Archive for March 1st, 2010
Oregon Department of Transportation Purchases New Passenger Trains to Enhance Train Service
March 1st, 2010The Oregon Department of Transportation has negotiated the purchase of two new passenger trains from Talgo-America. Each train has 13 cars, seats 285 people and will provide continued Amtrak Cascades passenger service in the Pacific Northwest rail corridor between Eugene and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The trains, which cost $36.6 million, will be assembled at a new Talgo plant in Wisconsin with a majority of American-made components. The Oregon Transportation Commission approved use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds for the purchase on July 23, 2009. By pooling the train purchase with Wisconsin, Oregon saved about $6 million.
Oregon’s current passenger rail service relies on trains owned by Washington State and Amtrak. As Washington State fulfills its plans to increase daily Portland-Seattle service, those trains will no longer be available to Oregon.
The new trains, scheduled to be delivered in 2012, will be updated versions of Talgo-made trains currently serving the Northwest. Amenities include WiFi capability, a Bistro (food and beverage) car, a business class section with roomier seats, and baggage car bicycle racks. Although the corridor’s current top speed is 79 mph, the new trains are designed to run up to 125 mph. Any diesel-electric locomotive can pull them.
MTA New York City Transit Restructures Department of Subways
March 1st, 2010In Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit’s newly restructured department of subways, Carmen Bianco has been named senior vice president for subways and Steven A. Feil vice president and chief maintenance officer.
Bianco previously served as assistant vice president for system safety at NYC Transit between 1991 and 1995 and has held similar senior level safety positions at Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. He also served as acting vice president of operations at Amtrak.
Feil, who assumes the newly created role vice president and chief maintenance officer, has been senior vice president of subways since 2007 and has experience and knowledge in the many areas of maintenance and technical functions related to rail systems.
With this change in structure, maintenance resources will be centralized, absorbed from the current decentralized Group & Line General Manager structure. The Line General Manager program will remain, but with a more focused role on transportation and customer service.
MTA New York City Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast announced the moves, the first in a series of structural changes to the department of subways intended to make certain that all critical maintenance functions are fully and completely performed in the areas of power, track, signals, communications and subway cars while ensuring that the department focuses on reaching the goals established by MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder in his 100 Day Report, “Making Every Dollar Count.”
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