Maryland Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, that six private-company teams have submitted a "Statement of Qualifications" for advancing the 16-mile Purple Line Light Rail Transit project.

The teams include: Plenary Group USA and Bechtel Development Co.; VINCI Concessions, Walsh Investors, InfraRed Capital Partners, Alstom Transport, and Keolis S.A.; John Laing Investments, Kiewit Development, and Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate; CSCEC and United Labor Life Insurance; Meridiam Infrastructure Purple Line, Fluor Enterprises, and Star America Fund GP; and Macquarie Capital Group and Skanska Infrastructure Development.

DOT officials expect to cull the group to four teams, or fewer, as the New Year begins, then ask for the surviving teams to submit detailed proposals by next fall. Maryland hopes to begin construction of the line in early 2015.

Last month the state Board of Public Works approved plans to advance the project as a public-private partnership over a period of 35 to 40 years. The contract could be worth more than $6 billion. Gov. Martin O'Malley last July committed $280 million for design work and land acquisition for the Purple Line.

Maryland officials say the winning team is expected to contribute between $400 million and $900 million toward construction, as part of a design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) plan. Such an approach has been used for other U.S. LRT startups, including New Jersey Transit' Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) system along the Hudson River. br>

The Purple Line would serve two Maryland counties north of Washington, D.C, and act as a circumferential and feeder/distributor route to Washington's Metrorail system, offering transfers at four locations along the route.

“A comprehensive, single-source web tool, CHRNSS makes it easy for industry participants to engage in car-hire rate negotiations,” Railinc said. “The Railinc-supported application features a bid-and-offer dashboard that reduces the administrative effort required for car-hire rate negotiations, and facilitates better matching of lessee needs with available railcars.” CHRNSS—originally launched in March 2013—replaced Railinc’s Deprescription application.

The features in this release include the ability to:

• Query Car Hire Accounting Rate Master rates and download them in CSV format.

• View historical and current bid and offer details.

• Manage notifications via the CHRNSS dashboard.

“With CHRNSS, users can make more informed car-hire decisions quickly,” said Railinc President and CEO Allen West. “Railinc provides reference materials and other resources to help users learn critical CHRNSS features and functionality, including CHRNSS FAQs and a user guide. CHRNSS gives users convenient access to essential data they need to improve productivity and streamline car-hire rate negotiations. This release gives users features and functionality that enable them to make the best car-hire decisions for their business.”

Railroads, car owners, and third-party leasing companies interested in using CHRNSS must have a Railinc account to request access to the application. For more information about CHRNSS, contact the Railinc Customer Support Center at (877) 724-5462 or by email at csc@railinc.com.

The Phoenix City Council, in an 8-to-1 vote, has approved plans for a five-mile Valley Metro light rail transit route extending south of downtown, choosing LRT over Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and streetcar options.

Construction is still years away, according to local media with several other LRT extensions preceding it. But officials noted the South Central Corridor would serve a large potential market of transit-dependent users, many of whom have clamored to be included in the LRT network. "It will reach a lot of people who don't have a good alternative to get to work, who don't have cars," said City Councilwoman-elect Kate Gallego.

Besides modal selection 11 route variants also were studied. The recommended route would run south along First Avenue out of downtown before accessing Central Avenue.

The route must still be approved by several groups, including the Maricopa Association of Governments, the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Last month Valley Metro received the Finding of No Significant Impact (or FONSI) from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for a 1.9-mile Gilbert Road LRT extension to better serve Mesa, Ariz., east of Phoenix.

U.S. freight traffic for the week ending Dec. 7, 2013 returned to a pattern seen most often in the first three quarters of the year, but not much recently: gains in intermodal volume, declines in carload traffic.

U.S. freight carload traffic for the week fell 4.4% measured against the comparable week in 2012, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday, Dec. 12. U.S. intermodal for the week continued its strong performance, up 9.4% compared with last year, and helped power total U.S. freight traffic for the week to a 1.8% advance.

Five of the 10 carload commodity groups AAR tracks on a weekly basis posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, including petroleum and petroleum products, up 18.6%, and grain, which has surged in recent weeks, up 10.4%. Declining commodities included coal, down 13.3%.

