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This past summer, we reported in depth about the “fiscal cliff” that now confronts essentially the entire transit industry in the United States, due to the one-shot nature of COVID-19 relief funds authorized by Congress in late 2020 and early 2021. That money is running out and, as we reported, ridership and revenue have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. We…

Throughout the spring, we reported on the slow but steady progress of the proposal to charge tolls for most vehicles entering the Central Business District of Manhattan, defined as the part of the island south of 60th Street. The idea of paying some “rent” to use a bit of the limited and congested street space in that densely packed region…

Last June, when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered a “pause” on the proposed congestion toll for vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street, it appeared that the court cases filed by opponents of the tolling plan in both New Jersey and New York were moot. The plan was supposed to go into effect on June 30, and the equipment…

Until the middle of June, we had covered the controversy over the proposed congestion toll for vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street in detail. Officials in both New York and New Jersey filed suit in federal courts on both sides of the Hudson River to stop the toll, even as the equipment needed to collect the money was installed.…

Over the summer now ending, I have examined the situation now faced by eight of the largest transit systems in the United States, all of which include significant rail networks that, between them, include all current modes, from regional train networks to historic streetcars. Of those eight, only one appears to have found a long-lasting solution to the financial woes…

MxV RAIL R&D, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: MxV Rail’s rolling contact fatigue simulator (RCFS) is a full-scale test rig consisting of a railroad wheelset and two 56-inch-long rails attached to a “track” table. The precisely controlled test rig uses wheel rolling and rail reciprocating movements to simulate various wheel/rail (W/R) contact conditions without scale factor implications. The RCFS can…

RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE:  The story behind Greenbrier’s Twin Stack. Think “intermodal,” and the term “double-stack” instantly comes to mind, right? That was not the case in 1984, when the then-radical transportation concept and the railcar designed to support it met quite a bit of resistance among some powerful railroad executives. Man, were they mistaken! This year marks the…

FROM THE EDITOR, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Don’t box me in here, because I usually try to think outside the box for this column. How many boxes can you spot on this page? How many times will the word “box” or some form of it appear in this article?       Let’s see ... Canada and England celebrate…

RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Part 1: Can this multi-purpose railcar drive carload growth? Perhaps the most basic of freight cars, the boxcar has been around almost as long as the railroad industry itself—the mid-19th century. The North American fleet consists of approximately 108,000 units—by far the smallest fleet by car type—with an average age of 28 years—the oldest of…

RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: The question “Does it pencil?” is a term used by real estate investors when analyzing a building or property project from a financial perspective. Quoting from a recent New York Times article: “A project that pencils is one that makes financial sense ... When developers say something pencils, they are saying that whatever they want…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Much of America’s history and progress is traceable to railroads. They bound together the continental United States, made possible settlement of the West, linked farms with markets, aided development of towns and cities and enabled our industrial revolution. Modernity is less aglow about railroads. There remain few sufficiently long of tooth to recall…

FINANCIAL EDGE, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Nothing warms a jaded rail equipment columnist more than having an article planned out only to see the headlines grabbed by something so tantalizing that the entire idea has to be scrapped in favor of the more topical event. It happens more often than you may think. It’s a Yogi Berra moment—deja vu…

Following two years of development and testing in collaboration with coalition members and telemetry suppliers, RailPulse says it is now “open for enrollment and welcomes stakeholders from across the industry to join the transformation.” RailPulse on Sept. 3 officially launched its technology infrastructure, which it notes “provides near real-time data and insights across the North American freight railcar fleet. The…

When Congress authorized federal funds for transit operations in late 2020 and early 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that particular aid for the nation’s transit providers was meant to be temporary; a response to the steep ridership declines and consequent declines in revenue suffered by transit agencies around the nation, from the major systems I have examined…

I now complete my “tour around the country” to find out how major transit providers are faring in their efforts to keep going, despite the deficits those agencies will face when the COVID-19 relief money runs out. Congress authorized it in the wake of the steep ridership declines caused by the virus. We return to the Northeast to examine the…

At the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of the characters mentioned how great the transit in Los Angeles was. Of course, the story was set in 1947, when Pacific Electric’s Red Cars and LADOT’s Yellow Cars provided streetcar service to plenty of places, not only in L.A. itself, but also throughout Southern California. The streetcar network that had…

Much has been written about the alleged downfall of San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. When I visited in June to catch up on rail transit extensions in California that had started service during the five years since I last visited there, I did not find evidence of a city in its death throes, as some media claimed.…

Union Pacific (UP) recently sought mediation through the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to resolve two “fundamental issues”—track access and maintenance fees—that have become a sticking point in forging a new contract with Chicago regional/commuter rail operator Metra. The agency filed a Response in Opposition. In an Aug. 14 decision, the STB ordered the parties to engage in Board-sponsored mediation. In…

This summer, I have been examining the effects on transit and its riders that we can expect when the federal funding for operations that was enacted as part of the COVID-19 relief effort runs out. That is about to happen to some transit agencies, and it will come relatively soon everywhere. We have looked at the major providers in the…

RAILWAY AGE, AUGUST 2024 ISSUE: Railroads and suppliers work year-round to prepare for winter’s onslaught well before it becomes a problem.