Transit Briefs: Brightline West, LACMTA, Calgary Transit, NYMTA

Brightline West

“Brightline West’s private activity bond sale far exceeded expectations, signaling investor confidence in the Las Vegas-to-Southern California high-speed rail project,” Las Vegas Review Journal reported March 17.

The company, which has plans to start “heavy construction” of its 218-mile line this year, is “getting in place” financing for the $12 billion project, according to the newspaper, which said the “first step was Brightline selling a combined $2.5 billion [in] private equity bonds from California and Nevada.”  

Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) Director Tracy Larkin Thomason said during a recent NDOT Board meeting that the bond sale, which launched in February, “was actually oversold by about a billion dollars,” the newspaper reported.

The Federal Railroad Administration last September officially signed the $3 billion grant agreement awarded to the Brightline West project. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, “Brightline West has an additional $3 billion in private activity bonding authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation and is in the process of lining up $6 billion in construction loans to be taken out from multiple financial institutions.”

The Brightline West route, which has full environmental clearance, will run primarily within the I-15 highway median and offer stops in Las Vegas, Nev., as well as Victor Valley, Hesperia and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (see map above). Austin, Tex.-based Atlas Technical Consultants Inc. has been selected among a team of consultants to manage geotechnical engineering and design for the project, which broke ground on April 22, 2024. It is expected to create more than 35,000 jobs, including 10,000-plus union construction jobs. Once operational, the project will include approximately 1,000 jobs. Brightline has signed labor agreements with the California and Southern Nevada Building Trades for project construction and the High-Speed Rail Labor Coalition to operate and maintain the system.

Siemens Mobility has been designated as the preferred bidder to supply 10 seven-car “American Pioneer 220” electric trainsets capable of speeds up to 220 mph—cutting the Las Vegas-Southern California trip to two hours or half the time to travel by car. It will build a new plant in Horseheads, N.Y. to manufacture the trainsets.

“The successful bond sale comes on the heels of newly appointed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last month praising the project, while slamming the California Central Valley high-speed rail project, calling Brightline West a project ‘taxpayers are willing to invest in,’” the newspaper said.

LACMTA

The four-station Glendora to Pomona, Calif., segment of the Foothill Gold Line light rail project has been fully transitioned to LACMTA (Metro), Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority CEO Habib F. Balian reported March 17. “The Construction Authority and KPJV [Kiewit-Parsons, a joint venture] are working closely with Metro’s operations teams as they prepare for passenger service to begin later this year,” he wrote in a Construction Authority email update. “As the Authority continues to complete punch list items throughout the 9.1-mile corridor, our team meets weekly with Metro and supports their efforts to conduct final systems integration testing, safety and occupancy certification processes, punchlist walks, final paperwork, among many activities that need to take place before Metro can put the extension into service. This is a critical stage of work for the project, and I am happy to report that it is going very well. Metro has not yet announced a date for the opening, but all is moving forward on schedule.”

On Jan. 3, 2025, the project—which is adding new Metro A Line stations in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona—reached substantial completion.

The Construction Authority has overseen the bulk of construction. It is an independent transportation planning and construction agency that was created in 1998 by the California State Legislature to plan, design, and build the LACMTA Gold Line light rail system from Union Station to Montclair (now part of the Metro A Line system). The Construction Authority completed the first two segments, Union Station to Pasadena and Pasadena to Azusa, in 2003 and 2015, respectively (see map above).

The design-build contract for the third segment, from Glendora to Pomona, was completed by KPJV over the past five years and included all project elements. The $906.5 million contract included design and construction of four new light rail stations and associated multi-modal parking facilities; light rail systems, including track, power, train control, communications and safety equipment; nine miles of relocated freight track that initially sat in the middle of the now-shared rail corridor; 19 bridges, including four new light rail bridges that span major city streets and intersections in Glendora and San Dimas; 21 at-grade street crossings; 10 miles of decorative sound and retaining walls; corridor-wide fencing to prevent trespassing; testing of the line and new systems; and more.

According to Habib F. Balian, the Construction Authority continues to prepare for construction of the Pomona-to-Montclair segment, which will extend the Metro A Line 12.3 miles and add stations in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona, Claremont, and Montclair. As with the Pasadena to Azusa segment, the extension from Glendora to Montclair is planned to be built along the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe right-of-way, which was purchased by LACMTA in the early 1990s for the project. Crews were recently in Pomona and Claremont conducting utility potholing (see above). “The resulting information will be used to support the final engineering for the project,” Balian reported.