Canadian freight carload volume for the week ending Dec. 7 mirrored the U.S. counterpart, , down 4.0 percent, while Canadian intermodal volume rose 5.0%. Mexcian freight carload volume slipped 0.2%, with Mexican intermodal also retreating, down 7.7%.

Combined North American rail volume for the 49 weeks of 2013 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads was up 0.3% compared with the same period in 2012, while combined North American intermodal activity rose 4.3%.

On Dec. 16, U.S. Department of Transportation technical and human factors experts will begin a comprehensive review and assessment of safety-critical procedures and processes at Metro-North. The rail safety team will look at:

• Track, signal, and rolling stock maintenance, inspection, and repair practices.

• Protection for employees working on rail infrastructure, locomotives, and railcars.

• Communication between mechanical and transportation departments at maintenance facilities.

• Operation control center procedures and rail traffic controller training.

• Compliance with Federal Hours of Service regulations, including fatigue management programs.

• Evaluating results of operational data to measure efficiency of employees’ execution and comprehension of all applicable federal regulations.

• Locomotive engineer oversight.

• Engineer and conductor certification.

• Operating crew medical requirements.

After Operation Deep Dive is complete, FRA will issue a report with findings and recommendations. FRA will further evaluate Metro-North’s compliance with Emergency Order 29, its effectiveness in fulfilling the recommendations in the an industry-wide Safety Advisory issued December 11, and then consider if additional actions are necessary to strengthen safety at Metro-North. The Safety Advisory, FRA said, will help “ensure that all railroads adhere to federal regulations and applicable railroad rules regarding maximum authorized train speed limits.

“Encouraging a safety stand-down with employees and issuing an Emergency Order and Safety Advisory after the recent Metro-North accident were all necessary first steps to immediately secure and improve safety, and we commend Governor Cuomo and MTA in taking those steps,” said Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo. “Operation Deep Dive allows FRA to further identify sources of risk and drive continuous safety improvement. This approach will help restore public confidence in Metro-North and is evidence of FRA’s safety program that has helped reduce train accidents nationwide by 43% over the past decade.”

For a description of FRA’s increased oversight and enforcement of Metro-North’s rail lines since May 2013, see the agency’s Safety Action Plan.

The Surface Transportation Board announced Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013 it "invites public comment on how to ensure the Board's rate complaint procedures are accessible to grain shippers and provide effective protection against unreasonable freight rail transportation rates."

The request for comments, Docket No. EP 665 (Sub-No. 1), which STB determined Dec. 9, is being made "to ensure the Board's rate complaint procedures are accessible to grain shippers and provide effective protection against unreasonable freight rail transportation rates, STB said.

Comments are due by March 12, 2014, STB said. Replies are due by May 12, 2014. Copies of written comments will be available for viewing and self-copying at the Board's Public Docket Room, Room 131, and will be posted to the Board's website.

STB said the request followed a hearing in 2006 "related to the movement of grain raised by Members of Congress, grain producers, and other stakeholders. When it closed that proceeding in January 2008, the Board reasoned that guidelines for simplified rate procedures had recently been adopted, providing a new avenue for rate relief for grain shippers." But STB "also noted that it would continue to monitor the relationship between carriers and grain interests, and that if future regulatory action were warranted, it would open a new proceeding."

Portland's TriMet Board of Directors has approved selling two GOMACO vintage trolleys to the St. Louis Loop Trolley Transportation Development District.

The St. Louis group will pay $80,000 for the two units over time, beginning when the proposed St. Louis streetcar project (one of two proposed in the city) becomes operational.

"We are not giving them away," TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch told local media. St. Louis would pay the full $80,000 plus "the balance of the local [Portland] share of the interest, so it relieves us of that cost. They would go from operating up to about eightdays a year to daily usage in St. Louis."

The sale, approved Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, also allows TriMet to repurpose the trolley bar in Portland's Rose Quarter into a MAX light rail transit maintenance station, improving system reliability and serviceability. "Current MOW crews are based in Gresham and Beaverton," Fetsch said, or the outlying portions of the LRT system.

St. Louis also will pay for all transport costs associated with the sale.

