In September 2010, the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority (RCRRA) awarded a $150 million contract to a design-build team led by Minnesota-based Mortenson Construction that includes R.L. Banks & Associates, Inc. (RLBA). The 24-month project includes the renovation and rehabilitation of the former Saint Paul Union Depot, and the relocation of the Amtrak station and Empire Builder service from its current location in the Midway.

RLBA is responsible for maintaining clear and continuous coordination among the Rail Authority, station designers, Amtrak and affected Class I (BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific), regional and short-line railroad operators to advance this project.

The objectives of this coordination task are to: 1) determine what track, signal and communications improvements are necessary to connect the proposed Amtrak platform tracks to the adjacent Union Pacific mainline track; 2) determine how the Amtrak Empire Builder service will be routed into and out of the station; 3) identify and address any operational issues that need to be resolved to allow Amtrak to provide service to the Union Depot; 4) identify any engineering, signaling, and communication issues that need to be addressed to allow Amtrak to provide service; 5) determine what services and functions Amtrak will transfer from the existing Amtrak facility at Midway station to the Union Depot and 6) report to the RCRRA and the rest of the Mortenson team any concerns or issues raised by the railroads as the project proceeds.

The project was the subject of news articles in the September 22 editions of the St. Paul Star-Tribune and Railway Track & Structures Newsflash.

The Washtenaw and Livingston Line Coalition (WALLY) retained RLBA to perform an objective evaluation of potential commuter rail between Ann Arbor and Howell Michigan, utilizing the Great Lakes Central Railroad (GLCR). Key tasks included evaluating ridership, operating and capital costs, Connecting bus service, parking needs, transit oriented development and other metrics to assess the feasibility of service implementation. RLBA reviewed the business plan of the commuter rail operations as it had been prepared by the WALLY Coalition. A unique factor in this prospective commuter rail operation is that nearly 85% of the expected ridership would come from the University of Michigan and that the university would subsidize the tickets for those riders. Commuter equipment and ADA compliance were also important aspects of the study, since the equipment is already owned by the GLCR making inspection of commuter rail equipment consists of vital importance.

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CMTA), Austin, TX (Capital Metro) engaged RLBA as part of a team to develop a Ten-Year Strategic Freight Rail Plan as it gears up to host its new start commuter rail service between Leander and Downtown Austin. CMTA currently owns 154.1 miles of active right-of-way on which railroad freight service is provided through a contract operator. As part of this project RLBA is conducting customer interviews to develop volume forecasts and satisfaction measures. RLBA is also benchmarking freight rates to propose tariff rate adjustment alternatives. RLBA is developing a volume flow analysis to support drafting of a capital plan. Finally, RLBA is analyzing alternative business models regarding how CMTA might outsource freight operations after its current contract with Veolia expires. Alternative business structures such as leasing the line, franchising the freight operations, establishing an independent operating subsidiary or trust and contracting separately for passenger operations, freight operations and infrastructure maintenance are all options being evaluated against CMTA objectives of preserving control over commuter rail operations and preserving owned right-of-way to facilitate passenger rail expansion.