Wednesday afternoon rail news:
— Commuter rail operators throughout the U.S. have joined the “Sound The Horn” effort launched by Amtrak and New York-area transit agencies to honor transportation, health, and other essential workers who continue to work during the coronavirus pandemic [See “Anderson sends farewell message to Amtrak employees,” News Wire Digest, April 14, 2020]. The event will see rail, bus, and ferry operators sounding their horns nationwide on Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time in a salute to essential workers. Agencies which have joined the program include Chicago’s Metra, the South Shore Line in Northern Indiana, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and Metrolink in the Los Angeles area. Amtrak will hold a media event on Thursday in Chicago as part of its participation, held in conjunction with the 2 p.m. departure of the California Zephyr.
— A union representing Canadian National Railway employees says no jobs will be lost because of the suspension of service on CN’s former British Columbia Railway line between Williams Lake and Squamish, B.C. Jamie Desjardins, chief steward for the United Steelworkers Local 2004 Mountain Region, told the Williams Lake Tribune that the union and CN have worked to ensure all workers retain their jobs during the current economic downtown. CN suspended service on the route as of April 3 [see “CN scales back operations as volume falls, will idle section of former BC Rail,” Trains News Wire, April 2, 2020].
— RailWorks Corp. has been awarded a contract to provide track and maintenance services for the Maryland Transit Adminsitration’s Metro SubwayLink and Light RailLink. RailWorks’ Track Services subsidiary will perform minor, major, preventative, and emergency-response services for the 47-track-mile light rail and 30-track-mile subway system for three years, with options for two one-year extensions. The combined rail network includes nearly 50 stations, 43 grade crossings, about 130 main-line switches and about 2 miles of at-grade shared right-of-way.
— No cause has been determined for a fire involving a large stockpile of railroad ties on Canadian Pacific Railway property in Chatham, Ontario, on Tuesday. Seven fire trucks and 40 Chatham-Kent firefighters were involved in the fire, which was reported about 5 p.m. Minimal damage was reported to a warehouse near the fire scene, BlackburnNews.com reports.
“fire involving a large stockpile of railroad ties”
Copy cat arson to Pueblo, Colorado.
“Commuter rail operators throughout the U.S. have joined the “Sound The Horn” effort”
I am awaiting a NIMBY lawsuit saying they can’t blow their horn behind their house. It disturbs the species “terminally drunkus, humanicus”