USDOT Press Release 2/22/12:
U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood Announces $54.6 Million Loan for Kansas City Southern Railway for 30 U.S.-Made Locomotives
WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a $54.6 million loan to Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) for the purchase of 30 new General Electric ES44AC locomotives. These diesel-electric locomotives, built in Erie, Pennsylvania, will help KCSR meet increasing economic demand, and are more energy-efficient and produce significantly less carbon emissions than the locomotives they are replacing.
“We are seeing President Obama’s commitment to rail boost manufacturing all across America,” said Secretary LaHood. “This is the kind of investment in our transportation systems that creates jobs, boosts the economy and improves the flow of goods.”
In addition to energy and environmental benefits, these new locomotives will allow KCSR to create a safer operating environment through improved train handling, more crashworthy cabs, and state-of-the-art train controls, which will promote crew alertness. The locomotives will be deployed throughout KCSR’s system to accommodate the increased demand for shipments of coal, chemicals, grain, sand, stone, gravel, plastics, metals, and automobiles.
The loan is from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Program.
“The RRIF program is a model of how we can leverage federal dollars to stimulate private investment and grow the economy,” said Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo. “The program provides steady, affordable financing for major rail construction and expansion projects.”
The Federal Railroad Administration’s RRIF program provides direct loans for eligible borrowers to acquire, improve, or rehabilitate rail and rail-related intermodal equipment and facilities. There is currently up to an aggregate of $35 billion available in the RRIF program for these types of projects. RRIF offers a responsible approach to supplementing capital investment for all types of railroads. For more information about the RRIF program, please visit www.fra.dot.gov.
Source: FRA Press Release
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has provided a $750,000 High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program grant to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to study the expansion of Amtrak’s Keystone Corridor from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. Passenger trains on the Keystone Corridor currently operate at 110 mph between New York, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, and have seen ridership grow from 891,764 passengers in 2006 to 1,296,838 last year.
The study will evaluate the feasibility of electrifying track between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, construction of dedicated tracks for passenger trains and major signal and switch improvements. The study will also evaluate installation of concrete ties, procurement of new passenger cars and alternative route alignments. The FRA grant is from FRA’s fiscal year 2009 Intercity Passenger Rail appropriation with a 50 percent state match requirement from Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation.
Source: Federal Railroad Administration press release dated 1/28/11
FRA press release, Nov. 19, 2010:
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that seven projects will share $50 million to help make the nation’s rail system safer by facilitating deployment of Positive Train Control (PTC) collision avoidance systems and other advanced technologies. The projects will receive money through the new Railroad Safety Technology Grant (RSTG) program.
PTC systems use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to monitor and control a train’s movements, in order to enforce speed limits, prevent train collisions and, help keep rail workers safe.
Awards vary in size and scope ranging from $500,000 to $21 million, and include private corporations, academic institutions and public authorities.
“Safety is our highest priority,” said Secretary LaHood. “This new program will help keep the rails safer by accelerating installation of positive train control technology where it is most needed.”
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) received 41 grant applications requesting more than $228 million. Decisions on the competitively awarded grants were based on technical merit, including the extent to which a project helps achieve interoperability between technologies, and the recipient’s project management capabilities and financial commitment to share costs.
Noting that all railroads will benefit from the work funded by the program, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo said, “We are funding projects that confer the greatest benefits to the entire railroad community.”
FRA issued a Notice of Funding Availability on March 29, 2009 inviting applications from passenger and freight railroads, industry suppliers and state and local governments. Notably, the program requires that selected projects be ready for deployment within 24 months of receiving a grant award and that grantees share 20 percent of the total cost. Recipients must also have received FRA approval of a Technology Implementation Plan and PTC Implementation Plan, or successfully demonstrated that they could do so.
The RSTG program was authorized by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA), which imposed a statutory deadline of December 31, 2015 for PTC implementation on mainline tracks that carry passenger trains and certain hazardous material shipments. The selected projects are distinct and will help achieve resolution of technical challenges affecting all stakeholders. Grant awardees for the Fiscal Year 2010 RSGT Program are as follows:
Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) Shared LA PTC Communications Infrastructure: The project will develop and test the communications best practices guide for all railroads that must implement a standard Vital Train Management System (VTMS) which requires s an interoperable communication architecture that will allow trains to operate safely across railroad networks using the Los Angeles basin as the prototype. $6,605,446
National Railroad Passenger Corporation-(Amtrak) Washington, D.C. Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES) – Vital Train Management System (VTMS) Interoperability: The project will focus on achieving interoperability between the PTC system used on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, known as ACSES, and the VTMS being adopted by freight railroads. $12,850,000
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) –Long Island Railroad/Metro North Railroad, New York Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES) – Interface Control Documentation: The MTA will develop and test the interface specifications (i.e. Interface Control Document) for the major subsystems of the Amtrak Northeast Corridor ACSES PTC System. $6,596,000
Meterocomm Communications Corporation-Renton, Washington 220 MHz PTC Radio HW Design Integration testing and Locomotive Noise Study: The project builds the required radio platform for an interoperable communications network across multiple railroads deploying the Vital Train Management System (VTMS) technology using a 220MHz radio frequency. $21,050,000
Howard University-Washington, D.C. PTC System Identity Management: The project will develop performance models for cryptographic key management required to ensure safe and secure interoperable PTC system communication. $857,106
Railroad Research Foundation-Washington, D.C. Rail Corridor Risk Management: The project will enhance and provide ongoing implementation of the Rail Corridor Risk Management System (RCRMS) as a key enabling technology for the industry in accomplishing the objectives of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. $1,541,448
Westinghouse Airbrake Corporation-Cedar Rapids, Iowa Video PTC Database Survey Verification: The project will prove the ability to use ordinary video currently collected in a locomotive run through a subdivision to validate PTC Survey location points. $500,000
Source: FRA
Text of press release for Tuesday, March 23, 2010 (Washington, DC):
New, Innovative Train Simulator Will Improve Research Efforts
Efforts to prevent train accidents caused by human error took a giant leap forward today with the installation of a technologically advanced train simulator, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Administrator Joseph C. Szabo announced today.
The newly acquired equipment will permit researchers to realistically simulate innumerable conditions and scenarios encountered during railroad operations to help identify safety problems and develop effective solutions. The $1.6 million Cab Technology Integration Laboratory (CTIL) was constructed by Alion Science and Technology headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and will be located at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“Developing new and innovative rail safety technologies is one of the most important and rewarding things we do,” said Administrator Szabo. He added, “It is inspiring to know that this work will ultimately prevent injuries and save lives.”
Among its capabilities, the full-sized locomotive simulator can accurately record crew behavior through the use of video, audio and eye-tracking capabilities at the control and button-pushing level. This allows researchers to carefully observe the actions of train crews, and monitor the corresponding effect of their actions on the simulated locomotive they are operating. Other features include modeling and visualization technologies which are tools to optimize the physical design and configuration of locomotive cabs to enhance crew performance.
Using the simulator as a laboratory, FRA will continue its longstanding research program to analyze the role human factors play in freight and passenger train accidents, injuries and deaths. Specifically, the simulator will be used to evaluate the safety and reliability of new locomotive technology systems, controls and displays prior to their wholesale adoption and use by the railroad industry.
Created to minimize the risk of human errors that may lead to an accident, the FRA’s Human Systems Integration (HSI) research and development program is focused on the interface between employees and railroad equipment and infrastructure. The CTIL is intended to serve as a resource for technical collaboration between government, industry, academia, and others to improve train crew decision-making and performance during routine railroad operations.
(Reposted from original blog)
