LOS ANGELES, CA -
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have named Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) Chief Executive Officer Phil Washington as the transportation transition team leader for the Biden-Harris administration. Washington has been CEO of LA Metro since 2015. He manages a $7 billion budget, is responsible for overseeing $18 billion to $20 billion in capital projects and provides oversight of an agency with 11,000 employees that, in a typical year, transports 1.2 million boarding passengers daily on a fleet of 2,200 buses and six rail lines.
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The team will be responsible for evaluating the U.S. Department of Transportation's operations so that the administration is prepared when Biden and Harris take office on Jan. 20, 2021. In addition, the team will review the National Transportation Safety Board, Amtrak and the Federal Maritime Commission, Biden-Harris team officials said in a press release.
Prior to joining LA Metro, Washington was CEO of the Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) from 2009 to 2015. Before that, he served as the agency's assistant general manager for 10 years.
MARYLAND - Progressive Ralroading reported on November 26th that the state of Maryland will pay $250,000,000 to settle a legal dispute with the private Purple Line Transit Partners, the consortium of contractor firms hired to build the delayed Purple Line, a 16-mile light-rail route that would extend from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George's County.
The agreement between the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the partners — Meridiam, Star America and Fluor — settles all outstanding financial claims and terminates the current litigation between the parties regarding the project. As part of the agreement, the Purple Line Transit Partners will proceed with just Meridiam and Star America as public-private developers and equity partners. A formal settlement agreement will go before the state's Board of Public Works (BPW) next month for review and approval, state officials said in a press release issued by Gov. Larry Hogan's office.
"This agreement is a major step toward completing the Purple Line, a transformative project for our state and the region," said Hogan. The settlement ends the state's and the companies' litigation against each other and resolves what the firms said were $800 million in cost overruns on the project, as reported by the Washington Post.
If approved by the BPW, Meridiam and Star America would initiate a solicitation for a new design-build contractor in coordination with MDOT and the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). In the interim, MDOT and MTA will retain oversight of hundreds of contracts and purchase orders to keep the project going.
Purple Line work now underway includes light-rail car manufacturing, bridge work, stormwater drainage, paving, utility and pump station construction.
MDOT and MTA will continue work while also focusing on reducing risks in the upcoming solicitation by completing design, acquiring permits and advancing utility work along the Purple Line corridor, state officials said.
MDOT did not reveal details of the settlement, including how the state will pay for it.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - On November 15th, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) replaced its overnight weekend rail service on the Market-Frankford (below left) and Broad Street (Below right) lines with bus service to enable staff time to thoroughly clean rail stations.
During the switch from rail to buses, full weekend overnight service will still be provided. SEPTA also increased the frequency of its bus routes and make stops at all stations along both rail lines.
With the lines shut down during overnight hours, SEPTA crews will be able to perform concentrated station cleanings, similar to what has been put into place on weekdays during the COVID-19 pandemic, agency officials said in a press release.
Meanwhile, SEPTA will enhance midday local service on the Broad Street Line so that trains run at least every seven minutes.
Tramways & Urban Transit (T&UT) magazine reported in their December 2020 issue that SEPTA is planning a new rail depot at the site of a former GE Plant (Elmwood Avenue between 67th and 69th Streets, just a few blocks east of the current Elmwood facility) to replace the Elmwood yard and workshop.
This parcel of land appears to be about 4 times the size of the present Elmwood facility. The current Woodland Heavy Rail Maintenance facility turntable cannot handle a car over 70 feet long. Since there were many dimensional similarities between the 1980s era Toronto CLRV and the Philadelphia Kawasaki cars, both purchased to replace PCC cars, it is nott unreasonable to assume that the new Philadelphia cars could be similar to the cars purchased for Toronto. The Toronto Bombardier-built five-section "Flexities", shown below, are over 91 feet long so that facility may need attention or replacement also.
This would make provisions for the possible low-floor articulated cars that could replace the current 112-car fleet of 1981-era Kawasaki cars in about five years, assuming that the current facilities at Elmwood and Callowhill could not be economically converted to support the newer cars.
