SOUTH Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) has awarded Wabtec a contract worth around $US 40m to design, install and commission Positive Train Control (PTC) on the 114km Tri-Rail commuter line from Mangonia Park to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami.

SOUND Transit, which serves the Seattle and Central Puget Sound area in Washington state, has placed an order with Siemens for 30 additional S70 type light rail vehicles (LRVs).

NEW YORK’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) unveiled a comprehensive plan on May 15 to improve reliability on the New York subway and restructure its management team.

TRAMS carried passengers along Woodward Avenue in Detroit for the first time in 61 years on May 12 with the inauguration of the 5.3km Q Line from Larned Street to West Grand Boulevard.

THE Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has issued a request for proposals for a contract to carry out the Tier 2 environmental impact study into the proposed Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel, which would give New York City a direct link to the United States’ national freight rail network.

THE Northeast Corridor Commission submitted two reports to Congress on May 3 detailing short-and-long-term capital investment needs totalling around $38bn for the 735km line from Boston to New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

SOUTHEASTERN Pennsylvania Transportation Authority signed a contract with CRRC Tangshan on May 4 for 45 double-deck coaches, which will be used with Septa’s new Siemens ACS-64 electric locomotives on Regional Rail services on the Northeast Corridor.

AN investment group is seeking federal permission to construct a $US 2.8bn privately-owned railway around Chicago to bypass congested lines in the city.

DETAILS of plans for a major expansion of the Seattle light rail network were announced by Sound Transit on April 27.

COMMISSIONERS in Durham County, North Carolina, approved an updated transit plan and cost sharing agreement for the Durham-Orange LRT line on April 24, taking the project a step closer to a federal funding application.