Kansas City Southern Runs Office Car Special for New Illinois Shipper
KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN RAN A SHIPPER’S SPECIAL for Bartlett Grain from Kansas City to Bartlett Grain’s recently opened grain facility near Jacksonville, Ill., on the former Gateway Western. The train traveled to Jacksonville on August 1 under the symbol
Aberdeen, Carolina & Western
NEW CONTRACT REPAIR DIVISION: Having outgrown its former Norfolk Southern Railway shop building in Star, N.C., the Ab- erdeen, Carolina & Western Railway has es- tablished a new subsidiary, ACWR Shops LLC, to repair and rebuild locomotives and rolling stock for the railroad and outside cus- tomers. The company is converting a former Commodore Homes Corp. warehouse on High- way 220 in Candor, N.C., into a locomotive and rolling stock repair facility that will in- clude 4600 feet of track and an inspection pit. The first phase of retrofitting the 91,000- square-foot building for railroad use is cur- rently under way; the complex will also house ACWR corporate headquarters when the sec- ond phase of construction is finished.
Amtrak
FIRST STEP TOWARD NEW DIESELS: In August, the Illinois Department of Trans- portation issued a Request for Proposals for 32 diesel-electric passenger locomotives which conform to the specifications developed by the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) Section 305 Next Generation Cor- ridor Equipment Pool Committee. The new lo- comotives may have four or six axles and must fit the Amtrak standard clearance dia- gram, meet EPA Tier 4 emissions standards,
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RAILFAN.COM
BKCJV-01 and returned the following day as BJVKC-02 (above, dur- ing a crew change at Mexico, Mo.). The new Bartlett facility is expected to originate 14-21 unit trains a month for KCS, and the branch between Roodhouse and Jacksonville has been rebuilt to handle them.
and be able to move four bilevel passenger cars at 125 m.p.h. on level track. IDOT is the lead agency for the procurement and the loco- motives will be distributed among state-sup- ported corridors in Illinois, Michigan, Mis- souri, Iowa, Washington, Oregon, and California. After the proposed designs are evaluated, a builder will be chosen next year and delivery should begin in 2016. The new locomotives will be used with 130
new 125-m.p.h. bilevel passenger cars, which were ordered last year from Nippon Sharyo/Sumitomo. Currently, only the 4700- h.p. EMD F125 Spirit locomotive is known to meet the PRIIA specification, but General Electric and MotivePower, Inc., are also ex- pected to join the bidding, possibly with a vari- ation on the GE-powered MotivePower HSP46 now being built for Boston’s MBTA. In May, California’s Metrolink commuter railroad or- dered the first 20 F125s for delivery in 2015.
NEW STATION FOR ROCHESTER, N.Y.: U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced on August 8, 2013, a $15 million grant to design and construct a new train sta- tion in Rochester, N.Y., under the U.S. Depart- ment of Transportation’s $500 million TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Eco- nomic Recovery) 2012 program. The grant, made to the New York State Department of Transportation, is for the final design and con- struction of a 12,000-square-foot building that
will include a high-level island passenger plat- form, an underground concourse for pedestri- an and baggage access to trains, two new ded- icated passenger sidings, plus additional track and signal work. It will improve access to Am- trak’s Empire Service between New York City and Niagara Falls, the Maple Leaf between New York City and Toronto, the Lake Shore Limited between New York City, Boston, and Chicago, and connections to other modes of transportation such as Greyhound and Trail- ways bus services, Rochester Regional Transit buses, and taxis. The new station, fully com- pliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), will replace a temporary station built in 1978 which is deteriorating and not ADA compliant. NYSDOT is contributing $7.5 million to the project and the city of Rochester is contributing $500,000. The contract for the project is expected to be awarded in this fall and construction should begin next spring.
AMTRAK WILL RETURN TO ROANOKE: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell announced on August 9 that preliminary work has start- ed to extend Amtrak service from Lynchburg to Roanoke over Norfolk Southern rails in the next four years. The governor’s recently- passed transportation bill provides dedicated funding for intercity passenger rail. Virginia transportation Secretary Sean T. Con- naughton said, “The administration placed a high priority on extending Amtrak Virginia to
JAKE BRANSON
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