The acquisition of two vintage GOMACO units is a key step for St. Louis Trolley, which last month overcame delays to meet a Federal Transit Administration deadlineto submit required documentation for the project. The Loop Trolley route would include nine stations, connecting with two Metrolink light rail transit (LRT) stops at Forest Park and Delmar Loop stations. Federal funding of roughly $25 million already has been awarded to the line. 

Shippers are attempting to sidestep the testing requirement by simply classifying all crude as the most volatile “Packing Group I” instead of specifically grading the crude according to flash point, corrosiveness, and chemical composition, according to investigations by Canada's Globe and Mail.

Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt also said existing hazmat classifications are inadequate for the highly volatile crude being extracted by fracking from the Bakken oil field that straddles North Dakota and Saskatchewan and also includes parts of Montana and Manitoba.

The presidents of Canadian Pacific and CN have publicly urged Transport Canada to tight the regulation of crude oil shipments. As common carriers, the railroads have no legal right to refuse any consignment that appears to meet regulations with respect to classification and container type.

In addition, railroads and crude oil shippers will be required to permanently deploy emergency response teams and equipment along Canada’s oil train routes. Such “Emergency Response Assistance Plans” were implemented for trains carrying propane and chlorine after a 1971 tank car explosion west of Toronto.

The new enforcement actions are meant to reduce the chances of another conflagration such as the July 6, 2013 explosion of a runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train carrying highly volatile North Dakota crude in the Quebec resort community of Lac-Mégantic. It also follows harsh criticism by Canada’s auditor-general accusing Transport Canada of stubborn laxity in regulating the country’s sprawling railroad system.

In demanding an action plan, Transport Minister Raitt let slip an unprecedented rebuke of her own department:

“Unfortunately, in the history of Transport Canada, we have seen conversations and consultations that seem to go on for 10 years, and 15 years,” Raitt said. “So we gave them the end of January as the deadline.”

Raitt said she wants a fundamentally fresh regulatory regime for CBR in place by mid-2014.

Such tough talk is uncharacteristic of Canada’s Conservative government, whose power base is the energy-rich province of Alberta. It would also be unusual for the Canadian government to initiate domestic rail regulation ahead of U.S. authorities. This may suggest that similarly tough rules will be forthcoming from Washington.

The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration advised petroleum shippers July 29 that they must explicitly test each and every tank car contents before classification:

“Tank cars containing crude oil are typically loaded by one of two methods: transloading (where crude oil from cargo tanks is transferred directly into tank cars) or bulk loading operations (where crude oil is delivered to a bulk storage facility and the crude oil is then transferred from storage tanks to the railroad tank cars). In both operations, there is a blend of crude oil from a variety of sources in each tank car and the properties of the materials may vary depending on the constituent crude oils.

“Only after the properties of a hazardous material are determined and the material is properly classified can a shipper ensure compliance with the HMR (Hazardous Material Regulations). In the case of crude oil, relevant properties to properly classify the material include: flash point, corrosiveness, specific gravity at loading and reference temperatures, and the presence and concentration of specific compounds such as sulfur (as found in sour crude oil).”

On Nov. 20, the FRA issued a follow-up advisory that expressed the concern of the FRA and PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) that the testing directive was being widely ignored.

“PHMSA and FRA are once again reinforcing the importance of proper characterization, classification, and selection of a hazardous materials packing group as required by the Federal hazardous materials law.”

Given Canada's historic (and operationally necessary) alignment with U.S. rail regulation, it should not be surprising to see the U.S. agencies escalate their insistence that each tank car of crude be thoroughly tested before trains are allowed to leave loading terminals.

This could be highly disruptive to the growth of CBR, given the four-hour turnaround times at modern unit train terminals where loading racks fill several cars simultaneously. Sampling, testing, and classifying crude oil, car-by-car, will inevitably slow train turnarounds and increase costs to shippers.

Harsco Rail, a division of Harsco Corp., said Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 it signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Protran Technology.

Harsco Rail will be the exclusive worldwide representative and distribution agent for Newton, N.J.-based Protran's safety products, including Collision Avoidance items. Protran also specializes in technology development, asset monitoring, advance warning, and voltage awareness devices, Harsco Rail said.

