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Railroad Newsline for Thursday, February 15, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

END OF THE LINE FOR RAILROAD'S 'DINGER DYNASTY'

Photo here:

[www.latimes.com]

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The long, mournful wail of a 3,000-horsepower diesel locomotive's horn on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles signaled the end Tuesday of American railroads' "Dinger dynasty."

After 43 years in the locomotive cab, third-generation passenger train engineer Tom Dinger pulled into Union Station for the last time.

"It's a little bit melancholy," Dinger said as he eased up on the huge engine's black-handled throttle.

For nearly 90 years, a Dinger has been at the controls of U.S. passenger trains.

"I love this job. It was my father's career, my father's father's career and mine. We've been through it all -- the Great Depression, World War II, the transition from steam to diesel and all of the more recent changes in passenger rail service."

And he's been through the challenges -- even on the spectacular, ocean-side Amtrak routes between Los Angeles and San Diego and Santa Barbara that were Dinger's specialty.

These days, passenger trains compete with long freight trains for space on Southern California's crowded rails. Impatient motorists dart around the red-flashing crossing arms where tracks intersect with busy streets. People wander across railroad rights of way, scampering to safety only when the engineer leans on the locomotive's large blue horn button.

"It's a daily challenge because so much is going on out here. There's a lot of track work taking place. There are a lot of trains ahead of you and behind you and you have to keep your eye on your signals, which is about all you have to depend on," Dinger said.

On his last 258-mile round trip between Los Angeles and San Diego, Dinger was constantly on the radio reporting signal light colors to dispatchers and to conductors in the five coach cars he was pulling. Red lights over green meant a track switch was coming up. A single green meant Dinger could continue straight and did not need to detour around oncoming trains on a side track.

Photo here:

[www.latimes.com]

Dinger, 63, of Silver Lake has never kept track of his miles. But co-workers say it's in the millions.

He started working on the railroad straight out of John Marshall High School when his father, William Dinger, got him a job as a fireman -- an apprentice engineer -- with Southern Pacific.

He was promoted to engineer in 1971, the same year Amtrak took over U.S. passenger rail service.

By then, it was clear that locomotive diesel was in his blood.

His father had operated coal-fired steam engines for the Pennsylvania Railroad out of Pittsburgh and Altoona before relocating his family to Los Angeles in 1952 and becoming a Southern Pacific engineer.

Grandfather Leroy Dinger was a train engineer for the New York Central Railroad in upstate New York's Buffalo and Schenectady areas for 50 years starting in early 1918.

"It's ending with me, unfortunately. My daughter, Chloe, is not interested in pursuing a railroad career. She's a registered nurse. I don't think she's cut out for this," he said.

But Dinger is bullish on the future of trains. "I think it will be OK. We'll be around. Ridership is growing as the price of gasoline keeps going up and they keep putting more trains on and they become more convenient."

He joked that the toughest part about being a train engineer is climbing the 8-foot ladder that leads to the cab of the 270,000-pound locomotive. From the operator's seat on the right side of the compartment, hand levers control speed, brakes and the pressurized-air system that runs them. He doesn't have to steer.

The sheer size of the locomotive is comforting, he said. But every engineer has visions of vehicles pulling in front of the train at a grade crossing. Heavy trucks such as cement mixers and gravel haulers are large enough to derail even his huge diesel-electric engine.

He never derailed. But his trains have been involved in 15 fatal accidents.

Even though all 86 grade crossings that Dinger encountered Tuesday between Los Angeles and San Diego have crossing gates, cars could still sneak through.

"The incidents I've had at crossings, all fatalities, were all drug- or alcohol-related, with the exception of a couple of suicides," he said. "You realize it's not your fault, but it's on your mind. You see it over and over, you replay it. But there's nothing you can do. You have to take it as something you can't do anything about."

Dinger started his final run Tuesday with a steam-whistle salute from ancient Santa Fe steam locomotive 3751, which hauled passengers between 1929 and 1953 and was at Union Station for a school program. Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, a Silver Lake neighbor, showed up on the passenger platform to praise Dinger for his work "in the busiest area outside of the Northeast rail corridor."

Dinger was accompanied on his last run by a pair of Amtrak engineers he helped train. "He taught me to be humble as an engineer and to handle the train and the people in it with respect," said Eric Strumpf. Engineer Eric Smith said Dinger showed him the value of being calm under pressure.

As his train slowed from speeds of up to 77 mph near a construction site, track workers laying a much-needed new second set of rails along a single-track stretch lined up to salute Dinger has he passed. At the Anaheim station, Amtrak ticket agents greeted him waving a sign that said, "Good Luck, Tom! We'll Miss You," and presented him with roses.

In his new free time, Dinger plans to work at graffiti removal and the renewal of the Los Angeles River.

From his locomotive window, he's gotten a good view of the work that needs doing. He also plans to travel extensively across the northern part of the U.S. to Maine. By train, of course.

That goal drew a wry smile from wife Pat, who remembers traveling by air with him in order to catch distant trains that he wanted to ride.

She likes the rails, too, she said. But she added: "Four or five days, even in a train's luxury cabin, can be enough." - Bob Pool, The Los Angeles Times

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BNSF EXTENDS SHARE REPURCHASE PROGRAM AND MODIFIES SHARE REPURCHASE APPROACH

Wednesday, Feb. 14, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation announced an extension of its share repurchase program and a modification to its share repurchase approach.

The Board of Directors of BNSF authorized the extension of the current BNSF share repurchase program, adding 30 million shares to the total of 180 million shares previously authorized in equal amounts in July 1997, December 1999, April 2000, September 2000, January 2003 and December 2005. BNSF has repurchased more than 165 million of its shares since the program began in 1998, reducing shares outstanding by approximately 25 percent.

Over the past few years, BNSF has used part of its financial capacity to repurchase shares while also improving its credit statistics, including its interest coverage, debt-to-cash flow and debt-to-capital ratios. These credit statistics have improved sufficiently that BNSF now intends to devote additional financial capacity to share repurchases.

