Seven people were killed in separate railroad accidents Sunday, Dec. 1, in New York and New Mexico.
Three employees of the Southwest Railroad in New Mexico died when when the train’s locomotive plunged 40 feet into a ravine.
In suburban New York City, a Metro-North commuter train derailed, killing four people and injuring 63, including 11 critically, when seven commuter cars ran off the tracks on a sharp curve, Reuters reports.
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NEW YORK – A suburban New York train derailed Dec. 1, killing four people and injuring 63, including 11 critically, when all seven cars of a Metro-North train ran off the tracks on a sharp curve, officials said.
The crash happened at 7:20 a.m. (1220 GMT) about 100 yards (meters) north of Metro-North’s Spuyten Duyvil station in the city’s Bronx borough, said Metro-North spokesman Aaron Donovan.
Authorities are investigating the cause of a freight train derailment in southern New Mexico that killed three railroad employees when the train’s locomotive plunged 40 feet down a ravine.
Police on Sunday, Dec. 1, identified the three as 38-year-old Donald White, 60-year-old Steven Corse and 50-year-old Ann Thompson. White lived in Silver City, N.M., and Corse and Thompson lived in the northern Arizona community of Paulden.
The offices of the SMART Transportation Division and the UTU Insurance Association will be closed Thursday, Nov. 28, and Friday, Nov. 29, in observance of Thanksgiving Day and
SEPTA expects to receive $350 million of the bill’s $475 million earmarked for public transportation.
The Pennsylvania state government passed a $2.3 billion transportation package that will allow SEPTA to dodge a doomsday budget that would have cut transit services throughout the region.
Last week, the General Assembly approved the plan, which includes about $475 million per year earmarked for public transportation — of which SEPTAexpects to receive about $350 million per year, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The transit agency will use the money for sorely needed infrastructure improvements, particularly for century-old bridges on the regional rail lines.
In September, SEPTA officials prepared a contingency budget that would have been enacted if funding were not increased. It would have closed nine of the 13 regional rail lines by 2023 and replace several trolley lines with buses.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A judge on Nov. 25 tore up California’s funding plans for what would be the nation’s first bullet train, issuing separate orders that could force the state to spend months or years redrawing its plans for the $68 billion rail line and could choke off some of its funding.
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny rejected a request from the California High-Speed Rail Authority to sell $8 billion of the $10 billion in bonds approved by voters in 2008, saying there was no evidence it was “necessary and desirable” to start selling the bonds when a committee of state officials met last March.
OSAGE CITY, Mo. – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo Nov. 25 participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new railroad bridge that will eliminate the last chokepoint along the line between Jefferson City and St. Louis. The $28 million project received $22.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program and was the largest ARRA project in the state of Missouri. Administrator Szabo joined Missouri Department of Transportation Director Dave Nichols, officials from Amtrak and Union Pacific Railroad and other dignitaries at the event.
“Railroads play a key role in our ability to move both people and goods, a need that will only increase in the coming decades,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The Obama Administration is committed to working with transportation leaders like Governor Nixon and Senator McCaskill, to make sure the nation’s rail system is efficient, reliable and supportive of economic growth.”
The new Union Pacific Railroad bridge spanning the Osage River will reduce delays for more than 600 passengers traveling on Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner and the 60 freight trains that currently operate over the 283-mile Kansas City to St. Louis Corridor each day. On the old bridge, passenger and freight trains would often have to wait until a train coming from the opposite direction cleared.
With the addition of the new 1,200-foot structure, located just east of Jefferson City in Osage County, the rail corridor between St. Louis and Jefferson City now consists entirely of two mainline tracks that will allow Amtrak passenger trains and freight trains to pass through the area unimpeded. As a result, the region’s four Missouri River Runner trains will see faster, more reliable service.
“This new railroad bridge is yet another strategic investment in our rail infrastructure that will allow for higher performing passenger rail – while also laying a foundation to invest in faster, more frequent, and even more reliable service,” said Administrator Szabo. “It also advances the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative – a vision Missouri shares with eight other states to connect the Midwest’s 40 largest cities with high-performance passenger rail.”