The pact was signed on Dec. 5, Harsco Rail said.

Protran Technology Vice President Shannon Bailey said, "The partnership between Protran Technology and Harsco will expedite our mutual goals of promoting safety in the rail industry through real time advanced warning technology. We are excited to be able to leverage Harsco's global sales network to take our products to market."

Said Harsco Rail's Senior Director of Technology and Inspection Jim Resio, "We are excited to work together with Protran, enhancing our respective product and service offerings to the market. Protran products are a great complement to Harsco's technology offerings, and this partnership will ultimately improve the safety and productivity for our customers."

Wilmerding, Pa.-based Wabtec Corp. said Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 it has signed a $34 million contract with Seattle's Sound Transit to design, install, test, and commission a Positive Train Control (PTC) system on the agency's regional rail line.

Sound Transit's 82-mile line links Everett, Wash., Seattle, the state's largest city, and Tacoma, and carries nearly 3 million passengers annually. It connects with Sound Transit light rail transit operations in Seattle and with the agency's streetcar line in Tacoma.

Under the contract, Wabtec will provide its Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (I-ETMS®) equipment and installation for 16 locomotives and 18 passenger transit cab cars. Wabtec said it will also provide signal design and communications, mapping, and systems integration. The Sound Transit system will be fully interoperable with PTC systems being implemented by Class I railroads.

Several Wabtec divisions are involved in the project: Wabtec Railway Electronics, Wabtec Global Services, Xorail, and Bach-Simpson.

"As transit agencies around the U.S. continue to deploy PTC over the next several years, Wabtec has the capabilities to continue to play a significant role," said Wabtec Chariman and CEO Albert J. Neupaver.

Chicago-based NxGen Rail Services said Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 it has launched NxTrack, describing it as "a fully integrated, line speed, rail track inspection system."

The NxTrack system includes full Geometry, Optical, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), the company says. The inspection module railcar rides along at line speed while collecting essential, real-time data with the on-board, proprietary analysis and management software. The software interprets the track condition using Federal Railroad Administration-based rules and delivers results to the customer.

NxTrack is designed to allow customers to inspect miles of track from a single system utilizing various methods. For detected problems, the system employs machine intelligence to analyze and report the probable root cause. Engineers can then make better maintenance decisions.

NxTrack is available from NxGen Rail in two ways: with full-service operation on customer rail lines; or under long or short-term lease to the customer.

"In the railroad industry, accurate information on track condition has become increasingly important yet data collection has suffered from speed-restricted vehicles and multiple technologies. NxTrack integrates multiple technologies into a single platform to create the first inspection system of its kind on the market," said Kelly Pronek, director of Corporate Communications and Marketing at Sasser Family Holdings (SFH), the parent company of NxGen Rail. "NxTrack offers customers a 360-degree view of the rail to easily and accurately assess the condition of their track infrastructure, integrity, geometry, and ballast."

Added SFH President Shad Peterson, "NxGen Rail represents Sasser Family Holding's continued commitment to the industries we serve. The decision to expand our business into rail track inspection was one we spent a great deal of time and research on. "We now have a seasoned team committed to developing unique solutions for our customers. I'm looking forward to seeing the positive contributions that NxGen and the NxTrack product line will make in the industry."

Other SFH subsidiary business units include Union Leasing, Chicago Freight Car Leasing Co., CF Rail Services LLC, and CF Asia Pacific Group Pty Ltd.

k

Freight rail service will begin traversing the right-of-way in and around Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013, limited at first to trains hauling dry goods.

Lac-Mégantic Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche told local media rail service will be restored gradually, in order to respect the sensitivities of the municipality, rocked by the deaths of 47 people last July when a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway(MM&A) train derailed and exploded.

MM&A has pledged to carry no oil products through the town, but Lac-Megantic is concerned that the pledge will falter once the railway is sold to another company. MM&A has filed for creditor protection, with assets expected to be sold before February.

Last week the Canadian federal government ordered Transport Canada to severely penalize crude oil shippers who they say continue to evade a directive that they test the contents of tank cars before classifying them as hazardous materials for crude by rail (CBR) transportation.

