LIGHT RAIL, RAPID TRANSIT, AND COMMUTER RAIL NEWS
Positive Train Control Several years ago, 25 people lost their
lives in the disastrous wreck in Chats- worth, Calif., when a Metrolink commut- er train collided head-on into a Union Pacific freight train. In reaction, the U.S. Congress passed a law mandating Positive Train Control on all rail lines in which passengers or hazardous materi- als are moved. Metrolink became the very first U.S. railway service to implement PTC on its entire system, with some 396 miles of track now covered. However, other rail- roads were struggling to meet the original deadline of December 31, 2015. Unfortu- nately, some of the technology had not yet been invented and implementation has been extremely slow. Management at Amtrak wrote to the Senate Commerce Committee with a warning that they would suspend train service starting Jan- uary 1, 2016, unless the deadline was ex- tended for the installation of PTC. PTC is an expensive proposition; the Association of American Railroads estimates that the freight railroads will need an additional $4 billion to finish installing PTC. The American Public Transportation Asso- ciation estimated it would take $3.5 bil-
lion to complete installation of PTC on all commuter railroads. Many railroads and a number of U.S. senators called for a three-year extension in the PTC imple- mentation deadline, and H.R. 3819, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2015, was passed in October 2015.
Toronto Streetcars New Flexity streetcars are arriving
in Toronto at a rate of one each week. It will take a while before the current fleet of Canadian Light Rail Vehicles (CLRVs) is replaced. The streetcars lines to be replaced with the new light rail cars are as follows: 510 Spadina and 509 Harbourfront are being replaced now; 511 Bathurst is to be replaced in 2016; 505 Dundas, 2016; 513 Lakeshore, 2016/ 2017; 501 Queen 2016/2017; 504 King, 2017; 512, St. Clair, 2018; 504 Downtowner, 2018; 503 Kingston Road, 2018; 506 Carlton, 2018/2019. Thanks to Jack May by way of Dave Neubauer.
L.A. Streetcar Delays Voters approved a new property tax
in 2012 to help build a streetcar line in
the heart of the downtown Los Angeles business core. Progress has been glacial as politicians have contended with fluc- tuating cost estimates, a variety of com- ments from scholars, and a never-end- ing funding gap. As of mid-June 2015, estimates indicate there is a $200 mil- lion shortage of money. The four-mile downtown loop is to provide 10-min- ute headways. To achieve this level of service, project managers estimate it will take four more cars than original- ly planned; the cost is $24.3 million. Thanks to Frank Bauer for the news.
Plow Pits The September 2015 issue of the Elec-
tric Railroaders’ Association’s The Bulle- tin had a front-page article on the Third Avenue Railway’s plow pits in New York City. Both New York and Washington, D.C., had operations in which overhead trolley wire could not be employed. In- stead, a device called a plow hung under the streetcar and made contact with the third rail in the street. When I first visit- ed New York City in 1942, I thought that the Third Avenue railway cars were ca- ble cars because of the slot in the street. On a trip to Washington in 1947 with
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