"At this time, we believe our leverage and coverage ratios are at the appropriate levels. Further changes would not be in the company's best interest," said Tom Hund, BNSF's executive vice president and chief financial officer. "This difference in approach will result in a moderately higher level of debt. We are committed to maintaining a strong credit position, using discretionary cash flow for capital additions to grow the business and providing a proper return to our shareholders." - BNSF Today

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CALIFORNIA EDUCATORS HONOR UNION PACIFIC

OMAHA, NE -- The California Association of Renaissance Educators (C.A.R.E.) has recognized Union Pacific with a C.A.R.E. award for The Principals' Partnership, a program that provides support to public high school principals.

The award honors Union Pacific and The Principals' Partnership "for the vision and action to assist public high school principals."

William Roberts, principal of Los Altos High School (Hacienda Heights, CA), presented the award to Partnership representatives Feb. 6 in City of Industry, CA. Roberts is one of 185 public high school principals in California supported by The Principals' Partnership.

"We want to recognize Union Pacific and The Principals' Partnership for their unparalleled commitment to public high school principals," Roberts said. "The leadership training they've developed for a very complex role-the high school principal-is exciting, and we're deeply appreciative."

The Principals' Partnership, the signature giving program of the Union Pacific Foundation, is one of America's premier business and education partnerships. The program supports a network of 1,000 public high school principals in 21 states. Principals exchange knowledge, best practices and resources across the network, and are supported by The Partnership's team of nationally recognized educators. Team members also develop a customized program for each principal, working with principals on key issues they have identified as areas of concern in their schools.

Professional development opportunities, including the Summer Leadership Institute conference, are offered throughout the year. There is no cost to principals or school districts for Partnership activities.

In addition, The Partnership maintains an award-winning public Web site (http://www.principalspartnership.com) featuring research briefs and case studies useful to all educators. It is estimated that The Partnership, through the participating principals, will reach approximately 71,000 teachers and 1 million students this year.

"We are excited to have public high school principals in California participating in The Principals' Partnership for the third straight year," said Bob Turner, Union Pacific Foundation president and UP's senior vice president for corporate relations. "Their dedication and commitment to providing an environment where quality learning can take place is admirable, and Union Pacific Foundation is pleased to support their efforts."

The California Association of Renaissance Educators is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating high schools' academic successes. C.A.R.E. is affiliated with Jostens Renaissance. Founded by Jostens and educators in 1988, Renaissance inspires the acceptance and excitement for academics traditionally reserved for athletics. Through Renaissance, Jostens aims to increase student performance and teacher enthusiasm, and to raise the level of community participation in schools.

In addition, to the C.A.R.E. recognition, The Principals' Partnership has been honored by state education associations in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Arizona; the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center. - Shannon Sherman, UP News Release

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TIRED RAIL CREWS A HAZARD, PANEL TOLD

WASHINGTON, DC -- Federal lawmakers are examining how much of a public safety threat is posed by tired railroad workers and what the government can do to improve the situation.

Industry representatives, government officials and union leaders testified Tuesday before the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials.

The National Transportation Safety Board has established crew fatigue as the probable cause in 16 major railroad accidents over the past 23 years.

The collision of a Union Pacific freight train and another train in Texas several years ago was frequently cited during the hearing. The safety board found that the crew's failure to get enough rest, combined with Union Pacific's scheduling practices, contributed to the accident, which released a plume of chlorine gas that killed three people.

Among the practices at issue are varied work schedules that can disrupt crews' sleep patterns, and the hours workers spend in "limbo time," when they are no longer operating the train but have not been released from duty.

Because rules about rail worker hours are spelled out in the law, the Federal Railroad Administration has little discretion over the issue.

The FRA is asking to scrap the "hours of service" laws in favor of "scientific-based regulations," administrator Joseph Boardman told the subcommittee. The agency would then have more flexibility to address the situation.

The safety board supports changes to give the FRA the authority to regulate crew members' work schedules, board Chairman Mark Rosenker told the committee.

According to information from the committee, the total number of train accidents has increased from 2,504 in 1994 to 3,325 in 2005. The exact number of accidents caused by fatigue is not known.

Union leaders said the danger would increase unless something is done to address overworked crews. They asked for changes to the rules that would give workers more time off between shifts.

Thomas Pontolillo of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen called the fatigue issue "a ticking time bomb."

Railroad representatives pointed to information they say shows rail safety improving over the years. They said they have made substantial progress in combating fatigue.

"Railroads want properly rested crews. It is not in a railroad's best interest to have employees who are too tired to perform their duties properly," according to written testimony from Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads.

Hamberger told the subcommittee that the industry is open to a careful reassessment of the law that governs on-duty time of rail employees.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis deferred to Hamberger's testimony, but he said the railroad has been aggressive on fatigue management. - Joseph Morton, The Omaha World-Herald

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CN TRAIN DERAILS IN FORT SASKATCHEWAN

FORT SASKATCHEWAN, AB -- Four CN Rail cars derailed in Fort Saskatchewan as a strike by 28-hundred of the railroad's unionized workers continues. But CN spokesman Jim Feeny says the minor mishap yesterday had nothing to do with the labour stoppage.

A train of 45 cars was heading along the tracks in the early afternoon when it hit a stationary car at the Praxair site in Fort Saskatchewan. Three of the cars on the moving train along with the stationary car went off the rails.

Feeny says all the derailed cars were empty and remained upright. No one was injured.

Feeny says the train's crew was made up of non-union employees and management replacement personnel. - CHED-AM630, Edmonton, AB

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THE CROSSING: LAST RUN

DENVER, CO -- Sometime around 06:00 on Nov. 20, 1965, the Union Pacific's City of Denver streamliner roared past the place where 20 children had died. Herbert Frank Sommers manned the lead engine.

Though he was 68, Herb still rode the rails, still guided thundering diesel locomotives up and down the tracks. Still worked the stretch where he had seen utter horror on Dec. 14, 1961, the day his engine slammed into a school bus, tearing it to pieces.

That crossing had been like thousands of others in rural America - a dirt road with only a railroad "crossbuck" sign along the track, a place of tremendous danger for motorists and train crews alike.

