Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Four rail improvement projects will reduce congestion along the Empire Corridor from New York City to Niagara Falls and improve travel times and reliability for passengers and freight.

Included heavier continuously-welded rail, bridge work, new tie installation and ballast work. Improvements enable the scheduled running time for the line to be reduced by about a half hour and passenger-train track speeds in signaled territory to increase from 50 to 79 miles per hour.

Locations in Maryland/Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts may at some future time experience regular 160 mph service. Tests utilize high-speed Acela Express equipment and measure the interaction between the train and the track, rider quality and other safety factors.

Completed phase one and two of the process, which included creating an enclosed structure over two tracks and a new three-story maintenance warehouse and administrative office that replaced functions formerly performed in trailers.

An agreement between the California High Speed Rail Authority and more than a half-dozen San Francisco Bay Area public agencies will fully fund the electrification and modernization of the Caltrain system. Once the system is electrified, Caltrain will be able to operate lighter-weight electric vehicles.

Funds will modernize the Portland Union Station, upgrade passenger rail service along Amtrak’s Cascades route and continue further development of an integrated, statewide rail network.

Two data devices failed to work together, causing all 28 trains to be halted for more than two hours. Officials have said that the system needs $15 billion in upgrades over the next 25 years, but only about half of the funding is lined up.

Plans include replacing and expanding fleet of locomotives and passenger railcars with the purchase of several hundred single-level and bi-level long distance passenger railcars and more than a hundred locomotives.