NS Meets Florida Transportation Officials

March 25, 2011

South Florida Regional Transportation Authority

Local and state officials and other interested parties were briefed by a delegation from Sumitomo Corporation of America and Nippon Sharyo team concerning their new FRA-compliant DMU vehicle.

For more details click here

Toronto Metrolinx purchases 12 DMUs for Air Rail Link

Metrolinx recently agreed to enter into a contract with Sumitomo Corp. of America for the purchase of 12 diesel multiple units (DMUs) for $55.7 million. The DMUs will be used for the Air Rail Link (ARL) between downtown Toronto's Union Station and Pearson International Airport.

The ARL contract also includes an option to purchase six additional vehicles, which would bring the contract's value to $76 million. The DMUs are new to North America and will be built in the United States, but where possible, Metrolinx will work with Sumitomo to "optimize Canadian content," Metrolinx officials said in a prepared statement.

The DMUs will be Tier 4-compliant clean-diesel vehicles and will be designed to convert to electric propulsion. Metrolinx has received approval from the province of Ontario to begin the environmental assessment on converting ARL to an electric service.

The ARL service is slated to begin by 2015.

Click here for more information

Portland's WES Commuter Rail marks 2nd anniversary

February 2, 2011 marked the second anniversary of the WES Commuter Rail line that provides weekday rush hour service between Beaverton and Wilsonville. Over the past year, annual ridership increased 15 percent, totaling more than 340,000 trips. WES is the state's first commuter rail line, and also the nation's first suburb-to-suburb commuter rail service.

Highlights of the year:

• Weekday trips increased 14 percent to 1,325 compared to 2009
• Weekly trips increased 14 percent to 6,625 compared to 2009
• On-time performance is 99 percent

While the ongoing recession and significant job loss in the region has impacted ridership, we are encouraged that WES ridership has been increasing throughout the year, with most months seeing double digit increases," said TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane. "It shows that once riders try WES, they find it saves them time, money and the stress of commuting."

Spare trains added to fleet

TriMet purchased two Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) from Alaska Railroad in 2009 to serve as replacement trains when a WES train is out of service. The RDCs will replace shuttle buses when there is a service disruption, providing nearly seamless service to riders. Shuttle buses double the length of the travel time over a train.

Over the past year, TriMet WES maintenance crews have been upgrading the RDCs, including air brake system overhaul, cab signal system installation, event recorder modification, door thresholds for level boarding and cosmetic improvements on interior and exterior.

Quiet zone & quieter operations

A new quiet zone and wayside horns along a 3.5-mile stretch in Tualatin became operational in January. No train horns will sound in the new quiet zone at four crossings, and wayside horns have been installed at four other crossings. Wayside horns locate the horn at the crossing rather than having the train sound its horn about ¼ mile from the intersection. Additionally, the WES alignment in Beaverton between SW Lombard Avenue and Farmington Road has reduced train horn decibels, down from the 96 decibel horn to 78-80 decibel range at each crossing. This change went into effect in April 2010. However, a train horn will sound at any time there is a safety concern.

Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers added "Washington County's investment in Tualatin's Quiet Zone has made a difference in the quality of life for the neighborhoods along the alignment. It's gratifying that WES continues to attract more riders, helping to reduce both congestion and pollution."

About WES

• WES runs every 30 minutes from about 5:30 to 10 a.m. and 3:30 to 8 p.m.
• Travel time along the 14.7-mile alignment between Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville takes 27 minutes.
• WES operates on active freight tracks owned by Portland & Western Railroad (P&W). P&W operates the WES trains.
• Project partners include TriMet, Washington County and the communities of Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

Plan a trip or check arrival times for WES online at trimet.org, m.trimet.org or by calling 503-238-RIDE (7433) weekdays between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Originally posted @ http://trimet.org/news/releases/feb3-wes.htm

Minutes from 90th Annual Meeting

Minutes of the Subcommittee Meeting

AP070(1) SELF POWERED RAIL CAR TECHNOLOGIES SUBCOMMITTEE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2011

L’ENFANT ROOM, WASHINGTON, D.C. HILTON

Click here to view meeting minutes, attendance sheet and handouts.

VIA Rebuilds Six Vintage RDCs for Remote Services

In Moncton New Brunswick, Industrial Rail Services Incorporated is rebuilding six 1950s-era Rail Diesel Cars for VIA’s remote services in Ontario and British Columbia, retrofitting 59 of VIA’s Renaissance cars for improved handicap accessibility, and rebuilding VIA’s 98 LRC cars to extend the fleet’s life 20 years.

The firm is interested in offering more rebuilt RDC's to other customers.

Click here for more information

SMART Orders 18 FRA Compliant Self-Powered Rail Cars

In mid-December 2010, the Board of Directors of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART)unanimously approved a contract with Sumitomo Corporation to build SMART’s passenger rail vehicles at a new Nippon Sharyo plant in Illinois. The contract covers the manufacture and delivery of up to 18 self-powered rail cars (nine two-car trains) and cost $56,853,739 – more than $23 million below the original engineer’s estimate for vehicles.

These fully FRA-Compliant DMUs will be the signature feature of the SMART project, a 70-mile passenger train and parallel bicycle-pedestrian pathway from Cloverdale to Larkspur. The vehicle selection process has been a major focus of the district since nearly 70 percent of the voters in Marin and Sonoma approved funding for the project November 2008.

Sumitoma and Nippon Sharyo presented information concerning their team and their proposed cars at the annual meeting of the Self-Powered Rail Car Technologies Subcomittee on Tuesday January 25, 2011.

Click here for more information concerning the SMART project
Click here to see Nippon Sharyo's DMU Presentation

Rail Transit Safety: Is There a Real Difference Between Cities?

In December 2009, the US DOT proposed to establish and enforce minimum Federal safety standards for rail transit systems to correct the status quo condition where 27 separate state programs are responsible for rail safety “resulting in a situation in which there are inconsistent practices and effectiveness”. This short paper conducts a statistical analysis of publicly available safety data to empirically address two questions:

• How safe is rail transit compared with other modes of transport?
• Is there a statistically significant record of inconsistent safety among rail transit agencies?

click here for more information