGo, with the support of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority (CIRTA), is shepherding a Marion County transit plan through a public involvement process. Throughout the month of February, public meetings, community outreach, and input opportunities will solidify a strategy for significant mass transit improvements in Indianapolis. By 2021, the expanded system would bring high-frequency service to nearly 250,000 more residents and jobs, running seven days a week with a 71% in-crease in total service hours.
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A new cycle way and peak-hour transit lane have been proposed as part of a $9 million overhaul of Hutt Rd, one of Wellington's notorious "black spots" for cycle crashes. The new transit lane, or T2, will be reserved for cars carrying two or more people - as well as buses, taxis, motorcycles and mopeds - heading south in the morning and north in the afternoon.
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