News

A magnitude-7.0 earthquake rippled through Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Anchorage, Alaska, causing collapses and damage to Alaska’s infrastructure on Friday, Nov. 30. More than 200 aftershocks, some up to 5.7 magnitude, continued for 12 hours after the initial quake. Damage occurred on the Alaska Railroad (ARR), closing the tracks between Anchorage and Fairbanks, a 350-mile trip…

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) chairwoman has asked Norfolk Southern’s CEO to keep the board apprised as the carrier begins to add elements of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) to its operations, Trains Magazine reports. The letter from Ann Begeman, sent Nov. 27 to NS CEO Jim Squires, requests that the carrier begin weekly conference calls…

Today, November 30, is the date that was set as the deadline for the Joint Select Committee to agree upon legislation for troubled multi-employer pension plans and the impending insolvency of the PBGC. Co-Chairmen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) released a statement that said, in part, “While it will not be possible to…

A final rule published from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) permits medical examiners to allow commercial operators with insulated-treated diabetes to get behind the wheel without a months-long waiting period, Transport Topics reports. The permission given by the rule, which went into effect in November, is contingent on a medical assessment and consultation…

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a total of $281 million in additional Fiscal Year 2018 federal funding allocations to five transit projects in Arizona, California, Minnesota and Texas. Funding will be provided through FTA’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program. “These significant investments in the public transit systems in…