Every crossing like that one was a potential nightmare for engineers like Herb. Cars could go wherever a driver pointed them. Trains could go only where the tracks took them. Cars could stop quickly - in a few hundred feet, even at high speed. A fast-moving train could take hundreds of feet just to slow from its cruising speed and as much as a mile to come to a stop.

On this day, nearly four years after the deadliest traffic accident in Colorado history, everything looked the same except the road, which had been moved. Traffic now crossed the tracks at a different place.

It was five days before Thanksgiving. Herb had only an hour to live.

Hot, dirty work

Born in Cass County, Indiana, Herb came to Denver as a boy with his parents, a sister and two brothers. His father sold real estate.

Herb's parents died when he was a teenager, but he stayed in Colorado while his younger brother and sisters moved back to Indiana to live with relatives.

The Union Pacific hired Herb on Oct. 12, 1918, and he went to work as a fireman. He was 21 years old.

He married Anna Sack Miller in Littleton on June 13, 1922. They were both 25.

His early years with the railroad were trying. When there wasn't enough work, he was furloughed - "suspended" in railroad talk. When things picked up, he was recalled.

Union Pacific suspended and recalled him 11 times during his first 17 years on the job. But he stuck with it, and on Oct. 1, 1941, the railroad promoted him to engineer.

The work could be hot and dirty. And dangerous.

A few miles outside Sterling, Herb was at the throttle of a freight train when an axle snapped in the middle of the night on Feb. 27, 1953. Eleven cars jumped the rails, tearing out more than a quarter mile of tracks.

On the fall morning of Sept. 23, 1954, Herb was backing a steam locomotive down the tracks outside the tiny town of Atwood in Colorado's northeast corner.

The engine pulled a line of 15 cars loaded with crushed rock. It was a work train, moving about 20 mph toward a repair job.

A few minutes after 08:00, 26-year-old Donald Welch slid behind the wheel of his butane tanker truck, waved goodbye to his two children and drove right into the path of the train. The engine slammed into the cab of the truck, crushing it and killing Welch.

Another time, Herb was headed west near Firestone when a car smashed into the side of his freight train. Two of the three men in the car died.

All of those crashes were horrible. But none approached the scale of what happened on Dec. 14, 1961, when the City of Denver, with Herb at the controls, tore through that school bus a few miles from Greeley.

After the collision, after the train stopped nearly a mile down the rails, Herb pulled on his jacket and clambered out of the cab of his locomotive to find other members of the crew, to tell them they'd hit a school bus.

He met the conductor, Raymond W. Courtney, along the tracks.

They decided to back the train down the tracks, to try to find a telephone. Herb moved the train, stopping a few hundred yards from the remains of the bus. Other crew members rushed back with blankets to cover the dead, while Herb stayed with his locomotive.

An hour later, authorities told Herb to go ahead and take the train and its passengers to Denver. Once there, he and the train crew got into cars and drove to Greeley for an early-afternoon hearing in a third-floor courtroom, organized so prosecutors could take testimony to try to determine exactly what happened.

As Herb sat in the courtroom, he still wore his railroad overalls, his plaid shirt buttoned at the neck.

His thinning hair was combed back neatly. He wore glasses.

"I was absolutely helpless," Herb told reporters. "There was nothing I could do."

Photo here:

[www.greeleytrib.com]

Caption reads: Recollection: Union Pacific engineer Herbert F. Sommers watches from the witness stand as state patrolman Don Girnt sketches the crossing where 20 children died on Dec. 14, 1961. (Bob Talkin/Rocky Mountain News/1961)

He was sure that bus driver Duane Harms had not stopped before pulling in front of his locomotive. He was just as firm during Harms' trial a few months later, when the bus driver was acquitted of manslaughter.

Back to work

As shook up as Herb was, railroading was the only life he knew. He went back to work.

He had reached an enviable position. As a senior engineer, he had his choice of the best jobs. And working a streamliner was the envy of young engineers.

Well before dawn on Nov. 20, 1965, Herb awoke in Sterling, met the City of Denver at the station, climbed into the cab and began the final leg of the overnight Chicago-to-Denver run.

By 06:00, he was just outside Greeley, where the train had hit the bus. An hour later, he was closing in on Denver.

At 07:07, as the City of Denver streaked along at more than 70 mph, the lead locomotive approached a crossing at East 96th Avenue in Adams County. Herb was eight miles from Union Station.

A gasoline tanker truck, freshly loaded with more than 9,000 gallons of fuel, jerked onto the tracks. It was halfway across when Herb's locomotive slammed into it.

The impact ruptured the tanker, splashing a wave of gasoline over the lead engine and throwing the 40-year-old truck driver, Neal E. Davis, into a ditch. In an instant, a fireball shot from the locomotive, and flames raced through the brown grass along the tracks.

The erupting fuel sent a shudder through a shed at the Denver Products Terminal, 150 yards from the tracks, and plant worker Willard C. Livermore rushed to the window.

"At first I thought it was an earthquake, but when I looked out the window, all I could see was fire and smoke," Livermore said.

"The train was still moving down the tracks. Its front was a huge ball of fire which flared out down about one-third of the length of the train."

Livermore ran for the crossing.

Raymond W. Courtney, the conductor who'd also been on the train that hit the school bus, felt a "slight bump."

"Passengers had a funny look on their faces," he said. "Then I turned around and looked up toward the front of the train, and I saw a wave of flames."

The train slowed to a stop nearly a mile from the spot where it had plowed into the tanker.

Livermore found Davis on the ground, about 20 feet from the cab of his truck, severely burned. The flames had seared the clothes off Davis. Only his belt and the soles of his shoes remained.

Firefighters rushed to the fiery locomotives at the head of the train, dousing the fire that remained. When they climbed into the charred cab of the lead locomotive, they found Herb and his fireman, 54-year-old Robert Nalty, the father of three daughters, dead.

Three days later, Herb was buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

Seven days later, Davis, the truck driver with a wife and three children, died at Colorado General Hospital.

A loss too great to bear

The pain of losing her husband of more than 43 years swallowed Anna Sommers.

On Feb. 11, 1966, she carefully composed two letters. One was addressed to her sister and brother-in-law, Helen and Ryman Linge. The other was written to Herb's younger brother, Daniel.

The widow assured everyone she loved them.

