WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is awarding two grants to the New England Central Railroad (NECR).
The railroad will receive $960,000 with the NECR is providing $240,000 in matching funds for structural repairs to a 1860s vintage rail tunnel located in Burlington, Vt.
The repairs include removing old brick, installing tunnel liner, and improving drainage […]

WASHINGTON — West Virginia University at Morgantown is receiving a $191,100 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to continue research into upgrading or rehabilitating deteriorated wooden railroad crossties with thermoplastic reinforcements.
The grant funds will specifically be used to manufacture and perform full-scale field-testing of the crossties under normal rail traffic conditions on the South […]

WASHINGTON — The Washington Department of Transportation is receiving two grants from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
The first is in the amount of $990,000 to support an ongoing state program that leases 30 refrigerated rail cars to agricultural producers of perishable food products. The grant funds will be used to extend the existing program to […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is awarding a $250,000 grant to the National Research Council of Canada to continue ongoing cooperative research into the interaction between the wheels of locomotives and railcars and the track they operate over.
The purpose of the research is to prevent train derailments resulting from issues such as a […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is awarding a $50,000 grant to Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) to support the railroad’s effort to design a prototype battery powered electric locomotive which can reduce emissions and lower fuel costs.
The grant funds will be used to design the lead-acid battery packaging system and perform Failure Modes and […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is issuing a $1.4 million grant to the Railroad Research Foundation to continue development and testing of wireless communications devices and systems for use with Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) technology.
CBTC is a form of Positive Train Control (PTC) that can automatically control train speed and movements to […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is awarding a $100,000 grant to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad that will be used to replace approximately 1,625 cross ties along a 25-mile segment of track between Cloe and Creekside, Penn.
These funds will supplement a larger ongoing rehabilitation project to upgrade this line with safety improvements that […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) have collaborated to distribute AREMA’s first-ever Bridge Inspection Handbook.
It contains vital information for use by bridge inspectors, maintenance of way managers, and all other persons who are involved […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded a $549,132 grant to the University of Illinois at Chicago to develop a computer software simulation tool to evaluate track performance and vehicle dynamics under high speed operation.
Once complete, the software will enable to users to assess the behavior of complex light weight rail vehicles over rail […]

The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded a $225,932 research grant to the University of California at San Diego to continue studying thermal-induced stress in Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) that can lead to rail buckling in hot weather.
Being able to better understand and detect when rail buckling is likely to occur will improve safety and the […]