Last month Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt issued a directive that requires railroads to provide annual information to municipalities on the volume and nature of hazmat being transported through their jurisdictions.

Hermon, Maine-based MM&A is a subsidiary of Chicago-based Rail World, Inc. Among the reported bidders seeking to acquire the MM&A is Railroad Acquisition Holdings LLC, an affiliate of New York-based investment firm Fortress Investment Group.

Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad President and CEO Carl Belke says a new rail bridge along the right-of-way in Falconer, N.Y., is nearly complete, and under budget, as a result of emergency repair work.

The bridge failed a 2011 inspection for the minimum federal weight requirements. At the time, Western New York and Pennsylvania (WNYP) had $1.6 million in funding for tie replacement. But "after receiving permission from the New York State Department of Transportation, we moved the funding from replacement of the ties to what became construction of a new bridge in Falconer," Belke told local media.

Wrap-up work includes construction of a walkway and the restoration of a 1½-acre site classified as wetlands, Belke said. Work should be completed by next May.

About $500,000 in funds is left over, which Belke would like to apply to its original purpose, tie replacement. That would require the assent of New York's Department of Transportationsand the Regional Eonomic Development Council for the Western Region.

Falconer, N.Y.-based WNYP also will receive more than $1 million from the state DOT for replacement of 8,000 ties from Olean, N.Y., to the Pennsylvania border, and a Pennsylvania DOT grant of $840,000 to replace about 12,000 ties over a 14½-mile section of the railroad's Oil City branch in the Keystone State

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) hopes to restore service to the recently upgraded – and storm-destroyed – South Ferry Station in lower Manhattan by mid-2016.

To that end, MTA officials on Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, presented plans and options for station rehabilitation, including possible relocation of critical signal relay electrical components from underground to an above-ground location adjacent to the station site.

The recommended location, however, sits adjacent to (and in some form encroaches on) Battery Park, itself undergoing a makeover, and a likely trigger for interdepartmental and civic squabbling over the possible loss of parkland.

MTA expects the station restoration to cost $600 million, equivalent to the amount spent to upgrade the station the first time, anticipating much of the cost to be covered by federal funds allocated for repair to damage from Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. MTA plans to start the bid process early next year, with a demolition contract for damaged current infrastructure to be offered next month.

MTA's presentation outlined interim and long-term flood remediation plans, including recently hyped submarine-style doors that can effectively protect electrical equipment in the face of storm surges and other water-related damage. Pending approval of an above-ground site, MTA will try to reinforce current underground electrical sites.

Decommissioned in 2009, the old South Ferry Station was reactivated as the terminus for MTA New York City Transit's No. 1 subway line, provided a limited length, curved platform which allowed passenger entry and exit from only five cars, generating safety and crowd flow issues. The old station also suffered from flood damage but was more readily available for use.

The Surface Transportation Board Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013 said BNSF Railway has performed due diligence in minimizing or mitigating the generation of coal dust during rail movements, turning aside complaints from shippers and environmental groups claiming the railroad has been negligent.

In STB's ruling Docket No. FD 35557 (labeled a "corrected decision"), decided Dec. 11, STB said it "finds the coal shippers challenging the safe harbor have not shown that the coal dust suppression methods set forth in the tariff are unreasonable. However, the Board finds unenforceable one provision regarding shipper liability for adverse impacts from any approved suppression methods because the language is overly broad and ambiguous."

STB noted it "started this proceeding to give coal shippers the opportunity to challenge the "safe harbor" provision of a tariff change by the BNSF Railway Company (BNSF), which requires coal shippers to reduce the amount of coal dust lost from railcars during transit from mines in the Powder River Basin. The challenged BNSF safe harbor provision states that shippers will be in full compliance with coal loading requirements if they apply one of BNSF's five approved suppression methods to their railcars after loading them pursuant to the profiling requirement. Alternatively, shippers may propose equally effective coal suppression methods for BNSF's approval."

Besides BNSF, parties involved included: Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. (AECC); the National Coal Transportation Association (NCTA); and Union Electric Co. D/B/A Ameren Missouri (Ameren Missouri). Union Pacific and the U.S. Department of Transportation also were involved.

