Railfanning the L in Chicago

The head of the Federal Railroad Administration was put on the defensive regarding poor on-time service by Amtrak trains in Illinois that taxpayers subsidize.

Metra, the Chicago area commuter rail system, has tapped Wabtec Corp. to upgrade and modernize the system’s fleet.

WASHINGTON — Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have received a $502,462 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to create new three-dimensional software to model and simulate the forces involved in train derailments. The grant will expand on work conducted for the Systematic Analysis of Multibody Systems/Rail project, underway since 1999.