She apologized for what she was about to do. She talked about how much she missed Herb. She detailed the type of funeral she wanted - just like Herb's.

She said her attorney could handle all the details. She laid out the diet of her dog, Duke, and asked two friends to take care of him. Then she took a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver and shot herself in the head.

On Valentine's Day 1966, mourners gathered at a memorial service for Anna at the Moore Memorial Chapel on Clarkson Street in Denver.

It was the same building where they had said goodbye to her husband less than three months earlier.

Anna was taken to Fairmount Cemetery, where she was buried next to Herb beneath a headstone with a bronze medallion bearing the crest of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. - Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

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TAXPAYERS SHOW NO LOVE FOR SWEETHEART RAIL DEAL

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today (Wednesday) highlighted taxpayers' opposition to a record $2.3 billion federal loan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad (DM&E). In less than a week, outraged CCAGW members and supporters have sent 10,258 letters to their representatives in Congress, telling them to stop this special-interest giveaway that puts taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars.

"Our members' rapid response underscores their indignation at the DM&E loan rip-off," said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. "The FRA should deny this loan."

The loan would be used to expand and improve a rail line used primarily to transport coal from Wyoming to Minnesota. That route is already served by two railroads. The FRA will issue a decision before April 30.

According to BearingPoint (a strategic consulting firm), the loan would require an annual payment from DM&E of $246 million on top of the $15 million payment from another loan. Even if the rail upgrade increases DM&E's current annual revenue of $200 million, the deal presents a poor credit risk to taxpayers, who will be forced to foot the bill if the company defaults.

DM&E ranked last in safety among the nation's largest railroads in 2004. Government handouts failed to solve DM&E's safety problems in the past and are unlikely to help in the future.

"Rather than seeking capital from private sources, DM&E is using the taxpayers as its bank," Schatz continued. "Any time the government picks winners and losers in the marketplace, the economy as a whole suffers."

The DM&E loan has quietly moved through Congress thanks to behind-the- scenes legislative maneuvers by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a former lobbyist for DM&E. Sen. Thune was instrumental in slipping in an increase in the FRA's loan guarantee authority from $3.5 billion to $35 billion into the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act, in apparent anticipation of the loan. Sen. Thune's actions earned him CAGW's Porker of the Month award in November 2006.

"This loan is rolling full steam ahead despite significant financial, safety, and economic risks. DM&E should not be allowed to escape the scrutiny of public and congressional debate. There is still time for taxpayers to put the brakes on this handout by contacting their legislators," concluded Schatz.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. - PRNewswire, Source: Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

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THERE IS NO EASY SOLUTION TO LENGTHY DELAYS AT CROSSING

HOLBROOK, AZ -- If the trend reflected by police logs is any indication, lengthy delays at the railroad tracks in downtown Holbrook are becoming an increasing problem.

According to the Holbrook Police Department, the number of complaints about crossing arms remaining down when there is no train or trains blocking the tracks for an extended period have risen from only seven in 2000 to 38 in 2006. Officers spent an average of 22 minutes on each complaint call, attempting to get traffic flowing again or to determine why the crossing was blocked. Based on that average, officers have spent a total of 52.8 hours, or more than one regular work week, addressing traffic delays at the tracks over the last six years.

An informal survey of Navajo County employees who must cross the tracks at least twice daily during their commute, and often twice during their lunch break, found that the employees are frequently stopped at the tracks. The employees noted that they are stopped for at least five minutes several times per week, and at least once per week have to wait for more than 15 minutes for a slow-moving or reversing train to clear the tracks. They also reported that the delays cause problems with county operations, causing employees to be late for meetings and other important business when they or their customers are delayed at the tracks. Many county employees also reported becoming stuck on one side or the other of the tracks during their lunch hour, and nearly every one claimed it is not uncommon for them to turn around and return to the county complex without traveling into town because the tracks were blocked for more than 20 minutes.

BNSF Railway Company representative Lena Kent could not explain the incidents of crossing arms being down when there is no train, but did note that the most likely reason for trains stopping and remaining at the crossing is to pick up additional cars. According to Kent, the pick-ups should not take more than a few minutes, and she noted that the trains would not flow efficiently if the tracks were blocked for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Nevertheless, citizen reports indicate that the tracks are frequently blocked for periods exceeding 20 minutes.

According to Kent, BNSF has no plans to change its operations in the Holbrook area to alleviate the problem at the crossing.

"The ideal solution is to build an overpass or underpass," Kent said.

Under Arizona law, trains are not permitted to block highway crossings for more than 15 minutes. Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) 40-852 states, "An engineer, conductor or other employee or officer of a railroad company who permits a locomotive or cars to be or remain upon the crossing of a public highway over such a railway so as to obstruct travel over the crossing for a period exceeding fifteen minutes, except in cases of unavoidable accident, is guilty of a class two misdemeanor." While any law enforcement official in the state can enforce such a law, the agency responsible for ensuring that rail companies comply with the law is the Arizona Corporation Commission Railroad Safety Office.

Citizens who wish to report a train blocking the tracks for more than 15 minutes should contact the ACC Railroad Safety Office at (602) 262-5601.

Although the law and its enforcement might seem clear-cut, that is not always the case, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). In a publication addressing railway crossings, the FRA states, "The issue of a state's authority to legislate or regulate blocked crossings is highly contentious and still being defined in the courts.

".in order to clear a crossing in compliance with a state provision, a railroad might have to adjust either the speed or the length of its train, both of which are governed by federal regulations. Where there is a conflict between the state law and federal safety requirements, the courts will find the state law to be pre-empted and, thus, unenforceable.

"Some states have been able to deal effectively with this issue through their state department of transportation. Where state action has been ineffective, FRA is working with railroads to plan their operations more effectively."

According to FRA, there are no federal laws or regulations addressing blocked crossings. The FRA has created a non-binding Uniform Vehicle Code that recommends states create laws or regulations that prevent trains from blocking crossings for more than five minutes, but it is up to each state to adopt and enforce the recommendations.

Kent noted that the railway is considered similar to a highway, and trains are given priority at crossings, not automobiles.

"You wouldn't stop traffic on a highway to allow cars to cross," she remarked.