Balian also provided a procurement update on March 17: “As an update on the ongoing procurement, the [Construction] Authority received Kiewit’s formal proposal in late February. It is under review by six committees of transportation and industry experts, attorneys, financial professionals and partner agencies. Each committee is reviewing different elements of the proposal and will soon provide their overall ratings and recommendations. As the agency awaits Kiewit’s ‘Best and Final Offer’ for the work, we are aware that this is a difficult time to be receiving a bid. There is currently tremendous economic uncertainty both nationally and locally impacting the contracting community. While we read news stories daily about the current economic reality, last week the Associated General Contractors of America’s chief economist provided the Authority board of directors an update on what he is seeing in the marketplace. His presentation was sobering and highlighted numerous factors increasing risk and cost for contractors, including increasing wages due to insufficient supply of workers, increasing prices for materials and services that started before the recently announced tariffs, as well as longer lead times for receiving materials. He also discussed how the current tariffs and immigration policies are exacerbating the issues and hitting the contracting industry hard, especially in California. Ultimately, the price proposal, team’s qualifications and overall plan to manage and build the project will be evaluated as part of the current review process, and I will make a recommendation to the board in the weeks ahead.”

Calgary Transit

Alberta’s Calgary Transit on March 22 will begin a two-car light rail train pilot, according to CityNews Calgary. Two-car trains will run on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) and public holidays.

On weekends—not including special events—there are “84 passengers on average riding the train per trip (up to 300 during busy periods), but under the 400-person capacity of two [rail] cars,” CityNews Calgary reported March 17.

“We know how important transit service is for our customers and how critical it is to use our funds responsibly,” said Aaron Coon, Manager at Calgary Transit, according to CityNews Calgary. “This pilot allows us to match service with demand while maintaining reliability and availability for those who depend on public transit.” The pilot will also allow Calgary Transit to “lower costs related to energy, maintenance, and operations,” the media outlet noted.

Extra trains will be added during “high-demand weekend events like Flames games,” according to CityNews Calgary.

Two-car train service could expand to non-peak weekday service if the pilot is successful, the media outlet said, but “a full evaluation of the program is scheduled for the fall.”

New York MTA

MTA on March 17 reported that crews have replaced fluorescent light fixtures with LED lights at 250 stations across its New York City Transit (NYCT) subway system, ahead of the original year-end target. The project is part of a NYCT initiative to convert more than 150,000 fluorescent light fixtures by mid-2026. When complete, it will generate an estimated $5.9 million in annual recurring energy and material cost savings, according to MTA, which noted that the initiative will also increase safety systemwide and enhance the customer experience by brightening every subway platform and mezzanine. Additionally, the new LED light fixtures will provide greater illumination for 15,000 security cameras in the subway system, creating more detailed images for the NYPD to use when needed, MTA said.

This project began in January 2024 at the Bergen Street F and G station and was completed most recently at 5th Avenue-59 Street N, R and W, and Prince Street R and W stations.

According to MTA, 77% of the subway fleet has been converted to LED lights.

“In just one year, we have converted over half of our [472] stations to brighter and more efficient LED lights, reducing costs, slashing emissions, and improving the customer experience,” NYCT President Demetrius Crichlow said. (Crichlow is pictured, top.)

Meanwhile, MTA also announced on March 17 that more than 55% of Reduced Fair riders are using OMNY contactless fare payment cards, which launched as a pilot in 2019. By the end of January 2025, the transit authority had mailed 1.3 million-plus cards to existing Reduced Fare riders “to facilitate the switch” from MetroCards.

Who is eligible for the Reduced-Fare program? Any person age 65 or over, or any person with a qualifying disability.

“Reduced-Fare customers have shown great interest to move over to the tap-and-go payment method and today’s milestone proves that,” MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara said. “Every day, more riders are experiencing for themselves the convenience and ease OMNY brings to their travel experience, and we encourage remaining users to make the switch—not only to ensure a smooth transition for when the MetroCard retires but to also take advantage of the benefits.”

“We are thrilled to see more and more Reduced-Fare customers accessing all the benefits of OMNY,” added MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo. “From tap-and-go to fare capping, OMNY gives older adults and customers with disabilities everything MetroCard did and more in a much more simplified way.”  

“More than half of our Reduced-Fare customers agree: tap-and-go is the way to go for a smooth, seamless ride on the subway or the bus,” Demetrius Crichlow commented. “With updates like this tap-and-pay technology, we are simplifying commutes and encouraging the use of mass transit for everyone—especially the over one million New Yorkers who benefit from reduced fares.”

Reduced-Fare OMNY cards are accepted on MTA buses, subways, Staten Island Railway, Roosevelt Island Tram, and Hudson Rail Link.