Coal shippers objected to BNSF's revising its tariff structure in July 2011 "which made several changes to the requirements regarding the control of coal dust emissions from trains loaded at mines in the PRB," STB noted.

Shippers also objected to BNSF's "safe harbor" provision requiring them to apply one of BNSF's five approved suppression methods for coal dust, and also protested

a liability provision, in which BNSF said "topper agents, devices or appurtenances" used by shippers or their mine agents to control the release of coal dust "shall not adversely impact railroad employees, property, locomotives, or owned cars."

STB in essence ruled that BNSF's prescribed actions were reasonable measures to minimize coal dust fallout. "The shippers that are challenging BNSF's tariff . . . bear the burden of proving that the tariff is unreasonable," STB ruled.

STB also rejected shipper claims that an earlier ruling by STB on the subject was flawed and required review. "AECC and Coal Shippers have offered no basis to reconsider the Board's prior finding," STB stated, noting subsequent research "does not negate the Board's finding that coal dust emissions were threatening ballast integrity. BNSF cannot change the soil composition along the PRB, but the amount of coal dust emitted from open-top railcars can be reduced."

It added that test sample sizes for such a conclusion were "sufficient," saying, "While the amount of coal dust collected from untreated cars showed large variability, the amount of coal dust collected from treated cars showed low variability. We find that the consistent results for treated cars indicate that a larger sample size was not necessary and that the approved topper agents performed well under a wide range of conditions."

The full decision can be accessed at STB's website.

Ontario province's Regional Municipality of Waterloo will evaluate three competing bids for a C$536 million (US$505 million) contract to build an initial 11.8-mile light rail transit line. All three bids were submitted by deadline Monday, Dec. 16, 2013.

Submitting bids for a design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) contract were:

GrandLinq, comprised of Plenary Group Canada Ltd., Meridiam Infrastructure Waterloo, LRT ULC Aecon Construction and Materials Ltd., Aecon Concessions,; Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co., Kiewit Canada Development Corp., Mass Electric Construction Canada Co., Keolis SA, Keolis Canada Inc., AECOM Canada Ltd., STV Canada Construction Inc., and CIBC World Markets, Inc.;

Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge Transit Partners, comprised of Gracorp Capital Advisors Ltd., Fluor Canada Ltd., Connor, Clark & Lunn GVest Traditional, Infrastructure Partnership, Parsons Canada Ltd., Parsons Enterprise Inc., Graham Infrstructure LP, IBI Group, exp Services Inc., E & E Seegmiller Ltd., Guild Electric Ltd., Alternate Concepts Inc., and Investec North America Ltd.; and

Tricity Transit System, including SNC Lavalin Capital, SNC Lavalin Constructors, SNC Lavalin Operations & Maintenance Inc., SNC Lavalin Inc., EllisDon Capital Inc., Fengate Capital Management Ltd., URS Canadian Operations Ltd., and Hatch Mott MacDonald Ltd.

Seven groups initially responded to a Request for Qualifications.

A final decision by regional leaders is expected early next spring. Ontario has committed up to C$300 million (US$282.6 million) in funding, bolstered by Canadian federal government funding of C$265 million and regional contributions of C$253 million.

Last August Bombardier Transportation formally announced it had landed a contract with the Regional Municipality of Waterloo to supply 14 FLEXITY Freedom light rail vehicles, initially serving the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo.

SEPTA on Monday, Dec. 17, 2013 received the final Silverliner V electric multiple-unit (EMU) car it ordered from United Transit Systems, LLC, completing a $274 million order beset by delays.

The cars were produced at Hyundai Rotem's manufacturing facility in South Philadelphia, which suffered some labor unrest. Hyundai Rotem was one partner in the United Transit Systems consortium, joined by Sojitz Corp. America.

SEPTA is retiring its oldest cars, Silverliner II and Silverliner III models, with the completion of the Silverliner V order. SEPTA's fleet also includes 231 Silverliner IVs.

"It's taken a long time and a lot of hard work to arrive at this celebration," SEPTA General Manager Joseph Casey told local media.