She explained that over the years, communities have built up around the railroad tracks, and the railroad has given permission for crossings to be built. She also noted that trains play an important role in the nation's economy and lessen the amount of traffic on the highway.

Regardless, city and county officials have started looking at ways to eliminate lengthy delays at the crossing, citing safety issues such as the inability of emergency vehicles to cross the tracks when they're blocked.

Kent explained that in a true emergency situation, cars along the train can be disconnected to allow emergency vehicles to pass. According to Kent, disconnecting cars creates longer delays in the end, because it can take more than an hour for the train's air brake system to build up enough pressure to allow the train to move again following a disconnection.

With only one crossing in town, many officials do not feel that the ability to part a train in case of an emergency is an effective long-term solution. They are looking for ways to create a second crossing. City Manager David Newlin explained that a transportation study by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) will help address the issue. He noted that an additional crossing could be created by expanding the one-lane Obed bridge on McLaws Road near Joseph City.
While bridge expansion would provide an alternate crossing in case of a disaster at the downtown tracks, it does not create a reasonable alternative for emergency vehicles or motorists stuck at the downtown crossing for 20 to 30 minutes.

In the past, city officials have discussed building an overpass across the tracks, but the grade requirements of such an overpass would cause it to end north of the downtown Navajo and Hopi intersection, effectively cutting off the city's downtown area. Another plan once considered was the construction of a large bridge or overpass that would loop from Highway 180, across the tracks and to an area near the fairgrounds. Newlin noted that while technically such a solution might be feasible, it is highly unlikely that funding would ever be available for such a massive project.

Funding for railway crossing safety is available from both the state and federal government, but it is limited. For example, the federal government offers money known as "Section 130 funding" for crossing safety and improvements, but at least 50 percent of the money must be spent on warning and protective devices, such as lights, pavement markings and crossing arms. The remaining 50 percent can be used for other purposes, including roadway bridges over the railroad tracks. Section 130 funding has not increased much in the last 15 years, and totals $155 million to be divided between all 50 states. Assuming Arizona received a $3.1 million share, and even if it authorized the entire portion for the Holbrook crossing, only $1.5 million would be available for construction of a bridge. Although it is a large amount of money, it is not enough to construct a large overpass at today's construction costs. Reconstruction of the North Park Drive overpass along Interstate 40 in Winslow cost more than $20 million.

The federal government also commissioned a state-by-state report on high risk crossings and mitigation efforts in 2000. The final report was completed in 2002, and the Holbrook crossing was at the top of the list for the "10 crossings with the highest fatal accident prediction factor values" in Arizona. However, no mitigation plans were made for the crossing. In its summary, the report noted that the creation of mitigation plans and funding for those plans was the best solution for creating safe crossings. It also recommended that Section 130 funds be increased, and that states take advantage of federal "optional safety funds" within the surface transportation program that are eligible to be used for railroad crossing safety.

At the time of the report, $2.3 billion worth of railroad crossing safety projects had been submitted, $155 million was available in Section 130 funds and $314.8 million was available in optional safety funds.

At the state level, ADOT is planning a railroad inventory and assessment this year. According to ADOT, the study will be a "baseline assessment of all the state's current rail infrastructure, including its condition, its usage, and any short-range plans to improve it.The baseline assessment will enable agencies and regional/local municipalities to understand current infrastructure condition and its uses in order to facilitate additional study work and/or initiate improvement plans."

In the meantime, both Newlin and Mayor Bryan Smithson have initiated conversations with ADOT officials to try to determine what can be done to alleviate problems at the downtown crossing.]
Smithson noted that he does not expect a quick or easy solution, but does believe a solution can be found. - Tammy Gray-Searles, The Holbrook Tribune News

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ROUNDHOUSES HAVE FADED INTO HISTORY

Photo here:

[www.tennessean.com]

Caption reads: Weeds had "taken over" inside the NC&St.L Railway roundhouse on Charlotte Avenue by December 1952, shortly before it was demolished. The structure dated to the 1890s and once operated 24 hours a day. It was no longer needed when steam locomotives were replaced by diesel. (File/ The Tennessean)

As an environmental engineering consultant . I have been working with the Nashville Gulch developers for many years now and have researched the history of most of the properties in this area, including the railroad yard now operated by CSX.

I have yet to find any readily available detailed information on the former railroad roundhouse there, especially any information concerning exactly what operations were performed in it, when it was built, and when and how it was demolished. Do you have any info on it? - Malcolm V. Pfotenhauer, Nashville, Tennessee.

A year or two ago I drove up Charlotte Pike where in about 1940 a huge conglomeration of buildings housed a railroad repair shop. I discovered that the buildings were all gone, seemingly without a trace.

There had been a huge "roundhouse" in which steam engines were parked on a big revolving turntable for boiler or other repairs. What happened to it all? - John L. Maddox, Duck River, Tennessee.

Photo here:

[www.tennessean.com]

Caption reads: A rare view of the roundhouse just south of Union Station shows some of the "Kayne Avenue Yards" used by the NC&St.L Railway and the L&N Railroad. Kayne Avenue was later renamed 11th Avenue, and its route was altered to create a slanting merger into 12th Avenue South. (Walter Williams Collection, Metro Archives)

Some Nashvillians might recall the railroad roundhouse just north of Centennial Park on Charlotte Avenue, demolished in 1953.

It's a safe bet that hardly anyone alive today remembers the large one just south of Union Station. Most of it - but not quite all - was removed about 1918.

It sat largely where 11th Avenue South (also called "Industrial Boulevard") swerves to continue south past the site of the Icon condominiums building under construction.

The fate of these two roundhouses was tied to the development of Radnor Yards, the massive train facility south of downtown. It was also linked to Nashville's effort to rid itself of thick clouds of black pollution from the widespread burning of coal.

Photo here:

[www.tennessean.com]

Caption reads: Drivers on Charlotte Avenue had this view of the NC&StL roundhouse with its vent stacks in 1943. The building was demolished in 1953. (File/ The Tennessean)
Constant care needed

Roundhouses were vital in the era of steam locomotives, which used coal to keep their burners fired. Their mechanical systems required more constant maintenance, so arrangements for 24-hour care weren't unusual.

