The Railway Chronicle: International & UK Railway News Monday 1st July 2013

Bittern heads the Ebor Streak 90mph run at Tempsford

(C) Dick Bodily

USDOT - Federal Railroad Administration

Grade Separation Projects Breaking Ground in North Carolina to Improve Railroad and Roadway Safety and Efficiency

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today announced that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has begun construction on rail safety improvement projects along the North Carolina Railroad’s Piedmont Corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte.

This series of projects are part of the Piedmont Improvement Program, supported by a $520 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 grant, and will enhance safety for train travelers, motorists and pedestrians, while laying the foundation for a higher-performing freight and passenger rail network.

“North Carolina’s Piedmont Improvement Program is strengthening freight and passenger rail service, while also delivering substantial road improvements to reduce congestion and make highway-rail grade crossings safer,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Projects like these create jobs, promote economic growth and foster more livable communities.”

A combination of new grade separations, such as road or rail overpasses or underpasses, and highway-rail grade crossing closures and enhancements, will enable trains on the Piedmont Corridor to travel faster and more reliably, and help communities benefit from reduced roadway congestion and improved safety at crossings.

“The safest crossing is one that doesn’t exist, and NCDOT is now on its way to eliminating 50 crossings between Charlotte and Raleigh while building strategic underpasses and overpasses,” said Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo. “North Carolina Transportation Secretary Tony Tata and NCDOT continue to advance the Piedmont Improvement Program, which is proving to the nation that market-based investments in higher-performing rail service also deliver important safety improvements for trains, pedestrians, and vehicles.”

There are more than 7,000 highway-rail grade crossings in North Carolina, with nearly three hundred located along the Piedmont Corridor in Rowan and Guilford counties. The Piedmont Improvement Program will eliminate 17 percent of the grade crossings in these two counties, creating separations between rail and vehicular traffic with new overpasses and underpasses.

A project that broke ground recently at Klumac Road near Salisbury will result in a new double-track railroad bridge to eliminate the existing at-grade crossing. And in July, NCDOT will begin construction of a new roadway bridge that will eliminate four crossings south of Salisbury at Peeler Road.

The Piedmont Improvement Program includes 12 projects dedicated to separating rail and highway traffic, and builds on NCDOT’s immensely successful Sealed Corridor Program, begun in 1992, which aims to improve or consolidate highway-rail grade crossings along the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. The Piedmont Corridor is part of the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor, which runs from Washington, D.C. to Charlotte, with planning underway for an extension to Atlanta, Ga.

Through the High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program, the FRA has partnered with 32 states to invest in more than 150 high-speed and higher-performing intercity passenger rail projects. Fifty-two projects worth $3.6 billion in funding are currently completed, under construction, or will soon start construction in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
FastLane - The Official Blog of the US Secretary of Transportation

The Future of American Transportation

Over the weekend, I spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival about the future of American transportation. It’s an important topic, one that concerns everyone who uses our roads, bridges, rails and runways to get where they need to go or to get the goods they need. So I think it's important to share with all of you some of what I said on Sunday.
Since day one, President Obama and our team at DOT have worked tirelessly to fulfill our vision of 21st century transportation and to give Americans the quality transportation choices they want and deserve.
We got that started when, within 30 days of being sworn in, President Obama signed the Recovery Act. That allowed us to invest $48 billion in better transportation, kick-starting 15,000 projects and directly creating more than 65,000 jobs.

We also worked with Congress to pass both an FAA Reauthorization bill and a transportation bill, MAP-21.
We brought high-speed passenger rail to America—and we did it by investing over $12 billion in rail projects across the country.
We helped build livable communities with cleaner buses and modern streetcars and complete streets.
There’s no question we did a lot under President Obama’s leadership these last four-and-a-half years. But we all know there’s more to do.