The Federal Railroad Administration, along with its 32 state partners and the District of Columbia, is laying the foundation for a higher performance rail network. Sixty-five projects worth $4.1 billion in High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program funding are currently completed, under construction, or will soon start construction in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Bringing safe, reliable, convenient, and affordable intercity passenger rail to the U.S. will create jobs, increase economic development opportunities, promote energy efficiency and relieve congestion.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) will introduce Dec. 4 legislation to fund U.S. transportation infrastructure in the nation now and into the future.
The two bills will establish a series of pilot projects to further study the application of a vehicle-miles-traveled fee and establish a 15-cents-per-gallon increase to the federal gas tax.
“Increased vehicle-fuel efficiency allows for increased demands on our transportation system without contributing as much to its maintenance. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office based on current driving patterns demonstrates the newest fuel economy standards for automobiles will result in a 21 percent reduction in Highway Trust Fund revenue by 2040,” Blumenauer said.
“There are already significant funding challenges. Congress has transferred $55 billion in general fund revenues to the Highway Trust Fund to avoid bankruptcy since 2009. When the current authorization expires, the Highway Trust Fund will require almost $15 billion a year in addition to existing gas tax receipts, merely to maintain 2009 funding levels.
“Our failure to adequately fund transportation infrastructure imposes huge costs on American citizens and businesses. Last year, congestion cost urban Americans $87.2 billion a year in time wasted sitting in traffic, and higher transportation costs have pushed logistics costs to nearly 10 percent of our gross domestic product. A recent analysis by the American Society of Civil Engineers suggests that the cost of our declining transportation system could result in the loss of 876,000 jobs by 2020. Until we tie our transportation revenues to our transportation demands, this situation will worsen.”
The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission noted that a vehicle-miles-traveled charge is the “the most promising alternative revenue measure” to our existing gas tax, while the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission reported that “a charge for each mile driven . . . has emerged as the consensus choice for the future.” Both commissions found that this system was efficient at raising revenue.
A number of states, including Oregon, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, and New York have tested pilot projects where they charged drivers for the number of miles they traveled rather than the fuel they consumed. The tests have proved convenient for drivers, demonstrated strong protections for personal privacy, and have been easily administrable.
A recent GAO report on this subject noted, “Should Congress wish to explore mileage fees as a mechanism for funding surface transportation, it should consider establishing a pilot program to evaluate the viability, costs, and benefits of mileage fee systems . . . .”
The Road User Fee Pilot Project establishes a competitive grant program to fund VMT pilot projects that will help answer outstanding questions about privacy, implementation, and equity. These projects will help answer Congress’s outstanding questions, and provide a variety of models from which best practices can be determined.
Blumenauer will hold a press conference Dec. 4 at 10:30 a.m. in room 201 of the Capitol Visitor Center (HVC-201) to announce the proposed legislation.
President Barack Obama Nov. 22 signed an executive order creating a Presidential Emergency Board 244 to help resolve an ongoing dispute between the Long Island Rail Road and some of its employees.
According to the White House, PEB 244 will provide a structure for the two sides to resolve their disagreements. The board will hear evidence and, within 30 days, will deliver a report to the president recommending how the dispute should be resolved.
President Obama also announced that he intends to appoint the following members to Presidential Emergency Board No. 244:
Ira F. Jaffe – Chair, Presidential Emergency Board No. 244
Roberta Golick – Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 244
Arnold M. Zack – Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 244
SMART Transportation Division President John Previsich, who is assisting LIRR General Committee of Adjustment GO 505 with this round of negotiations, expressed satisfaction with the establishment of a presidential emergency board.
“The board members are highly respected arbitrators with years of experience in our industry and we welcome their participation in bringing this matter to a satisfactory conclusion,” Previsich said.