Train locomotives pulled onto a sturdy turntable that could be mechanically pivoted to direct each into a separate stall for lubricating or making any repairs or adjustments needed.

Some larger roundhouses had their own fixed steam boilers so idle engines' boilers could still be supplied with constant heat, reducing expansion and contraction that could damage joints and seals. Most roundhouses had large vent stacks on the roof to release smoke, gases and steam.
Turntables also allowed the direction of a locomotive to be reversed, something not as important when diesel engines took over.

A tale of two railroads

The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway most likely built the roundhouse near Union Station, but the year is unclear. The same railroad had a pre-Civil War roundhouse just north of Church Street in what is now the Gulch.

A 1908 city map shows NC&St.L tracks leading to the roundhouse plus Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks closer to the station itself, completed by the L&N in 1900.

"Prior to 1890, the old Nashville Shops of the NC&St.L. Railway were largely of frame construction, with buildings dating back to the days of the U.S. Military RR in 1864," railroad historian Richard E. Prince wrote. "These were scattered over the area just west of the old Church Street passenger station and near the present Union Station.

"After the L&N built the new terminal at Radnor Yard about 1918, its large Kayne Avenue (11th Avenue) roundhouse in Nashville was dismantled, leaving only a small engine house with an 85-foot turntable."

That Union Station roundhouse remnant was still there as late as 1954 but was removed around then.

The "Kayne Avenue" railroad tracks near Union Station were once much more numerous than the remnants now present in the railroad Gulch.

A joint venture by the NC&St.L and the L&N in 1951 launched a $14 million project, completed in 1954, to improve the World War I-era Radnor Yards. That led to the demolition of the Charlotte Avenue roundhouse and the removal of most of the westernmost tracks south of Union Station.

In late 1954, workers ripped up much of the track in hopes of converting part of the downtown Gulch acreage to industrial uses. Instead of the $100 million investment hoped for, most of it became surface parking lots until a recent surge in residential and retail building.

In 1962 the city mapped plans to reroute and expand 11th Avenue itself, taking it through at least part of the old roundhouse site as it fed into a "slanting intersection" with 12th Avenue South. An expertly cut limestone wall nearby is the most obvious evidence of the old railroad structures once next to it.

"You can still see the indentation in the soil where the turntable . stood in front of the roundhouse. The roundhouse backed up to the stone wall still standing today in the back corner of the yard," wrote Terry L. Coats of Goodlettsville, vice president of the NC&St.L Preservation Society.

Diesel doomed steam

The railroad facilities west of downtown suffered much the same fate.

In about 1890, the NC&St.L had spent $75,000 on a new 40-stall brick roundhouse as part of a nearly $527,000 project for its Charlotte Avenue improvements. Included on the 23 acres stretching from 25th to 31st avenues were an array of "shops" to construct, paint and maintain freight and other types of rail cars.

Photo here:

[www.tennessean.com]

Caption reads: The "New Nashville Shops" of the NC&StL along Charlotte Avenue north of Centennial Park included a prominent roundhouse for maintaining and repairing locomotives. The facilities allowed the railroad to "build its own rolling stock as cheaply as it can be purchased from the manufacturers." (Walter Williams Collection, Metro Archives)

The replacement of steam locomotives by the NC&St.L was hastened in part by pressure from Nashville's World War II-era "Smoke Commission," working to eliminate soot and air pollution from coal that choked the city.

By the time the announcement came in December 1952 that the Charlotte Avenue roundhouse and three other railroad structures would be demolished, it had stood empty for nearly a year.

While Nashville's roundhouses are gone, the ruin of one built by the NC&St.L remains today in West Tennessee. Its vine-encrusted brick structure in Bruceton, Carroll County, was featured in an article published last year in the McKenzie Banner called "When Railroad was King." - George Zepp, The Nashville Tennessean

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CANADIAN NATIONAL SAYS STRIKE HEARING TO RECONVENE

TORONTO, ON --

A government hearing to rule on the legality of a strike by 2,800 conductors and yard workers at Canadian National Railway Co., the country's biggest railroad, will reconvene on Feb. 19.

Canadian National's managers have taken over conducting and switching posts abandoned by members of a local United Transportation Union chapter since the strike started on Feb. 10, and operations haven't been affected by the strike so far, spokesman Mark Hallman said in a voice-mail message.

The company asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to review the labor action because striking workers didn't get strike authorization from the union's international headquarters, Canadian National said on its Web site. Representatives from the railroad, the local union chapter and the international headquarters in Cleveland were present for the first day of the hearing in Montreal Tuesday.

Left unresolved, the strike threatens to disrupt the movement of goods across North America. In 2005, C$77 billion ($66 million) worth of shipments of auto parts, metals, lumber and grain crossed the Canada-U.S. border by rail. Canadian National is the continent's fifth-largest railway by revenue.

The workers, whose previous three-year contract expired Dec. 31, are demanding concessions on the amount of time workers are required to remain outdoors without breaks and other non- wage issues, Rex Beatty, spokesman for the union's local chapter, said in a Feb. 2 interview. Beatty wasn't immediately available to comment on today's hearing.

Talks broke down late Feb. 9 over demands for "excessive wage increases'' of 4.5 percent in the first two years and 4 percent in the third year, Canadian National said in a statement Feb. 11.
UTU-member employees earned an average of C$75,000 in 2006, Canadian National said.

The United Transportation Union is the only labor group that has yet to settle on a new contract with Canadian National. About 4,000 workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers union ratified a new contract with the company last month.

The CIRB is an independent government tribunal and its rulings are binding. - Rob Delaney, Bloomberg.com

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DAVENPORT CITY OFFICIAL IN HOT WATER AGAIN

DAVENPORT, IA -- A member of the Davenport City Council was arrested on a domestic assault charge Monday night after he allegedly forced his way into his wife's home, police said.

A police report said Alderman Ron Van Fossen, 63, "shoved the victim causing her to strike her head on the refrigerator."

Van Fossen, a former Davenport police detective, and his wife do not live together.

This was the second time Van Fossen has faced charges since being elected in 2005.