As the Secretary of Transportation, I’ve been to every state in the country. And I’ve seen firsthand the power of strong, efficient and safe infrastructure. Transportation is the key to America’s economic comeback. Transportation connects us to opportunity. Transportation puts people to work. And transportation makes us more competitive in the global economy.
If you ask any CEO where they’d rather open up shop and hire…If you ask any parents where they’d rather raise a family…If you ask any young professional where they want to live and work---you hear the same things time and time again. People want infrastructure that reduces congestion and protects the environment. They want high-speed trains that shuttle between cities and light rail systems that connect to jobs. They want bike paths, bike shares, buses, and streetcars that give them the option to leave the car at home.
The proof is in the numbers. People took a record 10.5 billion trips on public transportation in 2012. Amtrak ridership has grown more than 40% in the last ten years. Over 20 American cities now operate bike shares, and each program has been met with incredible popularity. New York's new CitiBike bike share has sold nearly 52,000 memberships.
This is what Americans want. This is what the future of American transportation looks like.
Now, we know that people will continue to drive cars. But we also know that we can get more for our money when we do. As a result of our historic fuel efficiency standards, the average car will get 54.5 miles per gallon. This is going to save drivers more than $1.7 trillion at the pump by 2015. This will help us reduce oil consumption by 2.2 million barrels per day by 2025. And it will slash six billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the program.
At DOT, we are not stopping at better fuel efficiency. We’re looking at the future with connected vehicle technology. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, or cars talking to cars, is the future of motor vehicle safety and further fuel-savings.
We also know that people are going to continue to fly. So, we’re modernizing our aviation system—and we’re helping airlines to save fuel and reduce emissions in the process with our Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) program and our NextGen air traffic management system.
These are just some of the innovations we’re considering when we talk about the future of transportation. And there are more possibilities around the corner, possibilities that maybe we don't even know of.
But this much we do know: We can build a transportation system that helps the next generation lead. We can be safer, more efficient, greener, and more affordable. We can make sure that the next big innovation takes shape in Oklahoma or New Jersey, not China or India, and that it is manufactured here as well. And we can make sure that the infrastructure we build today will accommodate the America of tomorrow.
The kind of transportation future we're talking about requires vision--men and women who can develop innovative solutions, and champions who recognize the value of those ideas and have the fortitude to see them through.
Whether it’s building high-speed trains or ensuring that every kid in America can get to school on time, we owe it to the next generation to invest in our country today.

International Railway Journal

TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) reported revenues of Rand 50.2bn ($US 4.99bn) for the year ending March 2013, a 9.4% increase year-on-year as the company breached the Rand 50bn mark for the first time.

DURING a ceremony held on June 28 and attended by Hamburg's mayor Mr Olaf Scholz and German Rail CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube, Hamburg's senate confirmed that S-Bahn Hamburg, a subsidiary of DB Regio, has secured a 15-year extension of its operating contract which was due to expire on December 9 2018.

TOSHIBA, Japan, has won a Yen 6bn ($US 60m) contract from a consortium of China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation and CNR Changchun ...

BRITAIN's infrastructure manager, Network Rail (NR), has invited bids by September for the £400m project to electrify the Edinburgh – Falkirk – Glasgow main line, which is part of the Scottish government's £650m Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme...

IN an effort to make transport ticketing simpler and easier for passengers across Europe, representatives from four ticketing standards bodies and the International Public Transport Association (UITP) have founded the Smart Ticketing Alliance.

PAULISTA Metropolitan Trains (CPTM), which operates the São Paulo commuter rail network, has announced the winners for two tenders to supply trains.Hyundai Rotem, Korea, and Iesa Commercial Distribution have been selected for Lot 1.....

www.progressiverailroading.com US News

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Texas port signs off on pacts for new rail-served resins plant

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Red River Valley & Western logs millionth carload

MTA senior adviser Kupferman dies

Crossings: New York DOT schedules hearing on proposed closure; Georgia city pursues quiet zones

Rail supplier updates from Bombardier, Voith, GATX, SYSTRA, TranSystems, STV and NRC (July 1)