Rockford, Ill., area officials pushing to bring commuter train service Metra to Winnebago County are using Amtrak to help deliver the service – and their efforts threaten to derail DeKalb County’s bid for passenger rail service, according to the Northwest Herald.
GE Transportation said that Central Puget Sound’s transportation authority, Sound Transit, has officially opened its north-south Central Link light rail line, operating with a complete GE Transportation communications and train control signaling solution.
RailWorks Corporation named William Dorris vice president and area manager for the Greater Chicago area for its operating subsidiary, RailWorks Track Services, Inc. Dorris has successfully led projects of all sizes for Class I, government and transit agencies and private industry throughout his 32-year career in the railroad construction and maintenance industry. Under his leadership, RailWorks’ Chicago-based track construction operations achieved revenue growth of more than 200 percent over the past several years.
In his new position, Dorris will expand his geographic base to include northern Indiana and Michigan, as well as the Chicago metro area. He also will lead the company’s new project to construct the track infrastructure for Union Pacific’s new intermodal yard in Joliet, Ill.
RailWorks Corporation Executive Vice President John August said Dorris’ promotion is part of a broader, longer-term commitment by RailWorks to provide a comprehensive construction and maintenance service offering throughout the Midwest and Northeast.
“We recently expanded our offices in Minooka, Ill., constructed a new shop and office facility in Youngstown, Ohio, and established a satellite office in western Massachusetts, “ said August. “These expansion activities and Bill’s promotion reflect RailWorks Track Services’ continued commitment to expand both its geography and its customer service capabilities.”
Kansas City Southern and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics have reached an agreement to establish a finished vehicle distribution center adjacent to the CenterPoint Intermodal Center-Houston Metro hub for regional automotive distribution services in Texas.
WWL, one of the world’s largest providers of logistics services for manufacturers of finished vehicles, has agreed to open a new vehicle distribution center at the KCS, CIC-HM hub located near Houston, Texas. This new facility will allow WWL to provide new vehicle distribution service to three states from a single site. Located on the new Victoria to Rosenberg KCS main line, CIC-HM provides direct access to the Nissan manufacturing facility at Aguascalientes, Mexico and the Port of Lazaro Cardenas.
"It is exciting to have a customer of WWL/Nissan’s caliber select CIC-HM to serve their customers in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma," said Brian Bowers, KCS senior vice president of intermodal and automotive. "The facility has the rail capacity, highway access and available land to serve Nissan as the demand for new vehicles returns."
CIC–HM is an 800-acre intermodal and automotive logistics park located 35 miles southwest of Houston. The facility is a joint development project of CenterPoint Properties and The Kansas City Southern Railway Company.