In February 2006, he was charged with drunken driving after police said his car was struck by a train when he drove around a railroad crossing gate. - The Des Moines Register

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TEAMSTERS TESTIFY TO CONGRESS ON LACK OF RAIL SECURITY FUNDS, SAFETY TRAINING

WASHINGTON, DC -- The director of the Teamsters Rail Conference told the House Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection today that rail employees are inadequately trained to deal with emergency situations and that rail security funding is completely eclipsed by funds allocated for airline security, despite rail being the more heavily used transportation mode.

"Each and every day we are on the front lines of the nation's transportation system and see the woeful lack of security on our railroads," said John Murphy, Director of the Teamsters Rail Conference and Teamsters Vice President. "This lack of security is tragic because we have seen the damage that can be done by railroad accidents. We need to look no further than England and Spain to see how terrorists use railroads as weapons."

The Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration spend $9 per airline passenger on security, but only 1 cent per rail and mass transit passenger. This disparity is especially egregious given that five times as many people each day travel by rail and mass transit.

The gap in funding between rail and airlines is symptomatic of the lack of attention paid to rail security. Teamster rail members report that they still have not received adequate, quality emergency preparedness training in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"The rail corporations claim that they have security plans, but they won't share them with their employees or the unions that represent them," Murphy said. "We can only conclude that the rail corporations have no plans."

More than 80 percent of rail workers surveyed by the Teamsters reported that they had received no additional security training, and more than 70 percent reported regularly seeing trespassers in the rail yards. The findings were published in the Teamsters Rail Conference Report, "High Alert."

"We welcome and support legislation that would increase rail security funding and mandate quality comprehensive security training for rail employees," Murphy said. "Pamphlets and 10-minute video presentations are inadequate substitutes for live drills on evacuation methods, learning about the appropriate use of emergency escape apparatus; understanding the special handling of hazardous materials and knowing the roles and responsibilities of rail employees within the railroad's security plans."

The Teamsters Rail Conference represents more than 70,000 locomotive engineers, trainmen and maintenance of way employees on freight, passenger and commuter rail lines across the United States. - PRNewswire, Source: Teamsters Rail Conference

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INDIANA CITY GIVES UP ON RECOVERING CHERISHED MINIATURE TRAIN

WASHINGTON, IN -- A miniature train that generations of children rode at a drive-in theater and later at a park cannot be recovered from a Pennsylvania restoration expert who has declared bankruptcy, city officials said.

"The train, or the remnants of our train, have disappeared," city attorney Tim Dant told the Washington City Council Monday.

The miniature locomotive and several cars had run since the 1950s at a local drive-in movie theater and was later moved to an oval track at a city park, said Washington Mayor Dave Abel, who remembers riding the train as a child in the southwestern Indiana city.

"To a little kid it seemed like a pretty good ride," he said.

The train was sent to restoration expert Gerald O. Warner in Erie, PA, in 2002. The city paid Warner $21,000 and was later given the loaner train to use. Warner declared bankruptcy three years later.

Park Superintendent Kip Kelley and Police Chief Mike Healy went to Pennsylvania and later to New York to get information about the train only to find it in pieces with the original finish stripped and the bare metal rusted. The side windows, brakes and the drive train were missing, as was the five-horsepower engine.

Kelly asked the City Council to purchase the loaner train for $5,000.

The loaner must pass state inspection before it can be used as an amusement ride, Abel said.
He said the old train had a sentimental value to the community.

"This is the best we can do if we want to have a train that, in our park, shows our railroad heritage," Abel said. - The Associated Press, The Washington Times-Herald

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NAZI TRAIN CAR DISPLAYED IN FLORIDA

Three teenagers were pushed onto a cattle car in 1943. They stood for two days in the sweltering car, lurching as the train rattled toward Auschwitz. Only one survived, the digits 5-7-7-7-9 tattooed on her arm.

Joyce Wagner trembled Tuesday before the railroad car, just as she remembers trembling before that similar car six decades ago in Poland. "I was thinking - my brother, my sister. Where did we stand?" said Wagner, 84, her voice wavering. "I'm the only one who survived, from nine children."

Wagner joined about 150 other Holocaust survivors Tuesday to view a railroad car of the type used to transport Jews from Poland's Warsaw Ghetto to a Nazi death camp during World War II.

The 31-foot (9.3-meter) railroad car still bears a faint swastika stamped into the paint peeling off its side. It arrived in Florida last month from Poland. Officials plan to park it on railroad tracks that end near the site of the planned South Florida Holocaust Museum, scheduled to open next year.

Photo here:

[www.sun-sentinel.com]

A handful of similar cars are displayed at museums in Israel, throughout the US and at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

Reminder of the Nazi war machine

"This particular car was seized from the Germans at the end of the war on Polish territory," Rositta Kenigsberg, the center's executive vice president, said Monday.

The car could have carried Jews to the infamous Polish death camp, Treblinka. It also could have transported Nazi soldiers or war supplies, officials said. Even without proof it carried human cargo, the car is a disquieting reminder of the Nazi war machine.

When exterminating Jews village by village, one by one, became too inefficient, too cumbersome for individual death squads to handle, the Nazis mobilized their victims instead.

"The trains were the indispensable ingredient that made all this happen," said Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian who oversaw the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

The six major Nazi death camps were all located along rail lines. Auschwitz alone had 44 separate railroad tracks - about twice as many as Penn Station in New York - to receive trains from throughout Europe, Berenbaum said.

About half the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust rode to their deaths in such trains, Berenbaum said.

Officials asked the 150 survivors in attendance to stand during the unveiling ceremony. During the war, most of them would have been squeezed into a similar railroad car with no food or water. Many passengers on such cars died en route.

The car's unveiling ceremony included a recitation of the Kaddish. - The Associated Press, ynetnews.com

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TRANSIT NEWS

PRICE TAG DAUNTING TO MAKE CALTRAIN TRACKS PEDESTRIAN-SAFE

With more loss of life on the Caltrain line Tuesday, I have to ask: Why is it that there is still a place in the developed world where pedestrians are allowed to walk across the tracks on a busy railway? Pedestrian bridges and underpasses would eliminate most of these tragedies. Are the taxpayers willing to foot the bill to build them, or is life cheaper than a bridge? - Eamonn Gormley, San Francisco

I wish it were that simple. There are around 80 street crossings on the Caltrain tracks from Gilroy to San Francisco and the cost to build an overpass or bridge is enormous -- anywhere from $100 million to $200 million per overpass.