Ira F. Jaffe, appointee for chair, Presidential Emergency Board No. 244 Ira F. Jaffe has been an arbitrator and mediator of labor and employment disputes since 1981 and has presided over more than 4,500 cases in a wide variety of industries in the private and public sectors. Jaffe serves on over 60 permanent arbitration panels and has served on four separate PEBs, one in 2001, two in 2007, and one in 2011 in which he served as chair. Jaffe is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA) and served as the National President of the Society of Federal Labor Relations Professionals in 1990. As an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School, Jaffe taught courses in labor and employment arbitration and mediation, labor law, collective bargaining and labor arbitration, and agency and partnership. He is a Charter Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and has arbitrated and mediated a wide variety of employee benefits disputes. He is also a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Jaffe received a B.S. from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Roberta Golick, Appointee for Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 244 Roberta Golick has been an arbitrator and mediator since 1974, focusing on labor-management disputes. During this time, she has handled thousands of cases in both the private and public sectors. She served as the 2011-12 President of the National Academy of Arbitrators. This is Ms. Golick’s fourth presidential emergency board (PEB) appointment. She was a panel member most recently on the 2011 PEB regarding a dispute between major freight rail carriers and their unions. From 1974 to 1982, Golick served as an arbitrator/mediator at the Massachusetts Board of Conciliation and Arbitration. Golick is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and sits on its First Circuit Credentials Committee. She is featured in the newly released documentary, The Art and Science of Labor Arbitration, which focuses on arbitrators whose careers and contributions are landmarks in labor law policy and in the resolution of industrial disputes. Golick is the 1996 recipient of the Cushing-Gavin Award, given annually by the Boston Labor Guild. She received a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
Arnold M. Zack, Appointee for Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 244 Arnold Zack has been an arbitrator and mediator of over 5,000 labor disputes since 1957 and a member of five presidential emergency boards, serving as chair twice. He served on Presidential Emergency Board No. 243 involving a coalition of the nation’s freight carriers and two coalitions representing eleven railroad unions in 2011. He has just completed a nine year term as judge on the Asian Development Bank Administrative Tribunal. He was the president of the National Academy of Arbitrators from 1994 to 1995. From 1990 to 2000, he was the chair of the Essential Industries Dispute Settlement Board in Bermuda, and the chair of the Essential Services Dispute Settlement Board there from 1998 to 2001. He was the founder and a member of the Board of Control of the Center for Sio-Legal Studies at the University of Natal in South Africa from 1986 to 1990, where he designed dispute resolution systems for employment disputes in South Africa. He has also served and taught as a senior research associate at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School since 1985. He is a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and a Wertheim Fellow. He received a B.A. from Tufts University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Several cars of the New York City-bound Amtrak Crescent with 218 people aboard went off the tracks in South Carolina early Monday (Nov. 25) as bags flew and jolted passengers clung to each other, authorities and passengers said.
There were no serious injuries, Amtrak said of the 207 passengers and 11 crew members aboard when the cars derailed shortly after midnight in the countryside on a frosty night with 20-degree readings from a cold front sweeping the Southeast.
Railway Age magazine contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner will appear on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal television show Wednesday, Nov. 27, from 8:25 a.m. to 9:15 (EST), discussing his book, Amtrak: Past, Present, Future, and answering audience call-in questions. Wilner formerly was the United Transportation Union’s director of public relations.
The Washington Journal is a forum for leading journalists and public policy makers to discuss key events and legislation.
It may seem improbable, but the odds that faster trains are coming to the Northeast Corridor have jumped recently. That’s because beginning in 2015, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is expected to finally permit modern European designs on tracks throughout the country, running side by side with heavy freight, at all times of day. This decision could cut the weight of U.S. passenger trains in half, meaning trains can go faster, accelerate more quickly, cause less wear on tracks, and get passengers to their destination in less time.
How much time? The decision by the FRA to finally shelve regulatory requirements from the 1920s means that lighter replacement train sets for the Acela could cut the trip from Boston to New York by 30 minutes (the trains can maneuver the curvy tracks of New England at higher speeds) and the faster acceleration and braking could shave 5 to 10 minutes off the trip from New York to Washington.
The Pennsylvania state government passed a $2.3 billion transportation package that will allow SEPTA to dodge a doomsday budget that would have cut transit services throughout the region.
President Barack Obama Nov. 22 signed an executive order creating a Presidential Emergency Board 244 to help resolve an ongoing dispute between the Long Island Rail Road and some of its employees.
Several cars of the New York City-bound Amtrak Crescent with 218 people aboard went off the tracks in South Carolina early Monday (Nov. 25) as bags flew and jolted passengers clung to each other, authorities and passengers said.
Railway Age magazine contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner will appear on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal television show Wednesday, Nov. 27, from 8:25 a.m. to 9:15 (EST), discussing his book, Amtrak: Past, Present, Future, and answering audience call-in questions. Wilner formerly was the United Transportation Union’s director of public relations.