Utah legislators change funding plan for transit projects
Utah legislators have changed plans for funding a series transit projects, although the projects — including double-tracking sections of the Utah Transit Authority FrontRunner commuter rail route — will still get the money they need. The Salt Lake Tribune notes that instead of borrowing more than $1 billion, a bill approved by the state House will borrow just $264 million, and increases one-time finding to nearly $1 billion. The change reflects the resistance of some members of the state Senate to the original funding plan. $200 million of the money borrowed, plus $100 million in case, will go to the FrontRunner project. The new bill also includes $12 million for improvements to the S-Line Streetcar in Salt Lake City.
Service restored after sinkhole stops CN trains in Mattoon, Ill.
Rail service has been re-established in Mattoon, Ill., after a sinkhole temporarily stopped service on the Canadian National Railway through the city. The Journal Gazette-Times Courier reports that the sinkhole formed because of a sewer pipe failing near the railroad tracks about 2 p.m. on Monday. City Public Works Director Dean Barber told the Mattoon City Council that public works personnel, CN crews, and two railroad-certified contractors worked overnight to address the damage, with the pipe repaired by 3 a.m. Tuesday and the rail line reopened by dawn. “It was a pretty significant accomplishment in a fairly short amount of time,” Barber told the council. Mattoon is about 45 miles south of Champaign, Ill., and 115 miles northeast of St. Louis.
History museum to preserve contents of Wichita Falls Railroad Museum
The Museum of North Texas History will preserve the contents of the Wichita Falls Railroad Museum, which shut down for good in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. KFDX-TV reports the Wichita Falls City Council approved a resolution to have the history museum inventory the contents of the rail museum, and operate the building for one year. It will receive up to $7,500 in tax funding for the project. Wichita Falls owns the building that houses the railroad museum, but not the contents. Because no financial records are available for the railroad museum, history museum officials say they will spend the next few months surveying the facility and determining a plan of action.
Second the thoughts of Robert Ray. Get rid of the IT person who thinks fancy is better, Limit each headline to one story and HIRE A PROOF READER. “increases one-time finding to nearly $1 billion.”
Ditto George Forbes and Robert Ray!! What was wrong with the old format?
Can we go back to the old News format? The new one is really much much harder to navigate because one haas to go back to the “News’ button to see all of the day’s entries instead of just scrolling down a list of the day’s news entries. This one wastes a lot of readers’ time; the old one was a snap to use.