Tony DeSantis, treasurer of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers (DVARP), added that his organization took "a very active interest in the planning and design process, and this is definitely a milestone for the riders."

R&N’s suit, filed in Lackawanna County Common Pleas Court, says that the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority “has a fiduciary obligation to the taxpayers of Lackawanna and Monroe Counties to get the best financial deal possible. The Authority refused to even consider our request to make a bid to be the operator. Instead, without notice and with no opportunity for public comment, the Authority decided to renew a contract with the existing operator for another five years. The Authority took this action even though the existing contract does not expire for more than 20 months. The last time the Authority sought bids for this operation was in 1993, more than 20 years ago. Since then it has continually renewed the contract with the current operator without notice and without consideration of whether other operators could increase the value for taxpayers. We connect with the Authority’s property and have extensive operations in the area today.”

“We realize that given an open process with fair bidding that there may be others who win the right to operate,” said Reading & Northern President Wayne Michel. “However, we know taxpayers and shippers will be better off as a result of this process and we will have had a fair opportunity to participate.”

According to its website, the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) is a 100-mile regional rail system stretching from Carbondale to Scranton through the Pocono region to East Stroudsburg and the Delaware Water Gap. It operates freight and passenger service in four counties in northeast Pennsylvania. Rail freight services are provided by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad Co. Inc. under contract with the PNRRA, which owns the rail assets and properties.

The Federal Transit Administration is considering a Buy America waiver submitted by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) "for the Pad and Rubber Boot of a Concrete Block for a Low Vibration Track System," related to construction of the Second Avenue Subway (SAS) in Manhattan.

FTA's notice, Docket No. FTA-2013-0038, notes that MTA is making the request "on the basis of non-availability," adding, "This notice is to inform the public of the

waiver request and to seek public comment to inform FTA's decision whether to grant the request." Public comment will be accepted until Jan. 16, 2014.

The notice was posted Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013 in the Federal Register.

"With certain exceptions, FTA's Buy America requirements prevent FTA from obligating an amount that may be appropriated to carry out its program for a project unless ''the steel, iron, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States,'' the notice read in part.

MTA made its request on Sept. 11, 2013, noting "that it specified an LVT system to address operational noise and vibration issues, which had been identified as significant adverse impacts in the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Second Avenue Subway Project."

The two-mile, three-station first phase of the Second Avenue Subway is currently expected to be completed in late 2016. The line was first proposed in 1929, and as a profound non-entity for much of that time has become part of New York folklore.

NJT introduced MyTix in April 2013 as a pilot program on the Pascack Valley Line, as well as between Penn Station New York and the Meadowlands Rail Station for special events, to test the functionality of the app and determine the feasibility of expanding it to other rail lines. In September, NJT expanded MyTix to the Main/Bergen County and Port Jervis lines, followed in October by the Montclair-Boonton and Morris & Essex lines, and most recently in November to the North Jersey Coast and Raritan Valley lines, as part of a gradual systemwide rail rollout of the program. Some improvements made to the agency’s MyTix app were the direct result of feedback from customers using the app during the gradual rollout. The app was designed with input from customer focus groups and NJT frontline rail employees and customer service staff.

MyTix is available for free download on any web-enabled iOS or Android operating system, via the App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices. To purchase tickets via MyTix, customers must first install the app and then create an account, which will save customers’ profile information and history of ticket purchases for ease of use. Purchased tickets must be activated prior to boarding the train and displayed to train crews upon request (one-way tickets expire two hours and 45 minutes after activation; monthly passes self-activate on the first day of the calendar month and remain active for the entire month; weekly passes self-activate at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday and remain active through 6 a.m. the following Saturday). Customers transferring at Secaucus Junction or traveling to and from Newark Liberty International Airport Station scan the ticket barcode on the fare gate readers to pass through the gates.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to tap into the latest technology to improve the overall customer experience, we aimed to place our mobile ticketing app into the hands of all of our rail customers by the end of this year, and we have met our goal right on schedule,” said NJT Executive Director James Weinstein. “All rail customers now have the ability to treat their smartphones as both a ticket vending machine and rail ticket or pass all in one, providing for a seamless experience.”