A pedestrian underpass will be under construction next year at the California Avenue and downtown stations in Palo Alto. An overpass is planned in San Bruno in four more years, but finding the hundreds of millions to build more will be difficult.

The pedestrian death Tuesday in Mountain View was the second this year and the 19th in the last 13-1/2 months. - Gary Richards, The San Jose Mercury News

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SOUTH SHORE RAILROAD STATIONS IN GARY TO REMAIN IN PLACE

GARY, IN -- The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District has no plans to close one of the South Shore railroad passenger stations in Gary, an agency official told the weather-decimated Transportation Policy Committee Tuesday.

Even with late arrivals, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission committee could only discuss issues, and some of those were put off until the March meeting by chairman Ron Lombard of Trail Creek.

But when Gary Director of Planning Christopher Meyers interrupted NICTD representative Joe Crnkovich to ask about rumors that there were plans to consolidate the Metro and Miller stations, closing one of them, Crnkovich told him, "We have three stations in Gary, and we have no plans to close one of them at present."

Meyers then asked that the city be apprised of any such plans. He later declined to specify a source for the rumors.

NICTD spokesman John Parsons, contacted after the meeting, said his agency had no plans for the Gary stations on the drawing board, but noted that the continuing increases in ridership had put all stations under scrutiny for possible expansion of parking and upgrading of boarding platforms.

He cited the new high-level platforms installed at Hammond and East Chicago, which Crnkovich said have improved on-time performance "a lot" by cutting times for stops by as much as two-thirds.

"There's not enough lateral clearance on the bridge at Broadway to support high-level platforms," Parsons noted.

He also called attention to |the current study, jointly funded with Michigan City, on what might be done, including relocation of stations, to eliminate the tracks that run down the middle of 11th Avenue.

Meantime, for both cities, he said, "There's nothing in the plans." - Charles M. Bartholomew, The Merrillville (IN) Post-Tribune

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DOYLE PUTS $1 MILLION FOR COMMUTER RAIL IN BUDGET

RACINE, WI -- One million dollars is just a drop in the budget that Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle will introduce to the Legislature Tuesday evening.

But the $1 million which Doyle inserted into his budget would be another stepping stone for commuter rail in Southeastern Wisconsin. The allotment would help pay for engineering work on the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee link with Chicago's Metra line.

Adoption of the budget with the KRM money intact is considered essential for the overall funding plan to succeed.

The proposed 33-mile commuter rail line would use the existing Union Pacific Railroad track until about one mile south of the downtown Milwaukee passenger station. There it would switch to Canadian Pacific Railroad track.

Trains would run 14 round trips every weekday, stopping at nine stations stretching from downtown Milwaukee, through Caledonia and Racine, to Kenosha. Passengers would connect with Chicago's Metra commuter rail by changing trains at Kenosha or Waukegan, Ill.

The trains would be self-propelled diesel commuter units that are much more fuel-efficient than older trains.

KRM would cost an estimated $198 million to build. If the Federal Transit Authority approves a New Start grant application, that would be expected to fund half, or $100 million, of the construction costs.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority recently voted unanimously to fund the local portion - both capital and operating costs - through auto rental fees. The current $2 fee would be raised to $15 per rental - not per day - with legislative approval. That fee would generate an estimated $4.9 million annually from Racine, Kenosha and Milwaukee counties combined.

With that funding mechanism settled, both Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds and his April opponent, County Supervisor Ken Hall, support KRM.

McReynolds previously opposed funding KRM through any sort of local tax such as a sales or gasoline tax.

On Tuesday Hall ripped McReynolds for lending his support to KRM only recently.

If all goes as proponents hope, KRM would begin operating in 2010-12. - Michael Burke, The Racine Journal Times

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MADISON CITY COUNCIL NIXES April VOTE ON STREETCARS

MADISON, WI -- When Madison voters go to the polls in April, they won't be able to sound off on the idea of a trolley system in Madison.

The City Council voted 16-1 Tuesday night against a proposal to include a referendum on the April 3 ballot asking voters if Madison should build a streetcar system. Ald. Santiago Rosas, 17th District, a sponsor of the referendum proposal, was the lone vote in favor.

Many council members said more information is needed before voters can make an informed decision on the issue, which will come in the form of a $300,000 streetcar feasibility study the council has already OK'd.

"We as a City Council have a responsibility to make sure the public has all the facts before we ask them to weigh in," said City Council President Austin King.

Instead, the council will further consider a resolution sponsored by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and seven council members to require a binding referendum following the feasibility study, which the mayor said will likely be completed in the second half of this year. The council voted to refer that resolution, which included the exploration of other commuter rail systems, to several committees.

Trolleys have become a contentious issue in the mayoral race. At the council meeting Tuesday, Peter Munoz, Ray Allen and Will Sandstrom, Cieslewicz's opponents in the Feb. 20 primary, were critical of the notion that Madison could benefit from streetcars.

Munoz, who advocated for the April 3 referendum, calls the idea of streetcars "silly," arguing, "I don't think we need a study to know we don't need streetcars."

Allen suggested the money to study and build a trolley system could be better spent on affordable housing or public safety, and Sandstrom said taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill.

But the mayor said the streetcar debate is "overblown" and demands for an April 3 referendum were "transparently political."

"I do think it is ridiculous to say before we even have the results of the study, before we have results or answers to any questions, we want to go to referendum," he said. "Let's get the answers to those questions."

Rosas said he was prompted to sponsor the referendum because of the high volume of calls he was getting from concerned constituents. "I have to emphasize we need public participation. This is not in terms of politicking. I think this is being responsible to our constituency."

Cieslewicz said two other studies are being conducted on how to deal with the projected increase of 100,000 cars and trucks in Dane County over the next 20 years: one on a commuter rail system and the other on the future of Metro Transit. - Deborah Zief, The Wisconsin State Journal

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THE END