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MetroNorth Pilots First Course Developed by the Signals Training Consortium
 On Tuesday April 22, MetroNorth piloted the first course developed by the Center's Signals Training Consortium: Course 101 Introduction and Overview to Track Circuits. Nine Phase 3 signal maintainers took part in this one day course which was co-instructed at MetroNorth's training facility in White Plains, NY. The learning objectives of the course are: * Recognize the principles and operations of track circuits * Name the common types of track circuits * Record types of track circuits at your location * List the major components found in track circuits and examine their functions * List basic components of rail structure * Describe the difference between shunted and open track circuits The pilot went smoothly with minimal edits that will need to be made to the course. To see previews of the consortium courses, visit Transit Training Network. For more information the Signals Training Consortium, contact Mark Dysart. |
Railway Track and Signal - April 17, 2014
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) issued a new report to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) updating the industry's progress on installing Positive Train Control (PTC) and said the industry will not meet the December 2015 deadline. According to a statement from the AAR, the nation's freight railroads said that a year-long moratorium on installing 20,000 communication antennas imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), followed by a lengthy federal approval process mandated by the agency, has seriously delayed the implementation of nationwide interoperable PTC.
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Vox - April 22, 2014
Advocates have a whole list of arguments for why cities should build streetcar lines. Here are a few of them. Tourists like them. "The ride quality and accessibility of a streetcar is an advantage over buses," says Ethan Mellone, rail transit manager of Seattle's streetcar. He adds that tourists prefer streetcars over buses because streetcars tend to be less intimidating and more understandable for a newcomer. "[On a streetcar], riders are not going to wind up where they didn't expect to be. they attract more riders than a comparable bus line," he says.
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USA Today - April 17, 2014
The next time you go to book a flight on CheapAir.com, you might also consider the train. The booking site is now also offering reservations on Amtrak, the first online travel portal in the U.S. with that option, says CheapAir.com's CEO Jeff Klee. Passengers who click onto the website to search for flights will see potential trips on Amtrak pop up as well.
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KTVU - April 22, 2014
In San Francisco, there's a push underway to increase public transit during the overnight hours. Supporters say it's a regional issue that needs to be addressed. Both BART and Muni service slow down after dark, but that's when some businesses ramp up. "Yet public transit is just so difficult at night when so much is going on," said Laura Adkins who works as a BARTender at Virgil's Sea Room and as a waitress at another establishment. She regularly gets off work around 3am.
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CBS Local - April 17, 2014
As part of its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, SEPTA dusted off and showcased a bus from 1970 in South Philadelphia Thursday afternoon. It was certainly a "Throwback Thursday" for Phillies fans getting off the subway at Broad and Pattison. They were able to snap pictures and go through the green, silver and white SEPTA bus, bringing back memories for many, including SEPTA's Assistant GM Fran Kelly.
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Progressive Railroading - April 22, 2014
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) officials late last week announced the first phase of the Red and Purple modernization program to rebuild the northern section of the Red Line and the parallel Purple Line. They also announced the beginning of the next step in a federal process to secure funding for the Red Line extension project, which would extend the Red Line south from 95th Street to 130th Street, according to a CTA press release. The CTA's Red Line, which runs 24/7 along 23 miles of tracks, is Chicago's busiest rail line with about 75 million annual rides.
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New York Post - April 20, 2014
The MTA is about to get a little more CSI. City bus drivers will soon be armed with DNA swabs to gather evidence in the all-too-common event of an unhinged passenger spitting on them. Transit workers catch a loogie 14 times a month, the MTA estimated in 2011. The swab kits will be distributed to drivers once a new contract between the MTA and Transport Workers Union Local 100 is finalized, union sources confirmed. They'll include swabs, a rinse and a sealed container to store an assailant's saliva sample.
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New York Times - April 18, 2014
When the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved its budget in December, agency documents warned that any increases in labor costs could have devastating consequences. But on Thursday, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a much-delayed contract agreement between the transportation authority and the union representing New York City's subway and bus workers, that dire warning seemed a distant memory. The agreement with Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, whose contract had expired more than two years ago, moved the transportation authority far off its long-held position that its fiscal future depended on securing three consecutive years without increases in labor costs.
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Labor Notes - April 15, 2014
It's been 35 years since the founding of Labor Notes-a good time to look at how the labor movement's challenges have changed over the last 35 years. Labor Notes was founded the same year that employers discovered you could get concessions, that a signed contract wasn't written in stone: you could plead poverty and open it up and force workers backwards.
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Amtrak - April 22, 2014
Amtrak is doing more to solidify its energy efficiency and highlighting a project this Earth Day that replaces the engines in two locomotives with new energy-efficient generator sets at terminals that switch railcars between trains and in shop facilities. The newly-repowered Generator Set "GenSet" locomotives are now used daily in Washington, D.C. Amtrak previously began using GenSet locomotives in Los Angeles, Oakland and Chicago.
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Progressive Railroading - April 17, 2014
During an event held yesterday at the Boston North Station, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) General Manager Beverly Scott welcomed the first of 40 new commuter-rail locomotives as it was placed into service on the Haverhill Line. MBTA is procuring 40 new diesel-electric locomotives to replace its existing fleet, which is 35 to 40 years old.
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Building Transportation Infrastructure
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Progressive Railroading - April 17, 2014
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced yesterday that it awarded two contracts valued at $628 million to contractors that will line more than 10,000 linear feet of newly excavated tunnels with permanent structural concrete walls, and install complex communications systems in Grand Central Terminal's future Long Island Rail Road concourse.
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Railway Age - April 17, 2014
Atlanta's initial modern streetcar line will open this year, though perhaps not until late December, according to Mayor Kasim Reed. Reed, who toured the project with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx on Wednesday, April 16, 2014, conceded that construction on the 2.7-mile line had taken longer than anticipated, but declined to speculate if completion would occur before December.
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