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Posts Tagged ‘Federal Railroad Administration’

Railroad Financing: Changes to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program

Friday, July 22nd, 2016
Figure 1: Number and Dollar Amount of Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program Loans Approved, Fiscal Years 1998 through 2015, by Loan Type

Financing the various rail infrastructure projects will be challenging. Congress has not funded the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program—a program used to fund passenger rail projects—since fiscal year 2010 and appropriations to Amtrak have remained relatively steady at about $1.4 billion over the last 5 years. One potential source of funding is FRA’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program, which is a $35 billion loan and loan guarantee program to finance, among other things, freight and passenger rail facilities. Since program inception in 1998 about $2.7 billion in loans have been executed, and no loan guarantees have been made.

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Why Congress Needs to Extend the Positive Train Control (PTC) Deadline

Tuesday, October 6th, 2015
Figure 1: Railcar Loadings by Commodity Class, 2014

AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL

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Posted in Hazardous Waste, Infra Views, National, Policy, Rail

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Status of Positive Train Control Implementation

Wednesday, August 26th, 2015

FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION
In 2008, after multiple accidents and urging from safety advocates and experts, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Congress mandated that railroads implement Positive Train Control (PTC) systems by December 31, 2015. A majority of railroads will not meet this statutory deadline.

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Operation Deep Dive Metro-North Commuter Railroad Safety Assessment

Monday, March 17th, 2014
Table 1. Metro-North Safety Concerns and FRA’s Specific Directed Actions

FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION

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FRA Administrator: Rail Deserves Sustained Funding Source

Monday, July 1st, 2013

Testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials on June 27, 2013, FRA Administrator Joe Szabo made the case for creating a new Rail Account within the Transportation Trust Fund to ensure a predictable and sustainable federal funding source for development projects.

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Positive Train Control Implementation Status, Issues, and Impacts

Thursday, August 30th, 2012

FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION Executive Summary The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA) established a completion date for the installation of interoperable Positive Train Control (PTC) systems by December 31, 2015. The RSIA also required the Secretary of Transportation to transmit a report to specified congressional committees no later than December 31, 2012, on the […]

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High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
screen-shot-2012-01-25-at-105716-am

FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION
The HSIPR Program was created to help address the nation’s transportation challenges by making strategic investments in an efficient network of passenger rail corridors that connect communities across the country. These investments focus on three key objectives:

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The Urgency of Reforming the Federal Railroad Administration

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

PEDESTRIAN OBSERVATIONS
House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) has finally come out explicitly in favor of privatizing the Northeast Corridor and letting private consortia bid for high-speed rail construction. Mica’s rationale is that Amtrak is an inefficient government provider, and its proposal for spending $117 billion over 30 years to build high-speed rail in the Northeast is deficient…Not mentioned anywhere in the article is the FRA, which is the real obstacle to modern rail operations. Mica has to my knowledge said nothing about the FRA, which is too bad, since it could feed into the Republican narrative of bad government and the need for privatization and deregulation.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Joseph Szabo, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration

Monday, January 24th, 2011
szabo-joseph

Joseph C. Szabo is the twelfth Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Administrator, responsible for overseeing the operations for the eight hundred plus person organization; managing a comprehensive railroad safety assurance program and regulatory initiatives; enforcing railroad safety laws and regulations; developing and implementing national freight and passenger rail policy and financial assistance programs; and overseeing wide-ranging advanced research and development projects in support improved railroad safety.

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Congratulations to FRA on a Sensible Decision

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Two months ago we reported on the railroad industry’s reaction to the FRA’s directive setting forth the terms of the so-called “Stakeholder Agreements.” Those are the agreements between state authorities and Class I railroads that will govern the shared-use freight-passenger rail service in rail corridors receiving federal aid under the Administration’s high-speed rail (HSR) program. The FRA directive stunned and angered railroad executives by what they regarded as unreasonable demands, and burdensome requirements…We are happy to report that reason and good sense have prevailed. In a press conference on August 20, FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo announced that the agency has withdrawn the controversial directive.

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